PSS/SEL Toolbox

• In Event: Highlighted Session: The Impact of Social Emotional Learning on Social Cohesion in Fragile Contexts

Proposal

The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) has long recognized that psychosocial support (PSS) and social and emotional learning (SEL) are fundamental for ensuring that children and adolescents not only survive but thrive in conflict and crisis contexts. Holistic education interventions must create safe, nurturing environments that foster resilience, wellbeing, and constructive social relationships. It is through this lens that INEE and Harvard’s EASEL Lab developed the PSS-SEL Toolbox: a comprehensive, practitioner-friendly resource that consolidates and synthesizes global knowledge, provides practical tools and adaptable guidance to strengthen the design, implementation, and measurement of PSS-SEL interventions.
The PSS-SEL Toolbox responds to a key gap in the field: while there is widespread agreement on the importance of PSS-SEL, practitioners often lack accessible and contextually adaptable tools that can guide effective action. The Toolbox provides a curated set of resources and will soon be linked to measurement frameworks through the INEE Measurement Library. The toolbox also includes a set of localizing tools informed by contributions from practitioners, researchers, and policymakers across regions which provide concrete yet flexible guidance for contextualization as well as case studies highlighting real-world examples of the Toolbox’s use to support a range of localized PSS-SEL efforts. Its value lies not only in consolidating evidence-based approaches but also in being flexible enough to allow contextualization in diverse environments.
We explore three main dimensions of the Toolbox’s contribution to the education in emergencies field:
I. Representation of diverse viewpoints: By drawing on cross-regional experiences, the Toolbox represents both the diversity and commonality of approaches needed in fragile contexts. The Toolbox emerged from a broad-based consultation process with input from stakeholders across the EiE sector. Throughout this consultation, practitioners consistently highlighted the need for a resource that could help them move from theory to practice, ensuring that PSS and SEL principles are embedded in curricula, teacher training, and program design.
II. Support for Localization: A central feature of the Toolbox is that it supports adaptation so that local conceptualizations of PSS-SEL are reflected in the approaches being designed, implemented, and evaluated. The tools were tested and validated with local partners, teacher networks, community-based organizations, and NGOs. This process has demonstrated the importance of local ownership in ensuring that interventions are meaningful and sustainable. Case examples will illustrate how the PSS-SEL Toolbox has been deployed to meet an array of objectives and reflect local realities.
III. Strengthening Evidence and Impact: The Toolbox and the Measurement Library integrate monitoring and evaluation frameworks that support practitioners in systematically documenting the outcomes of PSS-SEL interventions. As research demonstrates, social and emotional skills are a key component to peace education and peace building efforts (Harris & Morrison, 2003). The Toolbox allows practitioners to more concretely and precisely understand, define, implement and evaluate social and emotional skills, which can support larger peacebuilding and social cohesion efforts.
This paper will demonstrate the possibilities for collaboration and shared learning across the humanitarian–development–peace nexus, providing policymakers, donors, and practitioners with practical, adaptable solutions that make visible education’s role in fostering peace.

Authors

• Esther Wambui Mbau, Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

• Bryan Nelson, Harvard Graduate School of Education