ERICC Policy Brief: The Politics and (incoherence) of education in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

This policy brief draws from the findings of a longer Education Research in Conflict and Protracted Crisis (ERICC) working paper, Political economy and (in)coherence of the education system in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, which explored the drivers and outcomes of dissonance between official intentions for cross-sectoral coordination, also referred to as the ‘humanitarian-development nexus’, and the default operations of the Education Sector. It is based on 38 key informant interviews conducted in 2022 and 2023 with stakeholders in Cox’s Bazar and a review of relevant literature.

This brief summarises the sources of education system (in)coherences in Cox’s Bazar, drawing out the links between sector operations and the key actors’ de facto incentives and capacities, and illustrates the value of understanding how these political economy drivers shape the contours of plausible reforms to improve education coherence in emergencies.

Key Messages

The analysis from the related working paper and this brief points towards several key recommendations:

Transitioning from a reactive financing model to predictable and flexible humanitarian funding;
Involving the Rohingya community not only in service delivery coordination but also in decisions regarding overarching education strategies and the allocation of financial resources;
Establishing secure data-sharing platforms for enhanced usability of existing data, with the rollout of the Myanmar curriculum providing an opportunity to improve alignment;
Creating incentives for providers in consultation with local actors to track and evaluate learning outcomes moving beyond tracking student enrolment;
Allocating sufficient resources to address the scarcity of Myanmar language skills among Education Sector staff.