The University of Massachusetts Center for International Education will assist in a five-year program with the Education Development Center, Inc. in Waltham to improve access to education in areas and countries affected by conflict. The project, an extension of the Education for All agenda established in the 1990s, is being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Center for International Education will primarily analyze and evaluate research conducted by other partners in the project to determine how educational access can be achieved in these areas.

“Our goal is to help shape the research people are doing,” said Ash Hartwell, an adjunct professor who is both the principal investigator and monitoring and evaluation specialist for the project.

The five-year project has a total budget of $8 million, with $1.6 million of the budget appropriated to the University. It will be managed by the CIE, the EDC and Jim Rogan, an independent consulter who will act as the senior coordinator. However, the project is partnered with approximately 22 USAID-funded organizations that will complete much of the research.

World Bank and UNICEF are also involved in the project, as the findings of the initiative are being shared with them through an online portal.

“The communities can solve their problems,” Julia Novrita said, a graduate student who will act as the research assistant for the project. “In most situations they can’t see they have their resources.”

Novrita, who is from Aceh, Indonesia, said her background has led her to focus on education in conflict zones.

The project will affect 18 countries, and the first countries it will focus on are Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and the region of northern Nigeria.

Providing basic education to these areas is the focus of the project, although the educational framework will include not just primary education, but also youth programs, and what Hartwell described as alternative education opportunities.

“We’ve been involved in documenting ways schools and education programs can provide alternative education, and do it quite well, at a cost that is quite affordable,” Hartwell said.

Hartwell also views these educational programs as ways through which violent conflict could be reduced in some areas, stating that the inability of children to pursue a livelihood can often lead to their involvement in gangs and militias.

The research analysis done by the CIE will focus on the ways social change occurs in areas with significant conflict, and the role that external forces can play to support this change.

“We’ve done this for years,” Hartwell said. “The center has a niche for higher education, alternative education and education in conflicted and crisis areas.”

The Center for International Education has previously been involved with programs promoting education in Uganda, South Sudan and Afghanistan, where Hartwell was involved in a project that focused on women oppressed during the Taliban’s rule.

However, Hartwell and Novrita emphasized that such programs can cause further conflict if there is abuse within schools or a sense of unequal funding.

“If there’s discrimination, this is a real source for conflict,” Hartwell said, adding that it is important to try and prevent these problems with research.

Hartwell also said that many of the problems faced by these countries in the area of education also affect the United States, and that this partnership could be seen as a partnership with people throughout the globe.

Novrita said that it is important for undergraduates to have a broad mindset concerning problems such as these in foreign countries.

“I wish UMass can stand against injustice everywhere,” she said.

Stuart Foster can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Stuart_C_Foster.