The Global Shelter Cluster (GSC) is a platform of shelter and settlement partners. Its mission is to support crisis-affected people to live in safe, dignified and appropriate shelter and settlements.

This document is a supplement to the Framework for reopening schools, originally published by UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank, WFP, and UNHCR and provides practical guidance on how to reopen schools. As more countries move in that direction, lessons are beginning to emerge on what is working.

UNHCR is mandated to provide protection, assistance and solutions for refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, stateless persons, internally displaced people and others of concern to the Office, of whom there were 86.5 million at the end of 2019.

This report predicts that unless immediate and bold action is taken by the international community to beat back the catastrophic effects of COVID-19 on refugee education, the potential of millions of young refugees living in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities will be further threatened.

Further the emergence of COVID-19 and the perceived socioeconomic hardship imposed by the measures put in place to curtail the spread of the virus, the United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) embarked on a study to understand the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 among PoCs.