Education, conflict, and resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa: Report

The Sustainable Development Goals call for action in many areas relevant for girls and boys, not least quality education, but challenges in achieving progress may be aggravated by factors including poverty and armed conflict. Conflict has negative impacts on education, which can operate through a variety of supply- and demand-side channels. It can destroy infrastructure, displace students and teachers, and modify the returns to schooling, all of which can limit school enrolment (e.g. Akresh and de Walque 2008; Dabalen and Paul 2014; Serneels and Verporten 2012; Poirier 2012; Bertoni et al. 2019). Even in countries where primary school enrolment rates may be increasing, conflict can widen disparities in education access and contribute to the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

In this context, strengthening resilience capacities that can enable children living in conflict-affected areas to continue to access education is critical. USAID’s 2018 Education Policy recognizes that in order to strengthen resilience, “education in partner countries must have the capacity to embed effective approaches to improving learning and education outcomes, to innovate, and to withstand shocks and stresses” (USAID 2018, p. 17). Conflict is generally not a “shock” but more a social process, reflecting something structural and with a long time-dimension (though a single conflict event and its impact may be experienced as a shock locally). The ability to access education in contexts of protracted crises is critical.

This report examines the links between conflict, education, resilience and poverty dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa in a set of USAID Resilience Focus Countries. It relies on panel data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to investigate the relationship between conflict and education, focusing on girls and boys in households on different poverty trajectories (see Box 1). It then builds on Diwakar et al. (2021) to examine the types of resilience capacities that can promote school access for children in conflict-affected areas. In doing so, the paper attempts to contribute to the knowledge base on the pathways through which conflict affects education differently for girls and boys in households on different poverty trajectories, and how resilience capacities of households and institutions can be supported to contribute to increased enrolment in situations of conflict and violence.

Author: Vidya Diwakar

The full report can be downloaded here

The associated brief can be downloaded here

Educating poor and vulnerable children in conflict-affected areas: Policy Brief

Education is recognized to be a ‘portable asset’ (Bird et al. 2010)—one with intrinsic as well as instrumental value and with the potential to contribute to sustained escapes from poverty (Diwakar et al. 2021). However, education access might be compromised in areas affected by armed conflict due to various supply- and demand-side factors. These range from limited state budgets, destruction of infrastructure, displacement of students and teachers, constrained household expenditures, and a general context of insecurity that may limit decisions to enroll. In this way, conflict “damages education from above [through national budgets] and below [through household budgets]” (UNESCO 2011).

Accordingly, a context-specific selection of demand-supporting as well as supply-enhancing measures for promoting formal education is needed in conflict-affected areas (CAAs). Supporting demand for education is critical in CAAs, as conflict can so easily reinforce other constraints on demand. Key demand-boosting measures more generally include: early childhood care and education; school feeding; enhancing quality throughout the system (especially in the early years of primary school); special attention to ensure the continued education of girls; and support for vulnerable children in their transitions between education levels and into the labor market, self-employment or further training. Though not specific to CAAs, a focus on these measures could help ease the financial constraints of households in CAAs, so that the motivation to support children through education remains strong for parents and wider social networks.

There are also supply-side fundamentals which need to be assured in CAAs: above all, that schools need to be safe and secure. Other supply-side needs in CAAs include: improving infrastructure and resources (including teaching materials and updated curricula) to maintain education systems amid widespread insecurity and the destruction (UNESCO 2011); teacher training for work in CAAs; and addressing distributional effects stemming from factors such as restrictions in population movements or the co-option of education by conflict parties (Justino 2016). This is often a big issue in CAA where schools, especially at secondary level, can be arenas of conflict for warring parties.

This brief recommends education policy and programming priorities stemming from recent research on education, conflict, and resilience in sub-Saharan Africa (see Box 1). Based on the research findings, it draws attention to how to meet challenges related to opportunity costs (by investigating how to support poor and vulnerable children into secondary education, and how to improve quality), and how to help link education with labor markets to strengthen households’ financial resilience in CAAs.

Authors: Andrew Shepherd (ODI), Susan Nicolai (ODI), and Vidya Diwakar (ODI).

The full brief can be downloaded here

The associated report can be downloaded here

Education, resilience and sustained poverty escapes: Synthesis Report of Sub Saharan Africa

Resilience is defined as the “ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth” (USAID 2012, 5). While there have been important gains in poverty reduction internationally over the last two decades, there is a concurrent recognition that without nurturing resilience, these gains are fragile and may risk reversal in a multi-hazard context. Developing resilience is arguably a central component of ensuring sustained poverty reduction. A key way in which resilience can be strengthened is through education. In turn, resilience capacities can improve education outcomes. Combined together, sets of resilience capacities have the potential to contribute to sustained poverty reduction.

This paper analyzes this interrelationship between resilience, education, and sustained poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. It synthesizes mixed-methods research by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) to contribute to this knowledge base by focusing on data from Tanzania, Rwanda, Niger, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, and rural Kenya, drawing out regional conclusions where possible, while also exploring country-level and intra-country differences. This study adopts a resilience framing to examine the potential for sustained development gains through poverty reduction, within a multi-hazard context. It focuses on the role of education as a resilience capacity, and other capacities improving education outcomes—both of which operate primarily at the adaptive and absorptive level (see Figure 1 and Table 1). It recognizes instances when education as a resilience capacity combines with certain resilience capacities improving education outcomes, which can have a transformative potential to drive escapes from poverty that are sustained over time.

Authors: Vidya Diwakar (Overseas Development Institute) and Marta Eichsteller (University College Dublin), with Andrew Shepherd (ODI).

The full report can be downloaded here

The associated brief can be downloaded here

Education, resilience and sustained poverty escapes: Policy Brief

Education is widely recognized as providing pathways out of poverty and a key resource with which to interrupt the inter-generational persistence of poverty.  However, access, progression and quality constraints combined with household disadvantages and sluggish labor markets mean that the potential is not always achieved.  This brief summarizes what can be done to promote a stronger role for education in poverty reduction, based on research which synthesizes findings on education and poverty dynamics across a number of developing countries (see summary in Box 1).  The brief is intended for decision-makers and practitioners in education together with others focused on broader aspects of poverty reduction.

USAID’s approach to education and poverty reduction has been to support ‘learning out of poverty’ and especially the basic education which will help achieve equitable access and sustained improved learning outcomes (USAID Education Policy 2018).  Better learning outcomes for poor children lead to higher future child survival rates, lifelong higher productivity and incomes, protection against ill health, and, in the case of educated women, a higher rate of investment in family by comparison with that of men.  Building human capital contributes to achieving the inclusive and sustainable economic growth which in turn reduces extreme poverty.  This brief not only reflects on education policy and programming priorities emerging from research on poverty dynamics and education, but also on how to promote the kind of household resilience capacities which are necessary to support poor children to progress far enough through the education system to make a difference to their and their families’ futures.  There has been less consideration of this latter topic in existing USAID policy documents.

Author: Andrew Shepherd

The brief can be downloaded here

The associated report can be downloaded here