© Anders Thormann/2011
Anthony Lake speaks at GPE Pledging Conference in Copenhagen.

By Joan Howe

Copenhagen, 9 November 2011 – Leading donors at the first-ever Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Pledging Conference promised an initial US$1.5 billion over the next three years to put millions more children in school.

The multi-partner global partnership met on 7-8 November in Copenhagen, Denmark, where donors also pledged to increase bilateral funding to support education investment and achieve concrete results in access and quality of education. The pooled education fund aims to secure predictable funding to put 25 million more children in school over the next three years. Developing countries pledged to increase domestic funding for education by more than US$2 billion.

“Millions of children depend on your pledges today. And we know who most of them are,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake told ministers from donor and partner countries, high-level officials, heads of UN agencies, CEOs, and leaders from Civil Society Organisations (CSO), teachers’ unions and development bankers. “They are the poorest children living in the most isolated places, suffering from exclusion and discrimination, often struggling to grow in the midst of conflict or humanitarian catastrophe.”

Mr. Lake gave examples of how education has helped to restore a sense of normalcy for children growing up in countries like Haiti, Liberia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, proving that progress is possible even in the most difficult situations. He highlighted Afghanistan, which has made significant strides in education in recent years, increasing the number of children in primary school from 1 million ten years ago to nearly 5 million today, with a total of approximately 7.3 million children enrolled in all grades.

The Executive Director also emphasized that in Afghanistan today, more than 4 million children are still out of school, the majority of whom are girls. “Afghanistan’s future depends on investing in the potential of all its citizens,” said Mr. Lake. “Indeed, no country has ever become strong and remained so, without such investments.”

UNICEF has been working in partnership with the Government of Afghanistan to achieve national education objectives. Afghanistan’s Minister of Education, Mr. Farooq Wardak, described the government’s efforts to put communities at the heart of a strategy to open schools and keep them open by protecting students and teachers. In provinces with the lowest enrolment, there is a special emphasis on girls going to school.

Mr. Peter Crowley, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan, emphasized that education is essential to achieving peace and stability. Recognizing the long journey that the country has already made since the Taliban banned girls from school, Crowley observed that “Afghanistan has begun to achieve real momentum in education; by continuing to support these gains, they can become self-sustaining.”

© UNICEF Haiti/2011/Dormino
11-year-old Naika Civil and Lucien Schnaider are happy to have a chance to study at the National School in Tabarre, Port au Prince. Unlike in previous school years, none of the students at the school pay school fees.

The Global Partnership for Education has helped more than 19 million children go to school for the first time. A campaign to renew support for these efforts will culminate in a pledging event in Copenhagen on 7-8 November. This series of stories seeks to highlight the Partnership’s work in the lead-up to this event.

By Benjamin Steinlechner

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, 21 October 2011 – Lucien, 11, is the only child in his class not wearing a uniform. Sporting a t-shirt and jeans, he looks out of place amid throngs of children wearing neatly ironed, identical blue and white uniforms.

‘Education is crucial’

His school in Tabarre, a Port-au-Prince neighbourhood close to the capital’s airport, is where Haitian President Michel Martelly recently announced that 772,000 children will receive free schooling this year.

“I haven’t been to school for two years,” said a smiling Lucien. “I did my first year when I was nine in another school. But then my parents couldn’t afford to pay the school fees anymore, and I had to stay at home.”

Many parents often spend almost all of their money on school fees for their children, which in Lucien’s school averages around 450 Gourdes – about US$11. Others, like Lucien’s parents, simply could not afford to send their children to school.

The Global Partnership for Education will hold a pledging event in Copenhagen on 7-8 November.

“Education is crucial for the development of children, families, communities, and for the future of Haiti’s reconstruction,” stressed UNICEF Representative in Haiti Françoise Gruloos-Ackermans. “This initiative by the Haitian government will help thousands of children who never had the chance to go to school to get an education.”

School for free

Thanks to the new government programme, many students like Lucien go to school for free now. That his parents still couldn’t afford to buy him a uniform doesn’t really bother him.

“I am just happy to be here in school and to learn a lot of useful things,” he said. “I want to learn French because that will help me to find a good job.”

The new government programme’s target is to make it economically possible for every child to go to school. To this end, it will introduce free schooling across the country in stages.

Poverty is particularly bitter in areas outside Port-au-Prince, where jobs are few and access to basic services like education is difficult, if available at all. This is why most of the funding allocated by the government for paying the school fees will initially be spent there.

Still, children in Port-au-Prince like Lucien are benefitting from the free schooling.

Giving children hope

© UNICEF Haiti/2011/Dormino
11 year old Naika Civil and Lucien Schnaider walk their way home after leaving the national school in Tabarre, in Port au Prince. Both Naika and Lucien couldn't go to school for two years due to the fact that their parents couldn't afford it. This years they are two of many beneficiaries of the new Haitian Government initiative for a free education.

Unlike in previous school years, none of the children in the national school in Tabarre have to pay school fees. Eleven-year-old Nai Ka is classmate of Lucien’s, and like him, she hasn’t been to school in two years.

“My parents are very proud I am going to school again,” she said excitedly. “I am also very happy that I get food here every day. At home I sometimes have to go two days without eating anything.”

The World Food Programme is supporting the government’s programme with daily food rations for the children.

“Going to school gives children back their hope,” explained Jean Francois Lucien, headmaster of the Tabarre School. “It helps them forget about their often dire situation at home and focus on something entirely different and stimulating.”

Related links:
20 Haitian children turn their stories into movies, inspiring others in the process
The Global Partnership for Education

By Thomas Nybo

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 7 October 2011 – The Haitian government has taken a big step toward realizing its goal of providing a free education to all the country’s children. On Monday, President Michel Martelly announced that 772,000 children will receive free schooling this year, including 142,000 children who have never attended school before. His announcement came at Ecole Nationale de Tabarre on the first day of the new school year.

For its part, UNICEF has begun distributing school kits to 750,000 children and 15,000 teachers throughout the country. UNICEF’s contribution of nearly $10 million will reach some 2,500 schools, in the form of school kit distribution and other education programs.

“Education is fundamental for the development of children, families, communities, and for the future of Haiti’s reconstruction,” said UNICEF’s Representative in Haiti, Françoise Gruloos-Ackermans.

‘Giving hope to youth’

To advance education in Haiti, UNICEF is working with a variety of governmental and non-governmental partners to build an education system that is free and universal.

© UNICEF Video
Thomas Nybo, UNICEF correspondent reports on efforts to build an education system in Haiti that is free and universal.

At Monday’s event, President Martelly and Ms. Gruloos-Ackermans presented students with new UNICEF backpacks, as well as other school supplies, such as pencils and notebooks.

“The country has nothing to offer us,” said one student, a boy named Jonas. “There is no opportunity for young people. So, it’s easy to become mad. But today, President Martelly is giving hope to youth.”

Addressing food insecurity

Also on hand for the event was Ms. Myrta Kaulard, World Food Programme’s Representative in Haiti. WFP, which works closely with UNICEF to ensure the best conditions for children in school, is providing 1.1 million students free daily meals.

“For poor households, nowadays, the cost of food is very, very high,” Ms. Kaulard said. “So ensuring the children eat a fool nutritionally balanced meal when they come to school is making sure that they eat well, but is also alleviating household budgets.”

She added that a year and a half after the earthquake, a national survey revealed that nearly half the Haitian population is struggling with food insecurity.

A common goal

This year marks the first full year of school for Haitian children since the earthquake. UNICEF, WFP and the Haitian government are all working to make sure the promise of a free education is realized by as many of the country’s children as possible.

© UNICEF Haiti/2010

Taleen Vartan

NEW YORK, 28 July 2011 – Since 2007, the Education in Emergencies and Post-Crisis Transition (EEPCT) programme – a partnership among UNICEF, the Government of the Netherlands and the European Commission – has aimed to support countries in emergency and post-crisis transition situations as they seek to establish a viable path of sustainable progress towards quality basic education for all.

The first of the four goals of the EEPCT programme is to improve the quality of education response in emergencies and post-crisis transition countries and territories. This includes both the immediate onset of emergencies – when the task is to restore schooling to affected populations – and the more sustained period of reconstruction aimed at rebuilding the education system.

In Haiti, EEPCT funds have made a substantive impact on increasing the capacity of education delivery after the earthquake in January 2010. The programme is helping to rapidly restore quality education while ‘building back better’ for young Haitians – striving to get all children in school in a country where enrolment and attendance were poor even before disaster struck.

Restoring schooling after the quake

The earthquake led to the destruction or damage of nearly 4,000 schools in Haiti, which affected more than 1.2 million students. In 2010, UNICEF concentrated on restoring access to basic education in the context of nationwide school closures. EEPCT funds were applied for the distribution of 1,600 tents and school materials to set up temporary schools in April 2010, benefiting approximately 325,000 children – about 20 per cent of the total affected schoolchildren – in the aftermath of the quake.

The quality of education was improved through teacher training, child-friendly school initiatives, distribution of learning materials and strengthened parent and community inclusion in EEPCT programme activities. In 2010, more than 15,000 teachers have benefited from teaching materials in more than 2,000 schools. Additionally, school supplies were distributed to approximately 720,000 affected children in order to alleviate parents’ financial burden linked to school fees.

Improved water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools

Prior to the earthquake, 40 per cent of schools in Haiti had no access to drinking water and 60 per cent lacked sanitation facilities, directly exposing more than 873,000 children to waterborne diseases during their time in school.

In support of the national cholera prevention and response campaign, soap and water purification tablets were distributed to about 1 million children in 5,000 schools in affected areas. The provision of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene facilities are essential components to ensuring a healthy physical learning environment.

Advocacy to reopen schools

Successful national and community-level advocacy remains another fundamental aspect to the first goal of the programme. UNICEF and partners worked with the Ministry of Education to forge a common commitment to minimize the duration of school closures in Haiti after the quake. This was important since a lost school year would have exacerbated the social impact of the disaster for children and delayed recovery efforts.

To operationalize this commitment to reopen schools as early as possible and to ensure that children do not have to repeat their studies, UNICEF and Education Cluster partners, together with the Ministry of Education, developed and disseminated an adapted curriculum to teachers for the remainder of the 2010 school year. The curriculum was devised for children who suffered an interruption in their schooling as a result of displacement and school closures.

Looking forward

In 2011, UNICEF is investing in improved access to and quality of education as well as in reform and regulation of the education sector. This means strengthening government capacity to lead, plan and coordinate, training more teachers and bolstering a fragile education system where more than half of the country’s children remain out of school. As the fifth and final year of the EEPCT programme moves forward, EEPCT funds continue to help the earthquake-affected children of Haiti regain hope and dignity and rebuild stable futures for themselves and their communities.

Related links:
Consolidated Report – Back on Track programme in 2010: Results achieved during the fourth year
Christine’s story: A 14-year-old Haitian student braves the aftermath of the earthquake
UNICEF Haiti (in French)

Children in Haiti are still reeling from the impact of the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Here is one in a series of stories on the long road from relief to recovery, a year later.

VIDEO: UNICEF correspondent Thomas Nybo reports on a young Haitian girl’s hope for continued education, a year after the earthquake.

By Thomas Nybo

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 19 January 2011 – When the UNICEF communications team caught up with Shasha Liza, 14, in early December, she was alone in a tent, cutting up chicken feet, which her mother would cook and sell on the streets. Shasha was still in the camp where she had been living since her home was destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake.

Ten months earlier, we had met Shasha in the camp and followed her throughout a day in her life: preparing food, fetching water, washing her clothes, meeting up with friends. At the time, she was sharing a dirt-floor tent with nine family members, even though there’s only room for one bed, and she was anxious to get back in school.

She now shares the tent with six relatives, and her commitment to education is even stronger. Her father died last year, and she sees no other way to help herself and her family.

‘Out of poverty’

“What do I want to change in my life?” asked Shasha. “I want to have the opportunity to continue my education so I can become something in life. I would really like to get my mother out of poverty.”

© UNICEF/2010/Nybo
Shasha Liza, 14, has been living in a tent with her relatives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake destroyed her home.

Life had been particularly difficult since her family’s tent was flooded in the rainy season, Shasha told us. She later developed an infection and was hospitalized for three months as she battled a persistent cough.

When we caught up with Shasha, she had several hours of work ahead of her, preparing different foods for her mother to sell. The money they earn is the family’s only source of income. Shasha is painfully aware of how much work is required for single mothers to raise their children.

“If I could talk to the world, I would say there are a lot of mothers in Haiti who are suffering,” she said. “They are taking care of the kids themselves because the fathers are gone. I would ask for help for the mothers, especially in this camp. There are so many of them raising their children with no help from the fathers.”

Dreams and a song

Shasha dreams of becoming a senator and changing Haiti’s government from the inside. During long days preparing food, she confided, she also dreams of singing and dancing, and maybe becoming a movie star. After a little encouragement, she sang for us – Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka.’

When the performance ended, Shasha bid us farewell. She still had work to do, and because of the scarcity of electricity, she had to finish before night fell on the camp.

Children in Haiti are still reeling from the lingering impact of the 12 January 2010 earthquake. Here is one in a series of stories on the long road from relief to recovery, a year later.

By Thomas Nybo

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 11 January 2011 – Last month a UNICEF communications team met up with Christine, 14, outside her family’s tent in a displacement camp near the Port-au-Prince airport. Five months earlier, the team had followed the young earthquake survivor for several days to see how she managed to achieve top marks in school while living in a cramped shelter with her mother, brother and sister.

Their home was destroyed in the January 2010 quake, along with most of their belongings, and afterwards Christine’s mother only had enough money to send one of her children to school. She chose Christine.

During the recent visit with UNICEF, Christine was working on an essay about her life. The good news, she said, was that her mother was now earning enough money selling second-hand sneakers to pay the school fees for all three children in the family.

Passionate about school

“My brother and my sister are absolutely passionate about going to school,” Christine said. “They love their school. My little sister wakes up early and washes herself every day, and gets ready for school. It makes me very happy.”

© UNICEF video
School is a lifeline for Christine, 14, whose family is still living in a tent a year after Haiti's massive earthquake.

Christine’s days are busy. When she’s not studying, she’s helping out with the family chores: fetching water at the taps in the camp where they live, preparing food, washing the dishes and clothing, and sweeping out their tent.

But she added that life in the camp had grown more difficult, and she was eager to make the move back into a permanent home – although she had no idea when that might happen.

“When the weather is nice outside, it is extremely hot inside the tent,” she said. “When it rains, water seeps into the tent. There is a lot of rubbish in the camp. If somebody is sick, we don’t know where to take them. For these reasons, living in the camp makes me sad.”

Education and family

Christine pointed to education and family as the two constants in her life that keep her spirits high. When the quake destroyed her home and her school, she was devastated.

© UNICEF video
Christine, 14, seen here with a UNICEF staff member, is flourishing in school despite the fact that her family is still struggling in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

“After the earthquake, my big fear was that there would no longer be school,” she recalled. “But I kept studying, because I’ve always believed that education is the key to my life. I love school a lot. Without school, I can’t do anything. Without education, man cannot retain his dignity.”

The earthquake destroyed the Ministry of Education building and damaged nearly 5,000 schools, disrupting classes for children across the disaster zone , including Christine and her siblings. UNICEF’s efforts to rebuild and re-supply the education system has reached 720,000 children in some 2,000 schools , but there is much work left to be done. More than half of the 2.2 million primary school-age children in Haiti are not in school.

‘Always be strong’

Before the UNICEF team left Christine’s camp, she read them a portion of her essay:

“I was born on January 10th, 1996. Since my birth, I have never known my father. It’s always been my mother who has taken care of me…. At times, though, she didn’t work. There were no sneakers to sell. There was nothing to do, even to give us our daily bread. There were days when we stayed with an empty stomach for the whole day. My mother seeing us in this misery would cry a lot. At the same time, she would always say to us, ‘Always be strong, even if life dishes out the worst. Don’t be afraid.’”

Related Links

Christine’s story: Escaping poverty through education in post-earthquake Haiti
Building education from the ruins
Rebuilding Haiti’s education system one year after the earthquake
Educating against cholera in Haiti

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0754/Roger LeMoyne
Children locate countries on an inflatable globe, during class in a tent set up on the grounds at an orphanage, in the city of Jacmel.

By Pi James

NEW YORK, USA, 6 January 2011 – UNICEF podcast moderator Amy Costello spoke with Carlos Vasquez, architect and UNICEF Education Specialist, and Tania McBride, UNICEF Communication Specialist for Haiti, to find out how the educational system is managing to move forward one year post-earthquake.

Ms. McBride, who recently returned from three weeks in Haiti, said the children she spoke with who had moved from school tents into semi-permanent structures seemed “really happy to be back at school”.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 format

“One interesting thing about this,” Mr. Vasquez added, “is the fact that, believe it or not, children were afraid of going back to schools that were made out of bricks or reinforced concrete because they associate collapse with a certain type of construction.”

“That was also part of our initial design concerns when we were thinking about the semi-permanent schools,” Mr. Vasquez continued, “If you are able to pick on how children perceive space and how do they perceive the disaster, if you’re paying attention as an architect, you should be able to integrate their concerns into your design process.”

Psychosocial issues

Ms. McBride noted that while many children were now back in the classroom, many were still suffering deeper psychosocial problems.

“On the surface of it the children seem very happy at school, learning, playing with their friends, interacting with their teachers, but one particular mother [I spoke with] told me that her children weren’t actually doing so well,” Ms. McBride said.

“Her youngest daughter, who was about five,” Ms. McBride continued, “didn’t sleep well at night, they didn’t like to be separated from her for too long, and she, as a parent, didn’t like to be separated from her children.”

Mr. Vasquez said going forward it is “fundamental that as an organization, as political institutions, we all agree on certain basic things that would enhance the security of the school environment both from an humanitarian perspective and from a disaster risk reduction perspective.”

© UNICEF/HTIA2010-00018/Marta Ramoneda
Alcema (red shirt) , 14, talks about the hygiene session that has taken place in the camp where he lives, in Port au Prince, Haiti.

By Pi James

NEW YORK, USA, 6 January 2011 – The children of Haiti suffered multiple crises in 2010, from the January 12 earthquake, to the devastation caused by Hurricane Tomas, and the outbreak of cholera in October – all of which seriously affected children’s access to education.

According to the UNICEF report on Haiti one year after the earthquake, cholera, a bacterial infection spread through water and food, has claimed more than 2,500 lives and affected more than 100,000 people.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 format

In the lead up to the one year anniversary of the earthquake, UNICEF podcast moderator Amy Costello spoke with Dr. Ralph Ternier, Director of Community Care and Support with Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health, an American non-profit organization that has been providing healthcare to Haiti’s poor for more than 20 years.

Dr. Ternier said that protection against the spread of cholera was complicated, particularly given the living conditions of many communities in rural Haiti.

“First of all there’s no sanitation,” said Dr. Ternier, “and then [the children] don’t have enough education to know [clean] water or that they should wash their hands. And you can go to some houses where you’re never going to find something to wash your hands”.

“If the people are educated and have somewhere to wash their hands, it’s OK, fine, we have the solution of cholera. But… it’s not that simple,” he continued.

Dr. Ternier stressed there needed to be a combination of education, to produce behavioural change, as well as the immediate response of vaccines and antibiotics.

“It’s all very complex; it’s not as simple as soap and education.”

Full transcript and bio of Dr. Ralph Ternier

©UNICEF/Haiti/2010/McBride
Christie Lafontant and her classmates back in school at Ecole Vision Nouvelle. Christie is one of the children at the school who is benefitting from eight semi-permanent classrooms that have been recently constructed by UNICEF.

By Tania McBride

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – 10 December 2010 – From a hill in the densely populated Delmas area of Port-au-Prince, where vendors hawk household goods, charcoal, vegetables, and multi-coloured paintings, there is a stunning post-card view of the ocean.

Turn 180 degrees, and the picture is somewhat different. Blue and white tarpaulins still cling to the hillside 12 months after the January 2010 earthquake that shattered countless lives of children and families in Haiti.

Further along, away from the chaotic traffic, blue and whitewashed walls mark the entrance to the Vision Nouvelle School for Boys and Girls where older pupils study Haitian history and mathematics under tents while younger ones run about during a recess break. A bell rings and the children return hurriedly to their classrooms, eight new semi-permanent structures recently constructed by UNICEF and partners.

©UNICEF/Haiti/2010/McBride
Children in a temporary classroom at 33 Dei Gloria Primary School in the Delmas area in Port au Prince. On January 12, the earthquake destroyed the original school building and students have been learning in temporary structures. Dei Gloria was visited by UNICEF construction engineers to assess the site for building five semi-permanent classrooms and will incorporate water and sanitation facilities in the small school.

Just 12 months earlier, close to 5,000 schools were affected by the earthquake, which also destroyed the Ministry of Education building and halted the education of over 2.5 million children. Although the total number of children who died in the earthquake may never be known, it’s estimated that as many as 38,000 school children lost their lives.

“Many of the children have been exposed to horrendous, terrifying images. Many lost friends and family,” says UNICEF Haiti Education Chief Nathalie Fiona Hamoudi. “School, with time, can help heal some of this distress with a return to a safe and secure environment, a familiar place – school.”

In response, UNICEF launched a rebuilding and re-equipment programme that to date has positively impacted 720,000 children and 15,000 teachers in 2,000 schools, with efforts also coordinated with the World Food Programme’s school feeding initiative.

UNICEF school activities include reconstruction contracts for 126 sites, of which 57 schools are completed or nearing completion. As well, 22 school construction contracts are approved or under consideration to be started early in the New Year.

“Providing safe and secure buildings where children can resume their learning is a crucial part of the healing process. But we have to be realistic – nothing will be solved overnight,” says Mohamed Malick Fall, Coordinator of the Education Cluster, which helped set standards for school construction, and psycho-social support for children.

Many children and parents will require long-term and ongoing support, “much of which UNICEF is helping provide through psycho-social support in schools in all affected areas,” Hamoudi adds.

Marie Ginette Mathurin is a structural engineer with UNICEF. A Haitian woman with a doctorate in psychics and mathematics, Mathurin has been pivotal in guiding UNICEF’s team in the construction of semi-permanent classrooms in Port-au-Prince.

©UNICEF/Haiti/2010/McBride
Marie Ginette Mathurin is a structural engineer with UNICEF. A Haitian woman with a doctorate in psychics and mathematics, Mathurin has been pivotal in guiding UNICEF’s team in the construction of semi-permanent classrooms in Port-au-Prince.

“Haitians don’t have much money, but they do believe in education for their children,” says Mathurin, who has been quality assessing the classrooms and school construction at Port-au-Prince’s Vision Nouvelle School.

Sebastian Jean Baptiste is one of many children at Vision Nouvelle School who is benefitting from the new classrooms.

“I had a friend who died in the earthquake and others who lost their houses, it was hard to see them at first,” he confides. “We had to share carefully food and water at home and I didn’t go to school for three months. I was bored but now I feel safe and I enjoy coming to school.”

By providing an opportune platform from which tomorrow’s leaders can emerge, education is the key to building a new Haiti. UNICEF’s Education Chief cautions, however, that the process will not happen overnight.

“The practicalities of building back better in such a devastated environment require time, resources, political will,” says Hamoudi. “But most of all it requires ongoing and unbroken commitment.”

Related Links

A Haitian engineer helps UNICEF rebuild education from the ruins.
Rebuilding Haiti’s education system one year after the earthquake
Educating against cholera in Haiti

©UNICEF/Haiti/2010/McBride
Christie Lafontant and her classmates back in school at Ecole Vision Nouvelle.

11 January 2011 – NEW YORK

January 12 marks one year since the deadly earthquake that devastated Haiti’s education system and affected millions of children.Twelve months later UNICEF and partners are focused on rebuilding efforts to ensure children can access quality education in a safe environment. Below are a series of stories on the role education has played in the reconstruction efforts one year on.

Podcasts

Rebuilding Haiti’s education system one year after the earthquake
Educating against cholera in Haiti

Stories

Building education from the ruins
Christine’s story: A 14-year-old Haitian student braves the aftermath of the earthquake
A Haitian engineer helps UNICEF rebuild education from the ruins

UNICEF report

Haiti: One year report (education excerpt)
Children in Haiti: One Year After – The long road from relief to recovery