Education, No Matter What
Sharing stories that raise awareness of education during humanitarian crises.
The #EducationNoMatterWhat campaign sent filmmakers to hotspots of international crises to capture the reality of what’s happening on the ground for dozens of children, teachers, parents, and community leaders. The European Union Department for Humanitarian Aid, with the help of ICF Next, and other partners (Agence MYOP and VICE Media), created impactful films—sharing personal narratives and giving voice to the millions of children caught in humanitarian crises around the world.
Challenge
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, classrooms fell silent. Schools lost power and many were destroyed by relentless shelling. But Ukraine is far from being the only country where war has caused an interruption to children’s education. The education of nearly 222 million school-aged children worldwide has been impacted by some sort of conflict. Nearly 78 million are out of school. And the impact can be enormous and follow them throughout their lives.
For the European Union, this is unacceptable. The EU believes that education is a fundamental right and a basic need. It must not be interrupted, no matter how serious the crisis. For the EU, #EducationNoMatterWhat.
The EU invested 158M euros in 2023 to fund education projects helping more than 12 million children that pursue their education in crises zones. With this campaign, the European Union Department for Humanitarian Aid aimed to help young Europeans (Generation Z and Millennials) understand and reflect on the positive impact of EU-funded education projects. For this campaign, ICF Next and partners prepared and disseminated short documentaries to appeal to the target audience.
Solution
Education, No Matter What was our motto for this awareness campaign.
With this short, clear phrase, we emphasized that education is a fundamental right and an essential need for children. The EU believes that education is a fundamental right and must not be interrupted, no matter how serious the crisis.
ICF Next and partners developed and co-produced three short documentaries in conflict areas to tell the story of Marie from Burkina Faso, Sonia in Ukraine, and Hanan of Syria. The aim was to showcase EU-funded projects that help children go back to school.
For 16 months, the partners worked with the European Union Department for Humanitarian Aid on the production of these documentaries—plus a 12-minute film focused on the children of Ukraine by documentary filmmakers Claire Billet and Olivier Jobard from Agence MYOP.
The partners also collaborated on the films’ dissemination across online channels and in-person events in 14 EU Member States (Poland, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Austria, Portugal, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Croatia, Latvia, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, and France).
The campaign was a combination of online and in-person dissemination activities. It included influencers’ activation, media partnerships, Meta and YouTube online ads, in-person outreach activities, screening in film festivals across Europe, and avant- première screenings in schools.
In addition, we partnered with VICE World News to run a contest inviting young people to pitch their own ideas to produce a documentary on the importance of education. The winner got to produce their own film with VICE.
Results
The campaign reached 29M young Europeans with the successful combination of paid, owned, and shared outreach activities. The online ads on YouTube surpassed 402% more clicks than expected.
The campaign materials were disseminated at 15 festivals in 13 EU Member States, along with almost 300 schools across Europe. The partners produced not only the documentaries but a campaign landing page, an online toolkit for stakeholders, and an IG filter for influencers to use.
The campaign’s documentaries won three internationally recognized awards: Deauville Silver Awards, Lit Commercial Awards, and MUSE Creative Awards.
The campaign documentaries were:
A film by Claire Billet and Olivier Jobard from Agence MYOP.
3
internationally recognized awards won by the documentaries
12%
more “completed views” than expected on a skippable ad campaign on YouTube
40%+
of the young European population reached in the target countries
