The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement approach to education

Education is a fundamental human right and an essential public service. It is also one of the first services affected by armed conflict, disaster or other emergencies, and one of the last to receive support from humanitarian operations.

Each Movement component has a unique and complementary role to play in education, in accordance with its mandate. The Movement has three major strengths when it comes to supporting education:

• We are present in local communities before, during and after a crisis. This means we are close to affected populations.
• We take a principled approach and can enter into dialogue with all parties to a conflict. This gives us unique access to hard-to-reach areas, and to groups whose education needs are often overlooked.
• We have a long-standing engagement with authorities, multisectoral expertise and experience in supporting education – both formal and non-formal.