© UNICEF Zimbabwe/2010/Mutseyekwa
Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan R. Tsvangirai reads through some of the country's new textbooks.

By Tapuwa L. Mutseyekwa

HARARE, Zimbabwe, 14 September 2010 – As Zimbabwe’s schools open for the final term of the year, UNICEF and its partners, along with the Government of Zimbabwe, are distributing textbooks to over 5,575 primary schools throughout the country.

© UNICEF Pakistan/2010/Tahira
Flood-affected Saima, 10, lives in a UNICEF-supported camp in the Rahim Yar Khan district of Pakistan's Punjab province.

By Tahira Sharafat

RAHIM YAR KHAN,Pakistan, 30 August 2010 – Millions of children have been devastated by the disastrous floods in Pakistan. They have lost homes and possessions and have been forced to relocate to temporary accommodations.

But the crisis has also brought opportunity.

Saima, 10, is going to school for the first time. In just 12 days she has learned how to count and read the alphabet. She has begun to write and is memorizing poems.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1628/Ramoneda
A girl stands before a sprawling tent camp for people displaced by flooding, in Sukkur, a city in Pakistan's Sindh province.

By Pi James

NEW YORK, USA, 30 August 2010 – Pakistan has experienced some of the worst monsoon-related floods in history, devastating large parts of the country, wiping out towns and villages, and displacing entire communities.

© UNICEF Côte d'Ivoire/2010/Sage
Members of a mothers' group in Abobo, Côte d'Ivoire, work to generate income to finance the education of local girls.

By Louis Vigneault-Dubois

ABOBO, Côte d’Ivoire, 16 August 2010 – Habibata Ouattara was 17 years old when she was removed from school and forced to marry a man her family had chosen for her. Today, as the Secretary-General of a local School Girl Mothers’ Club – known by the acronym CMEF – Ms. Ouattara strives to ensure that girls in her community stay in school and complete their education.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-1089/Noorani
Afghanistan. 2007.

One of the key EEPCT (Back on Track) objectives is to support the development of “resilient education systems” in the contexts of emergencies, post-crisis transitions and fragility. However, as an education in emergencies community, we lack a commonly agreed upon definition of a “resilient education system.”  We also have not identified the characteristics of, or specified indicators for, such a system.

As part of an evaluation on EECPT, we invite you to respond to the following two questions:

1.  How would you define a resilient education system in the context of emergencies, transitions and fragility?

2.  What are three key characteristics or ingredients of a resilient education system?

Please submit your feedback below. We invite contributions until 20 August 2010. There after we will compile results and share them with you through the website.

Columbia Group for Children in Adversity

© UNICEF China/2010/Chen
In the aftermath of the April 2010 earthquake in China's Qinghai Province, UNICEF and its partners have set up four child-friendly spaces in tents in Jiegu town, Yushu County.

BEIJING, China, 5 August 2010 – In the aftermath of the April 2010 earthquake that struck Qinghai Province’s Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, UNICEF and the National Working Committee on Children and Women (NWCCW) have combined to establish four child-friendly spaces to support the long-term recovery and well-being of earthquake-affected children and women.