Expanding Education for All: Climate Change Adaptation

Summary

In 2010, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings committed to launch a forum for research, high-level dialogue, and public discourse directed at the nexus of Education for All and climate change. Through a multi-year initiative, the Center will set the agenda, frame the debate, and design policy at the intersection of education and climate change. The Center will bring climate security, conflict mitigation, humanitarian, and development stakeholders together around the urgent need to mainstream climate change prevention, mitigation, and preparedness through education into all phases of preparedness, response, recovery, and development. The ultimate aim is to produce policy briefs and provide policy support to the process of integrating good practices and technical knowledge into country-, regional- and/or institution-specific policies.

Approach

APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The Center will engage in three core activities over the course of the initiative:
Set the Agenda: Through original and secondary research as well as translating existing research into concise briefs to inform practice and policy debates, the Center for Universal Education can set the as of yet absent agenda focusing on the nexus between climate change and conflict, and education’s role in mitigating the impact of both.
Frame the debate: The missing shared agenda between climate change and conflict is an error, because it means opportunities for synergy, including through the education sector, are lost. Moreover, it can be dangerous when the different strands of policy undermine one another. The Center for Universal Education will work to correct this error by provide a unique platform to bring together specialists from the development, humanitarian, education, economic, and environmental fields in order to frame the debate and eventually, inform policy. Framing the debate to ensure that decision-making around quality education involves collaboration between the various sectors and focuses not only on the role of education in mitigating the impact of climate change, but also on its role of preventing conflict. This will include engaging and amplifying voices of those affected by and working on climate change, conflict, and education issues by convening working sessions and high-level meetings and briefing high-level officials at the country and regional levels on how to integrate climate change adaptation technical knowledge into policy and programming to ensure impact.
Design policy: The Center for Universal Education will draw upon these working session and high-level meetings to move this critical issue higher up the international political agenda and inform and design policies that will have a positive impact on quality education around the world.
IMPLEMENTATION, TIMELINE, AND DELIVERABLES
The five phases below outline the timeline and deliverables for the initiative:
Phase I – During Months 1-3, map gaps and high-leverage issues to refine the focus of the Center’s work on climate security, adaptation, and risk reduction and produce a framing paper to chart a way forward. This includes engagement with key partners to gain greater clarity on the different actors that the Center will impact and a nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities to engage with them on this issue.
Phase II – During months 4-6, develop and publish policy briefs that translate research, technical knowledge, and good practices from the field into recommendations that can inform policy discussions and design.
Phase III – During months 7-12, convene two – three working sessions that bring together key stakeholders working on climate change adaptation, sustainable development, and humanitarian response to discuss comprehensive approaches to climate change adaptation through education. The policy briefs developed in months four – six will serve as a guide in these working sessions, which will include lesson sharing among those designing and implementing programs and policies for climate change adaptation. Refine policy briefs, recommendations and strategy based on the outcomes of these working sessions. Convene a high level roundtable at the United Nations International Strategy Disaster Reduction Global Platform meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in June 2011 to present findings from research and working sessions.
Phase IV – During months 13-15, based on the briefs developed and refined in year one, brief policymakers from the United States and key representatives from influential G20 nations as well as regional leaders on the how to integrate climate change adaptation technical knowledge into policy and programming to ensure impact.
Phase V – During months 16-24, identify three to five stakeholders, including at least one government, one regional disaster management institution, and one humanitarian agency, to provide policy support to in the process of integrating good practices and technical knowledge from the policy briefs into country-, regional- and/or institution-specific policies. Document the challenges and impact of integrating good practices into policy through a series of case studies. Explore possibility and demonstrated demand for producing a compilation volume of refined policy briefs, case studies, and policy recommendations. Organize and convene a session at the United Nations International Strategy Disaster Reduction Global Platform conference to present case study findings and ensuing policy recommendations to global, regional and national leaders. Disseminate case studies to country, regional, and global level education, climate change, humanitarian, and development partners to inform future policy.

Background

The intensity, frequency, and duration of weather-related hazards is increasing, undermining individual, community and system capacity to cope with the impacts. These hazards increase vulnerability to disasters and result in widespread human, material, economic, and environmental losses. The average number of disasters caused by natural hazards has increased from 200 a year to more than 400 today, and this is predicted to increase by as much as 320 percent in the next 20 years. Climate change threatens to undo the progress made towards achieving the Education for All goals and poses one of the most serious challenges to global poverty re?duction, economic development, and conflict mitigation.
Hardest hit by climate change are people living in poverty, particularly children, in under-developed and unstable states with poor governance, which hinder capacities to adapt to climate change. Therefore, the need to mainstream climate change prevention, mitigation, and preparedness through education into all phases of preparedness, response, recovery, and development is of the utmost importance. The effect of the physical consequences – such as more frequent extreme weather, melting glaciers, and shorter growing seasons – is adding to the pressures under which those societies already live. Climate change leads to resource degradation and depletion, thus creating security problems as groups compete for resources like fresh water. It also leads to large-scale population migrations. All of these changes in society have a direct impact on children’s ability to learn and thrive in a stable education environment.
While policy discussions about the consequences of climate change are beginning to acknowledge the conflict and security implications, the discussion pays scant attention to the role of education in successful adaptation and risk reduction strategies. Policies and strategies for humanitarian response, development, conflict mitigation, and climate change – and education’s place within each realm – are disconnected and divergent. The Center for Universal Education at Brookings can better realize its mission of achieving universal quality education by incorporating a focus on disaster risk reduction education that is geared toward not only mitigating the impact of climate change but also reducing conflict that may arise as a result of climate-induced disasters. The Center’s work on this front will draw on and contribute to current education practice and policy debates through serving as a forum for research, high-level dialogue, and public discourse.

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

SEEKING: Financial Resources, Best Practice Information, Media/Marketing Opportunities, Other
Financial Resources: The Center is seeking donors interested in providing supplemental financial support to complement the financial support pledged by the Open Society Institute to launch the initiative.
The Center is also seeking climate, security, conflict mitigation, humanitarian, and development stakeholders, including governments, donors, and representatives from communities affected by climate change around the world, to be active participants in the project.
OFFERING: Best Practice Information