Safe Spaces

All babies, young children and their caregivers living through emergencies urgently need Safe Spaces where they can access everything children need to grow and thrive in emergency, conflict or vulnerable environments. These "Safe Spaces" are effectively holistic early childhood development centres for crisis contexts, providing protection, physical and psychological support, opportunities for play and early learning, access to clean water and sanitation, and support for caregivers.This paper highlights that while a great deal of work has already been done to bring Safe Spaces to children in emergencies, too often these efforts have been fragmented or have not targeted the youngest children. We need increased prioritisation and donor investment to make these efforts systematic and far reaching and to expand the capacity of existing programmes so that no children are left behind.

Recommendations:

• Establish "Safe Spaces" for pregnant women, mothers and caregivers, and babies and young children (0-5) in emergencies where their physical, cognitive and psychosocial needs can be met.
• All humanitarian response plans should include targets holistically addressing the needs of children ages 0-5.
• Humanitarian actors, policymakers and implementers must fully comply with the INEE Minimum Standards for Education including explicit calls for the provision of ECD.
• Education Cannot Wait, the recently launched fund for education in emergencies, should prioritise pre-primary education and early cognitive support as part of initial investments and long-term strategy.
• Increase donor prioritisation and funding of ECD in emergencies.
• Create national level "whole child" strategies in both education policy and emergency response.