Check against delivery
Norway is proud to co-sponsor the Every Woman Every Child Everywhere panel series with the United Arab Emirates in partnership with Every Woman Every Child.
‘Delivering integrated education and health services in humanitarian situations’ addresses the need to ensure access to health services as well as education for women, children and youth affected by emergencies.
Evidence shows that education and learning are critical for supporting social change and advancing the 2030 Agenda. Good health and nutrition from early childhood are a prerequisite for growth and development.
Keeping children and particularly youth in school can prevent recruitment of child soldiers, increase awareness and knowledge of safe behaviour and provide much-needed psychosocial support.
In conflict-affected countries almost 37 million children and adolescents do not attend school. Unless action is taken now, we risk them becoming ‘a lost generation’.
Education can make a critical difference to a range of health issues, including reproductive health, disease prevention and well-being. Also, health services adapted for women and girls are often not prioritized in emergency response.
Sexual and reproductive health, including safe abortion care, availability of contraception and protection against violence are critical, especially in crises. It is thus important to plan and implement multisectoral programmes.
The Norwegian Government will continue to prioritize health and education. We have doubled financial aid for education, and globally we allocate more than 8% of our humanitarian funding for this purpose.
Together with several partners, Norway initiated the Education Cannot Wait fund, launched at the World Humanitarian Summit 2016 in order to ensure education for children and youth affected by emergencies. The fund also aims to bridge the gap and coordinate between humanitarian aid and long-term development.
I trust that today’s panel will shed light on how best to address barriers to health services and relevant education for children and youth in humanitarian situations. I am hopeful that the panellists will share successful and innovative approaches to gender issues related to education and health.
We should build on evidence and best practices to secure access to service delivery, including cross-sectoral engagement that brings in new partners.
We must do our utmost to prevent humanitarian crisis and conflicts, and make Every Woman, Every Child, Every Adolescent Everywhere survive, thrive and become capable of transforming the world into a better place for all. We must leave no one behind.
I look forward to fruitful discussions.
Thank you!