This Education Sector Analysis is conducted in the context of potential stability resulting in the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan; and the unforeseen impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis evaluates both the accomplishments and the challenges within the education sector in South Sudan,…

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community committed to address a great number of challenges. Among those emphasised by the SDGs, some are highly relevant for indigenous groups. Education, poverty, access to justice and climate change are only a few of the issues affecting indigenous people's…

In this address, I ask: What do we bring as anthropologists and educators to our work? Two projects frame my arguments: my work with teachers in Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami and my term on a school board in an impoverished U.S. city. I conclude that at a time when challenges are simultaneously local and global, immediate and long term,…

This article is based on a keynote presentation delivered at the Alabama Poverty Project Lifetime of Learning Summit at the University of Montevallo on September 30, 2011. Conference organizers asked for the perspective of a survivor of a significant natural disaster, for information regarding Louisiana's recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita…

In July of 2018, the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans released a comprehensive, summative longitudinal report on the effects on student outcomes of the package of reforms implemented in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005. This policy brief reviews the findings of this report by Douglas Harris and Matthew Larsen,…

Despite the massive education sector of the country, the Philippines--being located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the typhoon belt--is home to a number of natural instabilities that frequently disrupt the school calendar. Conflict areas in selected parts of the island of Mindanao and the remote geographic features of the country also pose…

An estimated 200 million children worldwide experience various forms of disability. This critical review extrapolates from existing literature in 2 distinct areas of scholarship: one on individuals with disabilities in disaster, and the other on children in disaster. The extant literature suggests that various factors may contribute to the…

Smoke from massive wildfires blanketed Indonesia in late 1997. This paper examines the impact that this air pollution (particulate matter) had on fetal, infant, and child mortality. Exploiting the sharp timing and spatial patterns of the pollution and inferring deaths from "missing children" in the 2000 Indonesian Census, I find that the…

In Haiti, education both promotes and ameliorates conflict. This report describes the education sector before the 2010 earthquake, then presents recommendations on how Haiti and the international community can increase access to and the quality of Haitian schools and modernize the organization and function of the national education sector.…

Long before Katrina, the South functioned in the social imaginary to contain racism and poverty, and the Mason-Dixon acts then in the national imagination as a buffer to safeguard the nation from the taint of such undemocratic realities. More and more, in many countries of America, a system known as "neoliberalism" prevails; based on a…

Hurricane Katrina resulted in a disaster of proportions not previously known in the United States. The traumatic experiences of children and families during Hurricane Katrina, the flooding that resulted from the breach of the levees, the evacuation, and the aftermath are unprecedented. In responding to the enormous mental health needs of children…

Long before the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina or the chaos of evacuation, New Orleans' social infrastructure was failing. News coverage of the overcrowded Superdome and the city's flooded streets exposed the poverty and vulnerability of many residents, especially African Americans. As New Orleans begins to rebuild, can the city avoid the mistakes…