PESHAWAR: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has urged the international community to invest more in youth empowerment and education.
He said that the current emergencies have increased global concern about the additional risks faced by children who do not have access to educational opportunities. The high commissioner noted that protracted refugee-hosting countries need additional support for education. “Emphasis on education particularly becomes vital at a time when children below the age of 18 constitute 51 per cent of the total 65.3 million globally displaced people,” he said at the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of a Government Girls Primary School in Daad Behsud, Nowshera on Thursday.
The UNHCR rehabilitated the existing structure of school through German funding and constructed eight additional classrooms, toilets, and overhauling of the entire building, provision of furniture, sports goods and aid kits. The UNHCR chief spent some quality time with students of the school and also inaugurated sustainable development goal #4 (SDG) wall at the School. Grandi, together with students of Daag Behsud School painted SDG messages dedicated to promote education on one of the walls of the school. He said that the UN is empowering Pakistani youth for the promotion of peace and harmony in the country and the wall chalking campaign is its effort for the Pakistani youth to disseminate key values of the UN.
Addressing a gathering of students, teachers and their parents, UNHCR chief said, “Investment in Pakistani and Afghan youth equals to investment in resilience, empowerment, stability and future of both countries.” MrGrandi added that a living example of such resilience was an Afghan refugee teacher and winner of 2015 Nansen Refugee award Aqeela Asifi who dedicated her life for the education of refugee girls. Asifi was also present at the ceremony. Grandi assured that UNHCR is committed to support governments globally for the implementation of SDG to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030.
The high commissioner appreciated the provincial government for allowing access to refugee children in public schools. He said, “Despite this international commitment, education for refugees, remains widely under-supported and underfunded. Under-investment in refugee education results in continued low enrolment rates, gender disparity and low quality of education”. He added that efforts to provide education options for Afghan refugees, by host governments, NGOs, UN agencies, public schools and civil society have unequivocally proven the benefits of education and training, particularly for Afghan refugee girls. Speaking on the occasion, the chief commissioner for Afghan Refugees (CCAR) Dr Imran Zeb said that education is vital to improve the future human capital of Afghanistan and its economic sustainable development and peace building.
He added that the tireless work of educators and community activists, such as Aqeela Asifi, is testament to the fact that solutions can be found even in the most challenging of contexts. Provincial Minister of Education Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Muhammad Atif Khan said that education is among the top priorities of the present provincial government and that the government has allocated $1.072 billion (Rs 111.52 billion) for elementary and secondary education for the years 2016-2017. The minister said, “The glory of nations lies in the quality education of its youth.” He appreciated UNHCR’s support for the rehabilitation of the existing education facilities in KP under its RAHA programme.
The upgrading of Daag Behsud School is part of the UN and Government of Pakistan joint Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) initiative. Germany is one of the key donors for RAHA interventions and has provided 27.5 million Euros in sectors of health, education, community infrastructure and livelihood, across KPK. To date some 10.6 million people have benefited from some 3,500 RAHA projects worth $175 million, of which overall around 11 per cent are Afghan refugees whilst 89 per cent have been Pakistani citizens in refugee hosting villages. During his day-long stay in Peshawar the high commissioner also held meetings with the Chief Minister of KPK Pervez Khattak and Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and discussed issues related to refugees in the province.