Debt Crisis undermining the Right to Education by UNESCO, Education Cannot Wait, agencies   July 2026   The Global South is being forced to choose creditors over children, highlights Ilan Kapoor, Professor of Critical Development Studies at York University, Toronto.   "The world claims to regard education as a universal right. Its financial system tells a different story. ⁠New figures released by UNESCO show that 113 countries with a total population of 6.1 billion now spend more on servicing debt than educating their people.   In low-income countries, debt payments are nearly four times education expenditure. In 18 of the most heavily indebted countries, governments spend at least five times more on debt than on education.   These are not merely signs of strained public finances. They reveal a stark political hierarchy.   Creditors possess enforceable claims on government revenues. Children possess declarations, development goals and promises. When the two collide, creditors are paid first.   The consequences are visible in overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating school buildings, teacher shortages, unaffordable school fees and children leaving education prematurely. Yet these outcomes are generally described as funding gaps or failures of domestic governance, as though governments had freely decided to neglect their schools.   In reality, many governments are operating inside an international financial order that sharply restricts what they can choose.   The ⁠World Bank reports that developing countries transferred $741bn more to external creditors in principal and interest between 2022 and 2024 than they received in new financing. This was the largest net debt outflow in at least 50 years. In 2024 alone, low and middle-income countries paid a record $415bn in interest.   In other words, the financial flows are frequently moving in the opposite direction from the one suggested by the language of development assistance.   Poorer countries are commonly portrayed as beneficiaries of Western generosity. But vast amounts of public wealth are travelling from debtor countries to bondholders, commercial banks, multilateral institutions and wealthier creditor governments.   Money that could hire teachers, provide school meals or build classrooms is instead leaving the country.   This is particularly perverse because education is not simply another item of government consumption. It is an investment in a society’s future capacities. Cutting it may make debt payments easier today, but it will weaken productivity, public revenues and social resilience tomorrow.   Debt contracts are treated as binding obligations whose breach can trigger credit downgrades, capital flight, lawsuits and exclusion from financial markets. The right to education, by contrast, carries no comparable machinery of enforcement.   No ratings agency downgrades creditors when a country cannot afford enough teachers. No financial penalty is imposed on bondholders when debt service forces children out of school. Markets do not panic when classrooms collapse.   The system disciplines governments for failing creditors, not for failing children.   UNESCO has proposed expanding debt-for-education swaps. Under these arrangements, a creditor cancels or restructures part of a country’s debt in exchange for government investment in agreed educational programmes.   Such initiatives can produce tangible gains. A 2023 agreement with France helped Ivory Coast finance more than 30 schools in underserved areas. A German agreement with Egypt supported school feeding and basic services, while an earlier Spain-Peru programme funded education projects across vulnerable regions.   These programmes are worthwhile. But they are not a solution to the larger debt crisis. Debt swaps typically cover only a small fraction of what countries owe. They are negotiated selectively, depend on creditor consent and may add new layers of external monitoring to domestic spending.   Most importantly, they leave untouched the principle that creditors are entitled to repayment unless they voluntarily concede otherwise.   The question becomes how to persuade creditors to permit a little more education, rather than why the claims of creditors should take priority in the first place.   That question is especially urgent because education aid is also falling. UNESCO projects that international assistance for education could decline by as much as 30 percent between 2023 and 2027.   Debtor countries are therefore being squeezed from both sides: aid is retreating while debt payments continue.   The familiar recommendation that developing countries should mobilise more domestic resources is inadequate. Progressive taxation and reduced corruption matter. But additional revenues will not transform education systems if they are immediately diverted towards debts contracted at high interest rates, or made more expensive by currency depreciation.   Nor can the problem be solved by demanding ever more austerity. Education budgets consist largely of recurring expenditure, especially teachers’ salaries.   When governments are instructed to freeze public-sector wage bills, they cannot solve teacher shortages or expand access, however often international institutions proclaim education a priority.   A more serious response would begin with large-scale debt cancellation for countries in distress, automatic suspension of payments during economic and climate emergencies, far cheaper concessional financing and a fair multilateral mechanism for restructuring sovereign debt.   At present, debt negotiations are fragmented among private creditors, bilateral lenders and international institutions. Debtor governments must bargain with powerful financial actors while trying to avoid being punished for seeking relief.   A binding United Nations framework for sovereign debt could establish shared rules, require both borrowers and lenders to act responsibly and prevent holdout creditors from obstructing restructuring. It could also make social rights central to assessments of what a country can genuinely afford to repay.   The world needs to move towards the idea that debt repayment cannot come at any human cost. A debt is not sustainable when paying it requires dismantling the institutions on which a society’s future depends".   http://www.unesco.org/en/articles/transforming-education-summit-unesco-mobilizes-leaders-113-countries-spend-more-debt-payments http://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/aid-education http://giescr.org/en/our-work/on-the-ground/we-join-civil-society-submission-to-un-special-rapporteur-on-debt-crisis-undermining-the-right-to-education   June 2026   Breaking Barriers: Understanding Educational Exclusion in Crises – Global estimates 2026   The latest global estimates from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) reveal that 258 million school-aged children and adolescents across 87 countries have their education affected by crises. Of these, 93 million are entirely out of school, while millions more remain enrolled but struggle to learn under conditions that undermine their progress and increase their risk of dropping out.   The report provides new evidence on where needs are greatest, who is being left behind and the barriers preventing children from accessing and completing their education. It finds that educational exclusion is highly concentrated, with 182 million crisis-affected children – including 74 million out-of-school children – living in the world's 20 most severe crisis contexts.   Drawing on the latest available data, the report highlights the urgent need to invest not only in access to education, but also in foundational learning, retention and progression. Without decisive action, learning losses will continue to deepen, putting an entire generation at risk.   http://www.educationcannotwait.org/resource-library/breaking-barriers-understanding-educational-exclusion-in-crises-global-estimates http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2025/11/24/aid-cuts-kids-caretakers-are-clear-about-what-save-education http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/global-funding-cuts-could-force-6-million-more-children-out-school-coming-year http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2025/09/dhc-al-nashif-open-ended-intergovernmental-working-group-optional http://giescr.org/en/our-work/on-the-ground/we-joined-over-190-organisations-in-global-call-to-protect-education-financing http://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/32736:funding-the-future-education-unions-students-and-civil-society-mobilise-to-boost-global-education-financing http://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/32765:privatisation-threatens-young-childrens-rights-unions-and-partners-call-for-urgent-public-investment-in-early-childhood-education http://campaignforeducation.org/focus-area/financing-education/ http://www.cesr.org/financing-the-right-to-education-for-peace-equality-and-a-rightsbased-economy http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/news/education-day2025 http://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/build-better-futures/education http://www.warchild.net/intervention-cwtl/ http://plan-international.org/publications/still-we-dream/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nearly-quarter-billion-childrens-schooling-was-disrupted-climate-crises-2024-unicef http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/not-new-normal-2024-one-worst-years-unicefs-history-children-conflict http://www.prio.org/comments/1152
	117.8 million people now violently displaced around the world by UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), NRC, IDMC   June 2026   UNHCR's latest Global Trends report 2025, published in June 2026, provides key statistical trends on forced displacement. It includes the latest official statistics on refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people, as well as the number of refugees who have returned home.   At the end of 2025, there were 41.6 million refugees globally, including refugees under UNHCR’s mandate, people in a refugee-like situation, other people in need of international protection. In addition, there were 68.7 million people displaced within their own country due to conflict or violence.   The global number of refugees fell during 2025 with a decrease of 3 per cent compared to the end of 2024. This change reflects a sharp increase in the returns of refugees, mostly to Afghanistan, Syria and Sudan.   The number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) also decreased due to the returns of IDPs primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Syria. However, many of the returns occurred under adverse circumstances and the reintegration conditions remain extremely challenging.   One in every 70 people, or 1.4 per cent of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced.   Seven in ten refugees under UNHCR's mandate and other people in need of international protection originate from just six countries: Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela.   Most people fleeing conflict and persecution remain near their country of origin. At the end of 2025, 65 per cent of refugees were hosted in neighbouring countries.   Low and middle-income countries continue to host the majority of the world’s refugees, hosting 68 per cent of refugees and other people in need of international protection.   Most people who are forced to flee never cross an international border, remaining displaced within their own countries. Known as internally displaced people, or IDPs, they account for 58 per cent of all forcibly displaced people. At the end of 2025, 68.7 million people remained internally displaced due to conflict and violence.   Sudan remains the largest internal displacement globally with 9.1 million people still displaced within the country at the end of the year.   In 2025, 14.7 million people returned to their areas or countries of origin, including nearly 4.4 million refugees and 10.3 million IDPs. 92 per cent of all returns occurred in just seven countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.6 million), Sudan (3.5 million), Syria (3.3 million), Afghanistan (2 million), Ukraine (718,300) and Myanmar (415,200).   Refugee returns under adverse circumstances and/or to fragile contexts   Most refugees have a strong desire to return and rebuild their lives in their home country given adequate safety and stability. However, most returns in 2025 occurred under adverse circumstances or to extremely fragile contexts.   Afghan refugees were often compelled to return due to changes in the policies in their host countries, while Congolese IDPs had no choice but to leave following the forced closure of settlements. Syrian and Sudanese refugees and IDPs returned despite insecurity, inadequate basic services and limited livelihood opportunities.   Such returns are unlikely to be sustainable without critical investment to support reintegration, helping to promote development in countries deeply scarred by conflict.   Investment is also required in countries of asylum to help refugees support themselves and their families, as well as contribute to their country of asylum, until the conditions in their country of origin are conducive to their return. Most refugees hope to return.   With 70 per cent of refugees trapped in exile for years and many living below the poverty line, Barham Salih, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees urged the international community to back a new initiative to lift millions out of long-term displacement and reliance on humanitarian aid.   “For too many refugees, displacement starts as a lifeline but lasts a lifetime,” Salih said. “Humanitarian aid saves lives, but it is not the end point and does not enable refugees to become active agents in control of their futures. We need a paradigm shift that creates a new sense of hope and opportunity for people fleeing war and persecution."   Long-term displacement is now a defining feature of the global refugee landscape, with most refugees remaining in host countries for extended periods. In this context, advancing self-reliance and durable solutions, alongside continued protection and targeted humanitarian support, is essential.   UNHCR aims to support States and partners in halving, by 2035, the number of refugees and other people in need of international protection in protracted displacement who are unable to meet their basic needs without external support.   The focus is to expand access to solutions and opportunities for self-reliance such as access to work opportunities, national education, health, and social protection systems, enabling refugees to live in dignity and security, realise their potential and move beyond prolonged need.   The initiative calls on governments, humanitarian and development actors, the private sector and civil society to scale efforts to empower refugees while upholding asylum and protection, which is more crucial than ever as 2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention.   “Asylum and protection are life-saving and not up for debate, but we cannot accept a future in which millions of refugees remain trapped for years or decades without realistic prospects of rebuilding their lives,” said Salih.   “We have an ambitious, achievable and quantifiable goal to transform lives for the better. UNHCR will work to galvanise efforts across society to meet this challenge and create pathways out of the grinding banality of protracted displacement for millions.”   http://www.unhcr.org/global-trend http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/7-10-refugees-living-long-term-displacement-unhcr-chief-calls-renewed-push http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k15/k15c10r47j http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-middle-east-crisis-ripple-effects-strain-aid-efforts-beyond-region http://www.unhcr.org/news/announcements/acute-food-insecurity-and-malnutrition-remain-alarmingly-high-crises-deepen-un http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-hate-speech-and-misinformation-are-creating-real-world-harm-displaced http://www.unhcr.org/news-and-stories http://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/respond-emergencies http://www.unhcr.org/where-we-work/emergencies   June 2026   117.8 million people displaced: an open wound on our shared humanity. (NRC)   Statement by Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on the new global displacement figures:   “The number of people who have fled their home because of violence and conflict has nearly tripled over the last 15 years. The 117.8 million people now violently displaced around the globe would constitute the world’s thirteenth largest country by population. Larger than Egypt, Germany, or the UK. A human toll of vast proportions, and a collective failure of humanity.   “For the first time in many years, the number of people displaced around the world is lower than the previous year – down from a record high of 123.2 million in 2025. But, this drop in displacement is in large part caused by involuntary return and without the support and services needed to begin to rebuild lives.   In Afghanistan, millions were forcibly returned from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, and in DR Congo some displacement camps were evacuated at gunpoint, sending thousands of families back to homes that no longer exist.   “At the same time millions continued to be uprooted while many more endured protracted crises with no solution in sight. The world continues to fail civilians caught by conflict and violence.   “Such large numbers are almost impossible to comprehend. And as an increasingly nationalistic world becomes increasingly desensitised to what it truly means to be forced to flee home, the gap between decision makers and donors and displaced people continues to widen. This cannot be accepted as the new normal.   “As humanitarians our work is to support displaced people in their hour of greatest need. To provide life-saving aid including clean water and shelter, and then to contribute the tools needed to rebuild life and hope.   “But we cannot do this without a world that is willing to stand up for humanity. We call on each of you to remind those in power why aid is not a luxury, but an essential. We must stand alongside people living through crisis. We must support diplomatic solutions to end crisis, and fund aid to relieve suffering. We must protect civilians and stand up for international humanitarian law. We must all remember our humanity.”   http://www.nrc.no/news/2026/117.8-million-people-displaced-an-open-wound-on-our-shared-humanity http://www.nrc.no/news/2026/dr-congo-on-worlds-most-neglected-displacement-crises-list-for-tenth-consecutive-year http://www.nrc.no/resources/reports/the-worlds-most-neglected-displacement-crises-2025 http://www.nrc.no/perspectives/2026/does-foreign-aid-really-make-a-difference http://www.nrc.no/feature/2025/a-global-displacement-crisis-as-the-world-abandons-aid   May 2026   Conflict and violence become the leading driver of internal displacements - Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre   Conflict and violence drove a record 32.3 million internal displacements in 2025, surpassing disaster displacements for the first time on record, according to the Global Report on Internal Displacement 2026 published today by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).   “Never have we recorded such a staggering number of displacements related to conflict,” said IDMC director Tracy Lucas. “As conflicts are intensifying, it is often the same people who are uprooted again and again. Yet the systems meant to protect them are being dismantled.”   The number of internal displacements includes each instance a person is forced to flee within the borders of their own country, often multiple times over the course of the year.   Meanwhile, the number of people living in internal displacement remained near record levels, at 82.2 million, the second-highest figure ever recorded.   Emerging, escalating and entrenched conflicts forced people to move repeatedly within their countries, driving a 60 per cent increase in conflict displacements compared with 2024. As instability deepened throughout the year, Iran, with 10 million internal displacements, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 9.7 million, together represented two-thirds of conflict displacements.   Disasters also continued to drive large-scale forced movement. Storms, floods and other hazards triggered 29.9 million internal displacements in 2025, a 35 per cent decrease compared with the exceptionally high levels of 2024, but still 13 per cent above the annual average of the past decade.   Countries previously less affected recorded large-scale displacements, while previous hotspots continued to be exposed, pointing to the ever-evolving patterns linked to a changing climate and need to invest in climate adaptation. Wildfires illustrated this shift by becoming an increasingly significant driver of displacement globally, accounting for more than 694,000 displacements in 2025, the hazard’s second-highest figure recorded in the past decade.   While the total number of internally displaced people fell slightly compared with 2024, it remained close to its historic peak. The decline was partly linked to reported returns, many of which took place under fragile conditions.   “Internal displacement of tens of millions is a sign of a global collapse in prevention of conflict and basic protection of civilians,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “Countless families are returning to destroyed homes and disappearing services - or cannot return at all. From DR Congo and Sudan to Iran and Lebanon, we see millions more displaced on top of the previous record numbers driven out if their homes. We cannot continue like this.”   Internal displacement remained highly concentrated: nearly half of all conflict IDPs (31.4 million) lived in just five countries, with Sudan hosting the largest number for the third consecutive year (9.1 million), followed by Colombia (7.2 m), Syria (6 m), Yemen (4.8 m) and Afghanistan (4.4 m).   In 2025, data availability declined in several contexts due to fewer assessments and reduced coverage, limiting visibility on displacement dynamics and the situation of displaced people.   “Reliable displacement data is critical for understanding where needs and risks are greatest and for ensuring that policies and resources match the scale of the challenge,” Lucas said. “With rising needs and shrinking resources, investing in national data systems and coordination remains essential.”   Global instability deepened in 2025, driving internal displacement to near-record levels worldwide. A total of 62.2 million internal displacements were reported during the year, including a record 32.3 million displacements caused by conflict and violence and 29.9 million caused by disasters.   Disaster displacements declined from the extreme highs of 2024, but risks remain severe. The 29.9 million disaster displacements recorded in 2025 were still 13 per cent above the average of the past decade, underscoring the fluctuating but persistent toll of climate and weather shocks.   Growing data gaps risk hiding the scale and impact of the crises. In 2025, IDMC observed reduced displacement data availability in 15 per cent of monitored countries, three times the share of 2024.   What is needed to reduce the number of IDPs?   Humanitarian aid alone will not suffice to reduce the scale of displacement. To help IDPs put a sustainable end to their situation, governments need to set up policies and take actions that resolve conflicts and build peace, reduce poverty and disaster risk, and enable people to return, resettle, or locally integrate in host communities. Data on displacement and solutions will continue to be key to inform such policies and actions moving forward.   * The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is the world's leading source of data and analysis on internal displacement. Since its establishment in 1998 as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), IDMC has provided high-quality data, analysis and expertise on internal displacement to inform policy and operational decisions that can improve the lives of internally displaced people (IDPs) worldwide and reduce the risk of future displacement.   http://www.internal-displacement.org/news/conflict-and-violence-become-the-leading-driver-of-internal-displacements/ http://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2026/ http://www.nrc.no/news/2026/conflict-and-violence-become-the-leading-driver-of-internal-displacements Visit the related web page
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