Following the successful launch in Gaza on 30 August 2016, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) launched the Agency- wide Education Management Information System (EMIS) in Jordan and Lebanon on 20 October 2016. The launches were attended by representatives of Jordan and Lebanon Field Office senior management and senior education management from UNRWA Headquarters in Amman. The development and implementation of the EMIS has been generously supported by the Government of France and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
The new Agency-wide EMIS captures information on individual children as they enter school and progress from one grade to the next and also includes information on school premises, students, class sections and staff, and linkage to other UNRWA data management systems will be a priority. The EMIS will thus enable each and every UNRWA school to better manage their schools at a strategic level and will further strengthen evidence-based policymaking. This will move the Agency closer towards an integrated, joined-up approach to data management within UNRWA.
To mark the launch of the EMIS, the UNRWA Director of Education, Dr. Caroline Pontefract, said: “The EMIS is extremely important for the Agency, as a key strand of the reform, but also a key strand of the Agency’s concerted efforts to put in place a more integrated approach to information management. Reaching this point was sometimes challenging, but with the cross-Agency collaboration of field offices, Headquarters and departments, we have succeeded in being able to launch the EMIS in the 2016/17 school year. I would like to say thank you to all those who contributed to this process and to thank in advance those who will lead on its implementation at the school level – our school principals and our teachers – and to assure them that they will not be alone and there will be someone to answer their questions and support them in these first stages of implementation and to wish them well in this exciting endeavour.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
UNRWA is confronted with an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions and financial support has been outpaced by the growth in needs. As a result, the UNRWA Programme Budget, which supports the delivery of core essential services, operates with a large shortfall. UNRWA encourages all Member States to work collectively to exert all possible efforts to fully fund the Agency’s Programme Budget. UNRWA emergency programmes and key projects, also operating with large shortfalls, are funded through separate funding portals.
UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection and microfinance.
For more information, please contact:
Christopher Gunness
Spokesperson, Director of Advocacy & Strategic Communications
Mobile:
+972 (0)54 240 2659
Office:
+972 (0)2 589 0267
c.gunness@unrwa.org
Sami Mshasha
Chief of Communications, Arabic Language Spokesperson
Mobile:
+972 (0)54 216 8295
Office:
+972 (0)2 589 0724
s.mshasha@unrwa.org