Rapid and Relevant: Approaches to Contextual Implementation and Content Adaptation for Acute Emergencies

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

There are more forcibly displaced people around the world today than at any other time in modern history. As the global displacement crisis continues to grow and intensify, the United Nations (UN) estimates the number of impacted children in need of quality education support has risen to 224 million - an annual increase of 25 million, or 12.5% over a single year. This increase is driven by conflict and extreme natural events like droughts and floods, whose causes and effects have been exacerbated by climate change.

Children’s needs in these settings are urgent and complex, requiring responses that are both rapid and tailored to their unique experiences. Beyond building their core knowledge and skills, education can provide children in crisis or conflict with the structure, predictability, confidence, and relationships they need to feel safe and supported. But we know that there are myriad factors influencing the relevance, uptake, and impact of education interventions in different contexts. Engaging children, teachers, caregivers, and other stakeholders throughout design and decision-making places clients at the center of their programming and ensures that their needs, values, and beliefs are reflected in the content.

Historically, this balance of power - positioning the client as the expert in their context and community, and building from their inputs - has often been compromised in emergency settings where there is critical need for rapid intervention and time and budget are constrained. Evidence, however, suggests that grounding programming in clients’ lived experiences increases its credibility and fit, and specifically in LMIC contexts community engagement in schools has been found to positively influence education quality. Emerging research from across the development and humanitarian sectors also points to the power of client-driven design in improving project ownership and outcomes. In this panel, we will explore three approaches to rapid, content and implementation adaptation in acute emergencies which have prioritized meaningful client engagement and succeeded in providing contextually relevant responses quickly and efficiently.

The panel will include the following presentations:
1. IRC’s presentation, “REAL: Client-Driven Content Adaptation for Continued Learning in Crisis” will outline the Resilience Expansion and Active Learning in Crisis Settings (REAL) project’s approach to adapting existing IRC content for rapid implementation with children, teachers, caregivers, and local leaders in DRC, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

2. Save the Children’s presentation, “Integrated Rapid Response for Children” will explore Save the Children’s piloting of a new approach to provide integrated rapid responses in situations of acute emergencies.

3. Sesame Workshop’s presentation, “M is for Media” will examine Welcome Sesame, a new initiative from Sesame Street that unites multiple programs around the world with a shared goal of delivering early learning and nurturing care to young children and caregivers affected by crisis.

Following this panel, we will invite Michelle Brown, Director of the Global Education Cluster, and attendees to reflect on the similarities and differences across the three approaches and consider how organizations can further innovate to ensure client-driven adaptation is adopted as the norm in acute emergencies.

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Chair

• Deborah Marie Rodriguez Garcia, Save the Children

Individual Presentations

• Integrated Rapid Response for Children - Deborah Marie Rodriguez Garcia, Save the Children

• “M” is for Media - Shanna Kohn, Sesame Workshop; Kristen Sandmeier, Sesame Workshop