The commitment is designed to expand safe, formal and non-formal learning while supporting teachers, providing learning materials and offering mental-health and psychosocial services. It also includes measures intended to reduce barriers facing girls and children with disabilities.

What the planned program includes

Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in crises, said at least 60% of the expected beneficiaries will be girls and 10% will be children with disabilities. The program is intended to serve internally displaced children, refugees and vulnerable host communities.

Partners plan to establish safe learning environments, strengthen teacher capacity, improve access to quality learning materials and provide mental-health and psychosocial support. A $5 million crisis modifier is intended to allow quicker responses to emerging emergencies and climate-related shocks during the three-year period.

Implementation is expected to be led by Save the Children with Plan International, LM International and Sudanese organizations including the Alsalam Organisation for Relief and Development and Sadagaat. Education Cannot Wait said nearly 48% of the budget will go to national and local partners.

The $22 million is seed funding toward a total program requirement of $39 million. The announcement therefore does not represent the full cost of the planned work, and partners will need to mobilize additional resources as needs change.

Sudan’s education emergency is much larger

UNICEF’s mid-year humanitarian report, published August 7 and covering January through June 2026, said more than 8 million of Sudan’s estimated 17 million school-age children remained out of school. The agency said disruption was most severe in Darfur and Kordofan, where insecurity, displacement, school occupation and attacks on education continue to limit access to learning.

UNICEF reported that 63% of schools nationwide were operational during the first half of the year, although conditions varied sharply by region. In Darfur, 81% of schools remained closed and 70% of children were not attending school. About 5.8% of schools nationwide were still being used as shelters for internally displaced people, with most concentrated in Kordofan.

School reopening has also been constrained by teacher salary non-payment, which UNICEF said affected more than half of the workforce. Students in Darfur and Kordofan continue to face barriers to national certification examinations because of insecurity, displacement and difficult travel conditions.

In separate remarks prepared for an August 10 United Nations Security Council meeting, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hannan Sulieman said the United Nations had verified more than 67 attacks on schools across Sudan since the conflict began and reported more than 154 instances of military use of schools. UNICEF said those figures represent documented incidents and may not capture the full scale of the problem.

Why the funding matters

The planned investment is intended to do more than provide classroom access. Safe learning spaces, psychosocial support and inclusive teaching can help children regain routine and protection while reducing some risks associated with prolonged displacement and conflict.

But the program is not a nationwide solution. Its planned reach is limited to three states, the $22 million is only part of the stated funding requirement, and implementation will depend on security, humanitarian access, local partnerships and continued donor support.

UNICEF’s figures describe conditions through June 2026 rather than a real-time count on August 28. They nevertheless show the scale of the challenge: a program intended to reach nearly 200,000 children would address only a fraction of Sudan’s wider education emergency.

Sources

• Education Cannot Wait: New US$22 Million Education Lifeline for Crisis-Affected Children in Sudan
• UNICEF: Sudan Humanitarian Situation Report No. 44, Mid-Year 2026