Education Emergency Response in Afghanistan (EERA)

active

This AF is off-budget support to the education sector implemented by UNICEF, with funds flowing outside of the ITA systems and with close coordination across donor platforms. The design is built to respond to an evolving sector context, implementation realities and challenges on the ground, data availability, findings of monitoring activities, and ongoing operational lessons learned. The project takes into consideration UNICEF’s existing capacity as the implementation agency for the project.This AF will (i) continue and scale up the majority of parent project activities, (ii) add new activities focused on education quality and pathways to sustainability, (iii) adjust the RF accordingly, (iv) close a funding gap due to exchange rate fluctuations, and (v) extend the closing date to December 31, 2026.This project has the following components: Component 1: Support Access to Learning Opportunities. The component will support access to basic education with a special focus on out-of-school children. This will be achieved by continuing to support the current cohort of Community-Based Education (CBE) students and facilitating their transition to public hub schools. To strengthen the linkages between CBE students and primary-level schools, the component will enhance the capacity of primary hub schools. The Distance Learning activity will be scaled up to develop and deliver multimodal educational materials to cover science subjects for grades 7-12. Additionally, new activities will support livelihood skills development and job linkage programs for adolescent youth. The Early Childhood Development intervention will be extended to additional parents and caregivers, especially mothers, to build their capacity to effectively support child development.Component 2: Improving Learning Conditions. This component aims to improve learning conditions at project-supported schools by providing safe and inclusive learning spaces for all children, emphasizing gender-focused rehabilitation of school facilities, provision of High-Performance Tents, and teaching and learning materials. This component will also enhance teacher professional development and support learning assessment to improve the quality of learning outcomes. Additionally, a new activity on home-grown school feeding will address critical nutritional deficiencies impacting children's educational performance and attendance by ensuring they receive nutritious daily snacks or meals supplemented with essential nutrients. The component will facilitate returnee children's access to project-supported interventions. Component 3: Strengthening Monitoring and Ensuring Accountability. The component will support improvement in the quality of school-level data collection to feed into the Education Management Information System (EMIS) and strengthen the out-of-date database. It will also support educational data collection. The component will evaluate the teacher training interventions. Furthermore, the component will cover the costs related to the project implementation and coordination.