Bringing together a variety of partners and stake-holders, the RRM is the main multilateral platform linking the academic community, philanthropies, the private sector, humanitarian and development players and political decision makers at national, regional and global level.
The RRM aims at becoming the most comprehensive partnership for higher education in emergencies and in conflict-affected societies, joining hands across continents.
The RRM is built upon the best practices existing at international level, seeking to help boost the global agenda on education in emergencies and to contribute to reorganize this field which, until recently, has remained loosely defined, with international organizations and other players providing a patchworked assortment of services.
Currently, two main complementary initiatives are driving a reorganization of this field: the Education Cannot Wait Fund (ECWF) which is the first global fund to prioritize education in humanitarian action aimed at fulfilling the educational needs of 75 million children and young people (aged 3-18) in 35 crisis-affected countries; and the RRM that aims at becoming a unique multilateral, inter-regional framework to increase awareness, policy exchange and tangible cooperation on higher education in emergencies and conflict affected societies, targeting the 18-32 age bracket.
Although at different stages of development – the ECWF is much more advanced –, with different scopes and approaches, both initiatives seem engaged in reorganizing the field of education in emergencies, the ECWF focusing on primary and secondary levels and the RRM on the tertiary level.
Endorsing the 5 functions of the ECWF as defining of its own mission, the RRM’s main purpose is to provide a platform to strengthen academic capacity to respond to crises, foster collaborative responses, generate untapped resources, improve understanding and accountability as well as inspire political commitment so that higher education is viewed both by governments and donors as a top priority during crises.
