“All we lost because of the drought”: Exploring the Impact of Climate Displacement on Education in Ethiopia’s Somali Region

Abstract

Climate change is contributing to unprecedented human displacement — with over 31 million school-aged children displaced by the climate crises in the past decade alone. This thesis explores the critical yet understudied nexus between climate displacement and education with a case study from Ethiopia's Somali Region. Through interviews with internally displaced persons and experts within the humanitarian sector in Ethiopia, it aims to understand how climate displacement affects access to education. What barriers do drought-induced internally displaced people face in accessing education? How does drought displacement affect attitudes to education within this group? Moreover, the thesis adds to the debate on the legal protection gap faced by cross-border climate displaced people, highlighting how our existing frameworks limit access to education for those who cross international borders for climate-related reasons and what this landscape looks like in the Somali Region.