Transition Team Report - March, 2002

REPORT
Transition Team for Establishing a Working Group
on Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies

 

In March 2002, UNESCO, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and a group of NGOs hosted an Experts Meeting to determine the feasibility of developing and implementing a set of standards for education in emergencies. The final report from this meeting has been posted.

The decision by the participants of the meeting was an unequivocal "YES" to designing standards for education in emergencies. At the end of the meeting, the experts appointed a Transition Team to make decisions related to the start-up of the process.

The Transition Team members were:

  • CARE USA (Jane Benbow)
  • Catholic Relief Services (Mike Pozniak)
  • Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (Nancy Drost)
  • The International Rescue Committee (Wendy Smith)
  • Norwegian Refugee Council (Eldrid Midttun)
  • Save the Children Alliance (Susan Nicolai)
  • Save the Children USA (Christine Knudsen)

After the Experts Meeting, the Transition Team met via telephone on a regular basis. Based on recommendations and regular input from the field, the Transition Team accomplished the following:

     

  • Formulated a concept paper and budget, which included identification of the mechanisms for managing the standards process

     

     

  • Established the criteria and a process for selecting the members of the WG

     

     

  • Obtained financial assistance from the Swedish International Agency for Development (Sida) to assist in covering the cost of standards process

     

     

  • Obtained a commitment from the IRC to house the Focal Point and to provide some funding for the Standards Process

     

In November 2002, after a well-publicized application process, the Transition Team selected a broad range of NGOs and UN agencies who could commit their organizations resources to support the standards process. The Working Group on INEE Minimum Standards (WGMSEE) members are:

 

CARE Canada
Nancy Drost

 

 

CARE USA
Joan Sullivan-Owomoyela

 

 

Catholic Relief Services
Mike Pozniak

 

 

IRC
Wendy Smith

 

 

Norwegian Church Council
Birgit Heimdal Villumstad

 

 

Norwegian Refugee Council and the Norway United Nations Association
Helge Brochmann

 

 

Save the Children-UK
Susan Nicolai

 

 

Save the Children USA
Christine Knudsen

 

 

Refugee Education Trust
Tim Brown

 

 

UNICEF
Pilar Aguilar

 

 

UNESCO-IIEP
Christopher Talbot

 

 

UNHCR
Nemia Temporal

 

 

World Education
Fred Ligon

 

The WGMSEE and the Transition Team held there first official meeting from January 30th to February 1st, 2003 in Brussels, Belgium. The first day of the meeting served as a transition between the Transition Team and the new Working Group. Members of the INEE Steering Group and the INEE Network Co-ordinator also participated in the first day of the meeting, allowing for an opportunity to share background information to the standards process and to discuss the modalities of acting as an INEE Working Group. The Working Group also began to establish working procedures and a timeline for the process. INEE will soon post the minutes from this meeting, along with other relevant documents, on the INEE Web site on its WG on the INEE Minimum Standards homepage.