Preventing future crises: lessons from Covid-19 for climate displacement

BY ANJA NIELSEN SENIOR POLICY ADVISER, EDUCATION AND YOUTH UK NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR UNICEF (UNICEF UK)

From England to Egypt, India to Italy, children around the world are continuing to face severe disruption to education during Covid-19. Schools are shuttered, playgrounds are closed, sports groups are on pause – children’s worlds are on hold. The well-reported UNESCO figure that 1.6 billion learners were out of school at the peak of the pandemic continues to make the rounds, often followed by the phrase ‘even before Covid-19’ and an alarming statistic about the world’s lack of progress on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). ¹ Indeed, the scale of disruption – and its impact on the world’s already stagnating progress towards achieving universal education – are deeply troubling.

But while Covid-19 has taken many education systems by surprise, it is neither the first nor the last disruption that many children will face in their educational journeys. Climate change, including climate displacement, could cause further gaps in education if systems are not built to withstand the shocks we know are coming.

There are many lessons to draw from educational responses to Covid-19, including the critical importance of distance learning initiatives, relevant teacher training and support, and closing the digital divide, to name a few. These lessons add to those already developed through previous emergencies, such as the need to prioritise education in times of crisis, addressing children’s psychosocial as well as educational needs, and providing school feeding programmes to draw children back to school. These lessons must all be collected and used to strengthen education systems to prevent future disruption.

The impact of climate change is clear and its impact on human mobility stark. The World Bank reports that, in just three regions, 143 million people could be on the move due to climate change by 2050. ² Across the world, children and their education are already affected by displacement due to storms, rising sea levels, droughts, and other weather-related incidents. As climate change intensifies, these challenges are only likely to increase. The world’s response must similarly strengthen, or risk educational disruption for millions of children.

How do we do this? We focus on building systems that support children before, during, and after educational disruption.

Before the crisis, we need to ensure children have the skills necessary to respond and adapt, and infrastructure must be strengthened to prevent any disruption. Plans for disaster risk reduction (DRR) and remote learning must be in place before another crisis hits.

During disruption, children must be able to continue their education and bring their progress with them. Technology, such as UNICEF’s Learning Passport, can play a key role in this. Finally, education systems must be able to bounce back and reintegrate children rapidly following crises. Getting all children back to school should be a priority in any emergency.

Time and again children tell us that they want an education. In their aptly named report What do children want in times of emergency and crisis? They want an education, Save the Children notes that ‘99% of children in crisis situations see education as a priority.’ ³ For everything children have given up to stem the spread of Covid-19, we owe them renewed efforts to deliver on the promise of SDG4. We cannot, and must not, let them down.

¹ UNESCO, ‘Education: From disruption to recovery’, 2020. Available at tinyurl.com/ya3scc7l.

² Kanta Kumari Rigaud et al, Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, World Bank Group, 2018. Available at: tinyurl.com/y9dfsvsn.

³ Save the Children, What do children want in times of emergency and crisis? They want an education, Save the Children Fund, 2015. Available at tinyurl.com/va9f4tc

From Engage issue 22.

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BY ANJA NIELSEN • July 6, 2021

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

I heard it said today by a friend that “You learn a language best when you use it to speak and write about things that are important to you. ”

By Susan Piper • May 6, 2026

This summed up to me about why I volunteer for the Hands Up Project. HUP is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and selfexpression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth, and the development of English language skills. I joined HUP in 2020 during COVID. After going to Palestine in 2017, I wanted to get more involved in working with Palestinian children in schools. HUP gave me the opportunity to link up with schools in the West Bank and Gaza. Every week I’d tell them stories from all over the world, then we’d discuss it, play games and I’d get them to retell it. Sometimes we would work from their coursebook English for Palestine’ in mutual team teaching sessions with their teacher. The simple act of telling a story became much more than entertainment. It became connection, healing, and a bridge to the world beyond their immediate reality to help them improve their language skills, and to give them a platform to speak about their lives in a language that connects them to people everywhere. I loved it, every week, seeing their smiling faces on the screen and building long lasting friendships with their teachers. I even went to Gaza in 2023 and met some of the kids I’d only seen on Zoom. It was a beautiful experience and something I will never forget. As hostilities escalated, I lost contact with everyone. I thought about where the kids were and what had happened to them. As I watched schools being bombed, universities flattened, and people killed in their thousands, I thought about where the kids I’d met were and what was happening to them. I kept in contact with many of the teachers I knew and heard daily news of displacement, destruction, hunger and bombing. Recently, I’ve started to link up again with children in Gaza, and it feels wonderful to be back helping them learn after being denied an education for over two years. Connecting with children in Palestine is more than just words. When a child in Palestine confidently tells their story to someone on the other side of the world, bridges are built, empathy grows, and the world gains a fuller picture of childhood in contexts far from peace and privilege. My work with these children is rooted in the belief that education and voice are inseparable. Through storytelling and English language learning, I witness children not just learning new vocabulary, but reclaiming their narratives, believing in their potential, and finding human connection in a world they perceive has abandoned them. And more than anything, this work reminds us all that children — everywhere — deserve to learn, to speak, and to be heard. Links to HUP information, books and resources: The Hands Up Project BY SUSAN PIPER Susan Piper is currently an ESOL teacher in Oldham, Greater Manchester and has worked in education for over 30 years. She is also a volunteer for the Hands Up Project and is the International Solidarity Officer and President of her NEU district. She believes in quality education for all and aims to make her lessons creative and inclusive so that effective language learning can take place.