Prioritise education in conflict-affected areas: Across the world 28 million1 primary school-age children living in conflict-affected countries are out-of-school, and they form half of the world’s total out-of-school population. During conflict, infrastructure assets such as schools are damaged ... or completely destroyed during fighting. Children may choose to stay away from school due to their and their family’s safety fears in the midst of conflict, or the need to supplement their family’s income amidst conflict-related financial loss. Children who are internally displaced by conflict face a particularly challenging task accessing education due to the specific conditions created by their displacement, such as loss of livelihoods making school fees hard to find, and discrimination from host communities. Children caught in conflict are being deprived of their right to education2 and denied the opportunity to benefit from the protective and life-sustaining mechanisms of education. more

Despite growing evidence on the impact of psychosocial support interventions, there is an urgent need for a stronger evidence base on approaches that effectively support children affected by armed conflict. To contribute to this evidence base, and building on a pilot study conducted in Uganda in 200 ... 9, War Child conducted an exploratory outcome evaluation of its psychosocial support intervention ‘I DEAL’ in South Sudan and Colombia in 2012. The objective of the evaluation was to explore the outcomes that I DEAL achieves for children and the factors that influence the achievement of those outcomes to further inform and strengthen the intervention more

This case description elaborates on the pilot implementation of the innovative, participatory PM&E tools of War Child Holland’s psychosocial life skills intervention ‘ I DEAL’. The action research aimed to identify ways that work best for I DEAL facilitators to learn and act on basis of their ... PM&E. more

War Child put forward a specific request for comparative study, addressing the following questions: •What are the key types of intervention for psychosocial assistance that are being applied to children in war-affected areas? •What are the results of (scientific) research into the effects of th ... e most relevant programmes? •Which NGOs operate in this sector and what is their practical experience with specific methods? •How does the War Child methodology relate to developments in the sector; what is known about the effects of War Child’s programme and how can these be measured? How will War Child work towards the development of additional evidence? more