MacArthur Foundation's investment in education: model for the future

Almost 2000 programmes worldwide submitted proposals calling for “solving society's biggest problems with bold yet meaningful, verifiable, durable and feasible solutions” with an emphasis on people with disabilities, gender equity, and communities of interest, including potential beneficiaries who might suffer harm if their problems were not addressed immediately.1 The winning proposal, from Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee, is committed to a shared belief that educating children displaced by conflict and persecution, languishing in the destroyed and refugee burdened region of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, offers the best opportunity to save and cultivate an entire generation in the Middle East. The programme intends to implement an “evidence-based, early childhood development intervention to educate and improve children's learning outcomes today and their intellectual and emotional development over the long term”.1 The MacArthur Foundation recog-nises the strength of the combination of Sesame Workshop's Sesame Seeds experience in developing local education versions of Sesame Street in Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, and South Africa for children and families that includes healthy habits and hygiene in the target group of children aged 0–8 years. The MacArthur Foundation and International Rescue Committee's more than 83-year history of helping to restore health, safety, education, and economic wellbeing in refugee communities through their global network of community workers will ensure that education is prioritised in humanitarian settings for the first time.2 MacArthur President, Julia Stasch, emphasised that the project, which is the largest ever created for children in a humanitarian setting, also addresses the longstanding problem that “less than 2% of the humanitarian budget is dedicated to education, and only a sliver of all education assistance benefits young children.”