BEIRUT, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- "Solidarity and humanity" are needed to provide inclusive, quality education for children and youth caught in crises and emergencies, United Nations official Yasmine Sherif said in an interview with Xinhua here on Sunday.

"Education is the most important fundamental human right for any human being ... If you don't have education, your entire development is disrupted. You have no chance to develop cognitive, emotional and social skills," said Sherif, director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies.

The UN official was on her one-week visit to Lebanon to help the country overcome education challenges after the flow of refugees to the country, the COVID-19 outbreak and Beirut port blasts.

It is estimated that more than 75 million school-aged children and youth are in desperate need of educational support, Sherif said, adding that after the COVID-19 outbreak, the number has been rising.

Established during the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, the ECW aims to ensure all crisis-affected children and youth receive safe, free and quality education by 2030.

"When you have a humanitarian crisis, about 2.4 percent of allocation would go toward education," and "often when you have a crisis, they would say education can wait ... education was often left," Sherif said.

"But when you are a refugee in today's protracted crisis, you can be a refugee up to 20 years, if not longer," she added.

As for Lebanon, which is going through multiple crises, it has the biggest per capita refugees in the world, she said, noting that Lebanon "has received Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees, on top of their own internal crises, their Lebanese children."

"The entire Lebanon is under enormous strain ... It is a small country that is taking a huge share of international responsibility," noted the UN official.

What is missing in the country is the resources, and that is why the ECW "is trying to contribute, and contribute with some resources and also to work together to raise resources," Sherif said.

"We need solidarity and humanity in this world; the era of selfishness must come to an end, and the global family must help one another," she emphasized.

Over the past week, the ECW has launched several initiatives to support Lebanon's education sector, including one at 1.5 million U.S. dollars to rehabilitate 40 out of 200 destroyed schools in Beirut following the blasts, she said.

"We have decided to launch this mission because every child and adolescent in Lebanon is now part of the crisis whether it is a Lebanese child, Syrian or a Palestinian refugee or a host community member," Sherif told Xinhua.

Sherif noted that the ECW delivered a COVID-19 response in 33 countries including Lebanon by offering quick emergency to support water, sanitation and hygiene projects.

Since 2018, the ECW has spent around 20 million dollars in Lebanon and aims to increase this amount tenfold in the coming period, she said.

"Our plan now is to develop a multi resilience program for three years by including refugees and host communities," she said. "We want to put in seed funds and use that to mobilize more resources."

In just over three years, the ECW has mobilized over 656 million dollars and reached more than 3.6 million crisis-affected children.