GENEVA: During the first-ever pledging conference for education in emergencies and protracted crises, countries and other donors vowed Thursday to fund $826 million for Education Cannot Wait’s work for the next four years.

The UN fund estimates that 222 million children around the world have had their education disrupted by conflict or climate-related disasters, including nearly 80 million who never set foot in school.

Since 2016, Education Cannot Wait has raised more than $1 billion to build schools and buy educational materials as well as provide daily meals and offer psychological services.

In crisis zones, an urgent UN push to put millions in school

The aid helps nearly seven million children in 32 countries.

ECW had said it needs to mobilise an additional $1.5 billion for its work between 2023 and 2026, with the goal of reaching an additional 20 million children.

The lack of education has real and immediate consequences. Children sometimes end up on the streets, facing threats of violence, human trafficking, recruitment by armed groups or, for girls, forced marriage.

“We’ve seen around the world that hope dies when a convoy carrying refugees gets lost at sea. Hope dies when goods trying to get the refugees in besieged cities doesn’t get through,” Gordon Brown, chair of ECW and the UN special envoy for education, told the conference.

“But hope also dies when a young person cannot plan or prepare for the future because they don’t have the chance to go to school,” he said.