UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Education Cannot Wait (ECW) on Wednesday appealed to donors to significantly increase financial support for a robust collective humanitarian-development nexus response, including urgent funding for education.
ECW Director Yasmine Sherif, who has just returned from the first all-women UN mission to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, said at least 1 billion U.S. dollars is urgently needed for a three-year period by organizations working in the education sector.
Even before the most recent humanitarian crisis, 4.2 million children were not enrolled in school in Afghanistan. And 10 million girls are yet to return to school, she said.
While the majority of schools were closed in Afghanistan during 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most primary schools for both girls and boys have reopened since the Taliban takeover in August. With regards to secondary education, girls' education has resumed in some provinces, she said.
"UN member states, donors and humanitarian organizations, as well as crisis-sensitive development organizations, must remain engaged and act together now to support children, teachers, educators and the Afghan people, with education at the center of the response, because education is their future and the future of the country," she said.
It is important that teachers are paid their salaries, said the director of the ECW, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.
To date, the ECW has invested 45 million dollars to support the education of girls, boys and adolescents in Afghanistan, said the agency. Enditem
