Education Cannot Wait (ECW), an international organization working in humanitarian issues and emergencies, approved an US $12 million investment fund to support education in Haiti (included by ECW in the list of eight priority countries eligible in 2021).

Yasmine Sherif, Director of ECW, explained that this funding is focused on "the Multi-Year Resilience Program which will allow Haiti to apply for an amount of US $12 million (for a period of three years), more specifically 4 million per year to support the education of all students affected by the multiple crises impacting the country."

The Minister Cadet welcomes this expression of interest from ECW for Haiti, it is, according to him, a new excellence for the country insofar as the education sector has just been endowed with a Sector Plan for education (PDEF) which gives the main orientations for the next ten years and which requires funding from all actors and partners for the implementation of the said Plan.

This new support will make it possible to strengthen the current programming in order to improve access to education and the quality of learning for all Haitian children, said Minister Cadet.

This decision follows a mission in Haiti by ECW (May 11-May 17) made up of Zeinab Adam, Head of Strategic Planning at ECW, also focal point for Haiti, and Thomas Vargas, head of responses and displacement of refugees, who had several working meetings with the authorities of the Ministry of Education, including representatives of the Minister's office, the general directorate of the ministry, the National Office for Education Partnership and the technical directorates of the Ministry. This mission also met with various partners working in the education sector and heads of UN agencies in Haiti.

The working sessions allowed ECW delegates to better understand the realities of the Haitian education system and to understand the main lines of the PDEF, in particular with regard to the programs and sub-programs related to the ECW framework of action.

At the end of the discussions, it was decided to set up a technical committee to develop and monitor the multi-year resilience program and to recruit a project coordinator. Then, a fund manager and another for the execution of the project will be recruited, following ECW procedures.

HL/ HaitiLibre