Schools as Zones of Peace Bjørn-Richard Monsen, Associate Area Director Middle East and Europe Save the Children Norway

“Some men came to our village. I tried to escape, but they took me to jail. Except it wasn’t a jail— it was my old school. It’s ironic—they took me there to torture me, in the same place I used to go to school to learn… They had taken over the school and made it into a torture center.” Student, 15, Syria (Lessons in War 2015, GCPEA) “Some men came to our village. I tried to escape, but they took me to jail. Except it wasn’t a jail— it was my old school. It’s ironic—they took me there to torture me, in the same place I used to go to school to learn… They had taken over the school and made it into a torture center.” Student, 15, Syria (Lessons in War 2015, GCPEA)

CONTEXT 58 million children are out of school worldwide. 28,5 million of these live in countries with armed conflict. «Education Under Attack 2014» shows that from 2009 to 2013 there were attacks on schoolchildren, university students, teachers, academics and education establishments in at least 70 countries worldwide. In 30 of these countries, there was a significant pattern of attack. In at least 26 countries with armed conflicts, schools and education institutions have been used for military purposes in the past decade(Lessons in War 2015, GCPEA) SCUK compared all recent studies on what is the most important for children in conflict/crises. The answer?

Safe Schools Declaration In Oslo, May 28-29th: 37 states endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration. It signals a political commitment to protect education from attack. Now: 51, with Sudan and Somalia endorsing. Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict: 6 key guidelines. Read the Guidelines here:

AFGHANISTAN ARGENTINA AUSTRIA BRAZIL BULGARIA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CHAD CHILE COSTA RICA COTE D’IVOIRE CZECH REPUBLIC ECUADOR FINLAND GEORGIA GREECE HONDURAS ICELAND IRELAND ITALY JAMAICA JORDAN KAZAKHSTAN KENYA LEBANON LIBERIA LIECHTENSTEIN LUXEMBOURG MADAGASCAR MALAYSIA MONTENEGRO MOZAMBIQUE NETHERLANDS NEW ZEALAND NIGER NIGERIA NORWAY PALESTINE PANAMA POLAND PORTUGAL QATAR SIERRA LEONE SOMALIA SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH SUDAN SPAIN SUDAN SWEDEN SWITZERLAND URUGUAY ZAMBIA The following States have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration (as of November 3, 2015):

What is SZOP? Brief overview Pilot approaches that can be used elsewhere: building a base of experience for protecting education in different contexts. Goals: ● Ensure that children in conflict and post-conflict environments have access to safe learning environments ● Increase capacity of communities, schools and children to mitigate the impact of conflict on the school environment ● Build local and national level constituencies to protect education * Violence Free Schools Initiative in Latin America operates on a very similar programming platform! GuatemalaHondurasMexico

School ● Monitoring ● Prevention ● Code of conduct ● School plans ● Response School ● Monitoring ● Prevention ● Code of conduct ● School plans ● Response Community ● Risk mapping of protection issues (schools) ● Awareness raising ● Mobilization Community ● Risk mapping of protection issues (schools) ● Awareness raising ● Mobilization National ● Advocacy ● Building constituencies ● Policy Change ● Work through Cluster National ● Advocacy ● Building constituencies ● Policy Change ● Work through Cluster Package of interventions and resources for protecting children and maintaining access to education in conflict and post conflict environments DEFINING SZOP

EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS Global Coalition to Protect Education From Attack (GCPEA) INEE: Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (knowledge hub) Education Cluster (coordination) CP Working Group Global Partnership for Education

Overview Schools as Zones of Peace: Operationalizing the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict Timeline: 1 July June 2017 Total Budget: approx € 950,000 ECHO funding: €500,000 NMFA funding: approx € 400,000 Locations: OPT (WB, Jerusalem) DRC (North Kivu) Partners: Geneva Call

PROJECT RATIONALE AND SYNOPSIS Rationale: ● Children globally are exposed to high risks and lack of access to education due to armed conflict ● Need a practical way of implementing the guidelines, including a role for non-military actors ● Save the Children can contribute through existing and developing best practice in education in conflict ● The SZOP approach works at multiple levels to protect children and education in conflict (child, school, community, government, etc.) Synopsis: Save the Children will support the process of implementing the Guidelines to Protect Schools in Armed Conflict using experience from four countries (DRC, OPT and two more) to feed into a global body of best practice, lessons learned and tools.

DRC OPT Other SCI Countries Global Best Practice in Protecting Education in Conflict/ Implementing Guidelines Project Logic National Advocacy Building Constituencies Coordination Policy Change Communities Risk mapping Awareness raising Mobilization Schools Monitoring Prevention Code of conduct School plans Result 2 (NATIONAL LEVEL—OPT and DRC): Contextualization and implementation of the Guidelines in OPT and DRC Result 1 (GLOBAL LEVEL): A scalable approach for contextualizing and implementing the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict developed and disseminated Process Evaluation