"We have six international UN Volunteers and 16 national UN Volunteers, which represents 10 per cent of the overall personnel of UNICEF. They contribute significantly to achieving results for the children of Chad," says Mariana Stirbu, the Deputy Representative of UNICEF.

The Libya Education Response Monitoring Dashboard documents that some 326,000 people in Libya are in need of education support. UNICEF works to ensure access to safe, inclusive and quality education, particularly for children affected by the protracted crisis. In strengthening support to humanitarian coordination among education actors in the country, UNICEF has a special focus on engaging with community-based organizations and the Ministry of Education.

I started my assignment in UNICEF’s Social Policy Cluster, and as the pandemic hit, I took on an additional role supporting their Education Cluster in their COVID-19 response team. My work focused on compiling evidence on the severity of the pandemic’s impact on schools and learning in Indonesia’s rural and remote areas and providing feedback to inform the Ministry of Education’s COVID-19 response plan.

Forced to flee their homes due to persecution, conflict or violence, refugee children are five times more likely to be out of school than non-refugee children. Infrastructures set up to support refugee populations are often deemed to be temporary with the primary focus being to ensure that basic needs – such as food and shelter – are met

Under the theme Connecting Sahelian Youth for Peace and Prosperity, the Youth Connekt Sahel Forum attracted over 1,000 youth and other participants from across the region (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal).

Originally from Bosso, Ousmane has seen more than 8,000 people from his community flee their homes. However, he chose to stay. "Abandoning was not an option for me. I had to help my community. I had to be there to help young people overcome this situation," he says.

While based in the Sahel - the most youthful region in the world, with 64.5% of youth aged under 25 [1] - I have had the opportunity to witness how youth volunteerism can empower young people and provide them with opportunities to actively participate in local, national, regional and global development activities.

Jordan is host to around 3 million refugees. The majority (2.3 million) are Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA - alongside some 156,107 other registered persons. This includes 634,922 refugee youth.

I am beyond proud that as UN Volunteer I had an opportunity to contribute to UNESCO and joint UN in BiH response during the COVID-19, --Amila Planinčić, National UN Volunteer. In 2020, Amila assisted in conducting joint UNESCO-UNICEF Rapid Situation and Needs Assessment in Education, aimed at collecting and analyzing the immediate effects of the school closure on learning outcomes among students in Bosnia and Herzegovina.