Protecting children in crises: the EU’s investment we all need

Lilian Dodzo, East Africa Regional Vice President and Regional Director at World Vision, shares her reflections on how the EU can help shape a safer, more stable world by investing in children’s protection and education in crisis settings.

As the funding to the humanitarian aid sector is shrinking globally, including in East Africa, child protection and education in emergencies are particularly affected areas. At a time when the world is facing increased instability and growing humanitarian needs, reducing support for these life-saving interventions exposes already vulnerable children to greater risks of abuse, neglect, exploitation, violence and life-threatening harm. It puts at risk the futures of our next generation. 

Investing in children’s right to learning and protection in areas affected by conflicts and crises means breaking the cycle of harm and violence, limiting forced displacement and building more resilient and safer societies. 

By doing so, the EU can continue to position itself as a forward-thinking leader in the current geopolitical landscape, helping set the foundations for the world’s stability and prosperity.

The EU has long been a crucial advocate for ensuring that children in emergencies are protected from violence and have access to safe, continuous and quality education. However, as the EU redefines its priorities in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034, we are concerned that it may decide to de-prioritise child protection and education in emergencies, following global trends.

This would come at a time when putting children at the centre of humanitarian action is needed the most. Conflicts and crises are now on the rise globally, and children often pay the highest price. They are often the first to suffer, yet the last to be heard. Over 473 million children – this is more than one in six globally – now live in areas affected by conflict.

This is something we are acutely aware of in East Africa – the region where I work, in the continent I come from. Children and their communities are in the midst of a poly-crisis, including conflict, economic impacts, climate-related shocks (floods, droughts, landslides, heatwaves) and disease outbreaks. Millions of children in East Africa face complex and multi-faceted challenges.

In the same region, Sudan remains the largest internal displacement crisis in the world, with 13 million people in Sudan having fled violence in search of food, shelter and safety – over half of whom are children.

As I join the European Humanitarian Forum in Brussels on 19 and 20 May, this will be the focus of my message to EU decision-makers: why prioritising children in humanitarian action is an urgent investment for them to make, while safeguarding children in crises.

Why prioritising children in emergencies

There are several reasons why the EU should invest in children’s access to protection and education in emergencies.

Firstly, child protection and education in emergencies are life-saving aid.

Children are dramatically impacted in emergencies. They are at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation, forced labour, child marriage, recruitment into armed groups, radicalisation and other life-threatening activities, while their access to education is often made impossible. In other words, they are robbed of a life that all children deserve and have a right to.

For millions of children in East Africa and worldwide, access to protection and education is what breaks this cycle of violence. It is a matter of survival.

Secondly, investing in children’s right to learning and protection in emergencies contributes to reinforcing national structures and promoting global security and stability, including migration stability. Equipping children with essential life skills and knowledge, resilience and psychosocial support, it provides a pathway to recovery. It empowers them to become influential actors in their communities and helps build more prosperous and stable societies.

Therefore, child-focused investment limits forced displacement, while supporting localisation and promoting long-term, community-based resilience and sustainability.

Failing to protect children from violence and exploitation fuels cycles of instability and forced displacement, while investing in child protection and education builds the foundations of peaceful, resilient societies where children can thrive.

Children are the solution to the EU’s MFF dilemma

In the past years, the EU has taken some important steps towards ensuring children’s protection and learning in emergencies. 

Last year, the EU Council published the updated EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict, showing the EU’s renewed commitment to protecting children in conflicts. DG ECHO, the humanitarian arm of the European Commission, has committed to allocating 10% of humanitarian aid funding to education in emergencies and protracted crises.

However, considering global funding cuts trends, we fear that child protection and education in emergencies may be pushed down the priority list. This would also lead to a missed opportunity for strategic investment.

Amid rising needs and declining global funding, the EU’s financial and political support for humanitarian aid, including an increased budget allocation, is more critical than ever.

This is particularly relevant as negotiations for the new MFF kick off, presenting the EU with the pressing dilemma of how to define its key priorities moving forward. The MFF offers the EU the unique opportunity to shape its global role as a forward-thinking leader – one that invests in children’s protection and education, laying the foundations for global stability and prosperity and reduced forced displacement.

Measures in the MFF, such as increasing the child protection budget and keeping 10% of humanitarian aid funding to education in emergencies, could have a direct and meaningful impact on the role that the EU is currently playing in contributing to a more stable and equitable world. It could change the lives of millions of children in East Africa, Sudan and beyond. 

The upcoming MFF gives the EU a chance to unlock the long-term benefits of investing in children – an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. Investing in children is not just morally right.  It is economically sound, politically wise and strategically necessary.

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Lilian Dodzo is the Regional Vice President & Regional Director at World Vision East Africa Region. Lilian has over 20 years of experience in international development and humanitarian leadership in Africa, having worked as the Country Director for World Vision in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Mauritania, as well as in the World Vision West Africa Regional Office in Senegal.