ACCESS

ACCESS Phase 2 has the objectives of supporting a process of change towards greater institutionalisation of AEPs and flexible education programming, while also understanding the enabling and constraining factors towards this type of change.

Throughout the first year of ACCESS, our researchers have found that often, the actions of donors, civil society, government to strengthen education provision for out of school children and youth maintains the status quo. While this work is necessary, it is insufficient to achieve the types of far-reaching, bold or disruptive change which the UN Secretary General notes is required. It also precludes these OOSCY from accessing the types of learning opportunities they need and demand.

A year into the project, we’re identifying opportunities and bottlenecks to making Accelerated Education programmes and other non-formal approaches to education more accessible, available, adaptable and acceptable to out of school children in youth in Jordan, Colombia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda.

In ACCESS, we not only focus on what we do, but how we do it. We strive for co-production of our research. That was our entry into the panel—how we create true and equal partnership within the research team. During that panel, and in many instances throughout ACCESS, I’ve been reflecting on what true partnership means to me. I’ve come to realize that one of the most important elements of true partnership is friendship—truly caring about each other.

Why is it that these refugees have been welcomed with open arms, while other recent waves of refugees have been walled off, contained, detained, and denied protection and access to basic services? Dr. Ritesh Shah, Project Lead, ACCESS The humanitarian response to...

The long-lasting impacts of colonialism, racism, and embedded power-structures have long been discussed within international development practices more widely. It is only recently, however, that these discussions have come to the fore within the Education in Emergencies community.

Research partnerships in the humanitarian and development communities have long been susceptible to implicit (and explicit) power structures which affect how the research is designed and carried out, as well as a dissonance between who collects the data, and then makes sense of it all. In ACCESS we have made a commitment to challenge these dynamics.

When we arrived in the camp, my friends and I were very happy to go to school every day. But we started being afraid to go because some armed people used to come and attack our school and take some girls away. Now we are not regularly in school. Sarata, 14, internally...

One in three children and youth living in conflict or natural disaster zones are not at school. What can be done to get them back into education for a better chance in life? This is the ambitious challenge ahead of Dr Ritesh Shah at the University of Auckland,...

For instance, our team found that in some contexts, learners are not counted as “out of school” because they have never attended school to begin with, despite them being of school-aged.If you could not (re) enter into formal schooling, what opportunities might you...