Political and economic instability in Sudan is a barrier that denies more than 1.8 million primary school-aged children access to primary education. Untrained teachers, inadequate infrastructure and funding, and persistent violence in the region remain significant obstacles for traditional education systems.

Soon after the birth of her second child, a daughter she named Neema, Tabu Kalama found herself homeless and with no regular income. Ms Kalama had no option but to sleep with her newborn daughter and her 18-month old son in the meagre shelter of palm trees near the beach in Kilifi, in eastern Kenya. It was June, among the coolest and wettest months there. “I was so worried that the baby would fall sick, and there was nothing that I could do,” Kalama says.