Finding a Lost Generation
When the discussion shifts to the Middle East or North Africa, and the majority of policymakers find themselves pondering geopolitical gains and strategic ramifications, they frequently tend to ignore the catastrophic conditions and tragic human suffering on the ground. Through this one-dimensional optic, they overlook one of the essential features of the art of conflict management and resolution: the importance of a strategy for conflict-sensitive education. In the past decade, ongoing political and economic instability in volatile regions of the world has impeded access to basic education for large numbers of war-affected children and young adults. The well-documented deployment of children in local armed conflicts, for example, has been one of the unfortunate realities of the post–Cold War era. An estimated 300,000 child soldiers are actively involved in armed conflicts around the world, according to a UNICEF Fact-sheet released in 2014. This unfortunate reality has highlighted the many difficulties facing child soldiers beyond the horrors of armed combat: demobilization, re-entry into society, and the future of their schooling. UNESCO has declared education to be a fundamental human right, important in itself but also as a means to facilitate access to other rights within the structure of society. Unfortunately, this concept languishes in the minds of many officials today, particularly when it relates to rebuilding broken societies that are a result of endless politically motivated armed conflicts.
Recent proxy wars across the Middle East and North Africa are preventing more than 13 million children from attending school, leaving their hopes and futures shattered, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a report issued this past August. The refugee flows out of Syria are tremendous and are on the rise, with a million fleeing the country in the last six months alone. Before the Syrian conflict began, over 93 per cent of children were enrolled in primary school and 67 per cent were enrolled in a functioning secondary school system. Under the current conditions, a large number of youth between the ages of 6 and 17 are estimated to be out of school. More than 3,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011. UNICEF and other NGOs are currently operating to provide the basic educational needs of the children in Syria as well as those who have fled the country. However, the nature of this continuing conflict has consistently created complicated hurdles for the international agencies that deliver accessible education on the ground. In addition, the unprecedented increase of refugees fleeing the countries has overwhelmed the strategic planning process.
Conflict and instability are typically associated with a mixture of economic, governance, security and social environments that can have demoralizing impacts on education provision. Morale and a sense of idealism for youth diminish early in this setting; such blows in the early stages of their lives could easily translate to irreversible negative outcomes as they grow older. Millions more youth and adults find themselves with few meaningful chances to access education in these situations, and violence and radicalization can rapidly become the only viable life option.
So far, much of the international focus of the Syrian conflict has been on the military campaign against-ISIL, the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The US Department of Defense estimates it spent $1.8 billion on the fight through March 15, 2015, and continues to direct $8.5 million per day toward the threat posed by ISIL. The US government is currently discussing whether to send arms directly into the region, which would only contribute to sustained systemic violence. Furthermore such an approach would drain away potential resources from the economic and educational needs of the youth. An unemployed and frustrated youth population is something Syria and its neighbors do not need. With ISIL at the doorstep and no end in sight to the bloody civil war, it is of utmost importance to discourage youth from falling into the cycle of radicalization, an outcome that might be ensured by militarizing the Syrian predicament. All the stakeholders in the region, including the US, should instead pour a larger share of their resources into transforming the youth through grassroots educational management programs. Once again restoring youth confidence through empowerment curriculum combined with concentrated efforts of connectivity could be the only sustainable recipe for genuine transformation.
In conflict-affected societies, people want to see an end to violence. This brings obvious benefits in terms of greater safety and real security, involvement in an accountable political system that works for the improvement of the communities, an economic future that provides sustainable occupations and cooperative relations between diverse groups within society. This is a trans-formative agenda, and by also endorsing a commitment to education during conflict we can not only protect societies from physical, social and psycho-social damage, but also deliver the means by which societies can recover.
For some time experts have described the wave of violence sweeping the Middle East as an epidemic. They have also identified some of the root causes: poverty, broken institutions, lack of rule of law and absence of access to effective education. For some groups violence has become a permanent part of the fabric of life. It is vital for these communities to gain the appropriate tools to change this menacing trajectory from within.
Public sorrow fueled by the image of the lifeless Syrian boy on the beach could serve as an opportunity for growth, to raise awareness of how the issues matter so particularly to children and to increase the demand for the evolutionary policy changes needed for true transformation. Ultimately, public grief is just emotional ghoulishness when we fail to translate its essence beyond simply being sad for the victims of tragedies caused by misguided policies.
It is time for a sound, focused strategy that is properly in tune with the mammoth task of recovering the lost generation. As President Kennedy famously said, “Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. ”
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