Second Caribbean Ministerial Forum on School Safety

The Second Ministerial Forum on School Safety in the Caribbean is a follow-up on the Forum held in April 2017. It will respond to the need for a collaborative and coordinated approach among actors in the region’s education sector. It will contribute to CDEMA’s Regional Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy and Programming Framework 2014-2024; the Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS); Caribbean Safe School Initiative (CSSI); the Samoa Action Plan for SIDS, the Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development; the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, and to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The forum will be linked to a youth forum “My Island, my life” to identify safety issues around the 3 pillars and presenting the conclusions and recommendations to the Ministerial Forum.

Objectives:

Promote and raise awareness on the three pillars of School Safety of the Worldwide Initiative on Safe Schools (WISS) in the Caribbean.

Strengthen the effective coordination and harmonization of the school safety related processes in the Caribbean.

Monitor the progress and achievement of the implementation of the Caribbean Roadmap on school safety and related national action plans.

Ministers of Education update the Roadmap on School Safety, and commit to its implementation.

Expected outcomes:

Awareness on the three pillars of school safety and WISS raised.
Caribbean Declaration on School Safety signed by new countries.
Road Map on School Safety and national action plans updated based on updated priorities.

Progress monitoring report on the road map available.

Inputs defined for the Global Platform and Regional Platform 2020 participation of Education Ministers.

Define new chair of the Minister group and next host country.

Participants:

The Forum is primarily targeting Ministries of Education, Ministers themselves, as well as technical advisors; national disaster management agencies will also be invited if funding is secured. In addition, regional organizations that support the implementation of School Safety in the Caribbean will be invited.

Although it is noted that relevant work has been undertaken by many Caribbean countries in enhancing School Safety, the Forum will focus on CDEMA Participating States.

Other participants include intergovernmental, United Nations and regional organizations (CDEMA, OECS, UNESCO, Unicef, UNISDR, IFRC, etc.); Members of CDM Coordination and Harmonization Council sub-committee on education (ESSC): University of the West Indies; Media; National Disaster Management Agency of the host country, and agencies from the CDEMA PS (depending on funding availability); Development Banks (Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Interamerican Development Bank (IDB); the World Bank, etc.), and interested donors and countries Development Agencies.

The forum will be based on the sustainability principles with green measure to reduce the carbon foot print. Such as reduce the use of printed material, no plastic in catering service among others.