Education in Emergencies: Securing the future of SDG4 amidst global crises

We have just six years left to deliver on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, including SDG4. But in recent years, the world has witnessed sudden disruptions depriving millions of children of their learning opportunities. Whether due to conflict, climate change or COVID-19, 224 million school-aged children(1) globally urgently need educational support due to crises. When emergencies hit, leaders and decision makers are faced with an overwhelming number of competing needs that can often obscure the life-saving, and life-protecting nature of education, and remains one of the least funded humanitarian areas. Protection and prioritisation of education in emergencies is essential to advance education for sustainable development and the realisation of SDG4.


There is a record need for international support at a time when emergencies such as the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, and climate emergencies, such as those recovering from severe tropical storm Cyclone Freddy in South and East Africa, are having huge impacts on education. These challenges are exacerbated by inadequate preparedness to address hazards. Emergencies can also deepen existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting those who are most marginalised and experiencing multiple, intersecting and complex challenges such as gender discrimination, poverty, disability, or displacement. These children are most likely to be excluded from education before, during and after an emergency occurs.(2)


Despite the scale of the challenges, progress is within reach. By prioritising inclusive and resilient education systems, investing in preparedness and honouring commitments to protect children’s learning during emergencies, we can pave the way for sustainable development. As the UK and the international community confront the unprecedented scale of threats facing children’s education, now is the time to act decisively and ensure that every child, no matter their circumstances, has the opportunity to learn and thrive.


Send My Friend to School (SMFTS) is the UK civil society coalition of international development NGOs, teachers’ unions and charities, bringing together young people, politicians, teachers, civil society and the media in joint campaigning to demand a quality, inclusive education for all children across the globe. We are part of the wider Global Campaign for Education (GCE) movement, based in almost 100 countries around the world.(3) This year, the Let My Friends Learn campaign(4) urges the UK Government to ensure that every child, everywhere has their learning protected during emergencies: key to a sustainable future.


Send My Friend to School Campaign Champion, Jess (14) from Croxley Danes School states: “We need to hold the government to account to make sure they fulfil their promises, and ensure that no child is denied the right to an education because of emergencies. We need our leaders to speak out and support other countries- as they should not have to face these challenges alone”.


We are asking the UK government to take action from the UK on the following areas to ensure that no child is denied the right to education in times of emergencies:


  1. PREPARE: Strengthen preparedness and anticipatory action in education systems.
  2. PROTECT: Ensure children are safe, protected and learning during an emergency.
  3. INVEST: Rapidly scale up financing for Education in Emergencies and global education resilience strengthening.
  4. ACT: Provide global leadership to protect children’s right to education in emergencies.


As the clock ticks towards the 2030 agenda, the urgency is clear. We need to act now to secure the future of every child’s education, ensuring they have the opportunity to learn, thrive, and build a sustainable future.


Bigraphy


Bekah is the Campaign Manager at Send My Friend to School, the UK’s coalition of INGOs, charities, teachers unions, young people, politicians and the media who come together to campaign for the right of every child in the world to access a quality and inclusive education. Bekah worked previously as a secondary school English teacher, before moving into programme management and refugee campaigning in the UK and Greece. She holds a Masters degree in Education, Gender and International Development from the Institute of Education at UCL. Bekah has a particular interest in meaningful youth participation in policy and campaigning.


(1)https://www.educationcannotwait.org/news-stories/press-releases/number-crisisimpacted-children-in-need-education-support-rises

(2)https://sendmyfriend.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Let-My-Friends-Learn-EiEpolicy-report.pdf

(3)https://campaignforeducation.org/en/

(4)https://sendmyfriend.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Let-My-Friends-Learn-EiEpolicy-report.pdf


BY REBEKAH LUCKING • June 24, 2024

In Harmony With Peace Concert

By Ann Beatty • June 1, 2026
On Friday evening ( 29 May, 7.00 pm The Actors Church Covent Garden) we had the pleasure of listening to this very special concert, bringing together the Choir of King's College London and the Princeton High School Orchestra in a celebration of international friendship, collaboration, and shared values. This project reflects a commitment to peace, sustainability, equality, and cultural exchange, uniting young musicians from the United Kingdom and the United States through the universal language of music.

36 Bicycles. Countless Futures in The Gambia.

By Ann Beatty • May 20, 2026
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity. 

Education for Hope in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous Times

By Laura Griffin • May 13, 2026
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here