The Caribbean Safe School Initiative (CSSI) Virtual Pre-Ministerial Forum opened on March 15, 2021 under the theme Regional Review on School Safety in the context of Systemic Risk. More than 20 countries and territories as well as multilateral agencies and other partners attended the event that addresses the Caribbean鈥檚 response to economic, human, natural and health crisis in the education sector.
The organizers of the 10-day event include the Ministries of Education of St. Maarten and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), UNESCO, ISRAAID, and UNICEF.
Keynote speaker Ra煤l Salazar, Chief of UNDRR Regional Office for the Americas and Caribbean highlighted that the COVID 19 pandemic has demonstrated the systemic nature of risk generated by the extreme high levels of interconnectivity in our world today. Mr. Salazar pointed out that the education system is susceptible due to the physical condition of their infrastructure and to the social, economic and environmental factors that affect the region. A local crisis can quickly cascade across sectors and countries, leaving devastating impacts. Prolonged interruption of education brings greater risk. He therefore championed the call for a systemic approach to better understand the complexity of challenges that the education sector faces.
This multi stakeholder Virtual Forum will therefore promote the sharing of lessons learnt from COVID-19, register improvements for existing policies and tools and lobby for the support of more countries in signing the Antigua & Barbuda Declaration on the Caribbean School Safety Framework at the third Ministerial Forum. It also sets the agenda for the Third CSSI Ministerial Forum to be held in St. Maarten in 2022. The CSSI is directly linked to the international agreements of the Agenda 2030, notably the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
While education systems in the Region continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, executive director (ag.) of CDEMA, Elizabeth Riley charged the High-level delegations to recalibrate based on lessons learnt. She implored, 鈥渨e are more successful when we work together鈥ign the Declaration, stake your claim in the CSSI, in many ways our future depends on it. She added that the CSSI had only come this far because of strong political leadership and support and a clear pathway for achieving an agreed vision. 鈥淲hile in the midst of a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the existential threat of climate change persists, there is an ongoing effusive disruption of Mt Soufriere in St. Vincent & the Grenadines and early forecasts reveal that we might be in for another active Atlantic Hurricane Season. If ever there was a moment in time which reinforces that we live with systemic risk, it is now.鈥�
Since 2017 CDEMA has mobilized approximately US $2.5 million through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Government of Norway, UNICEF and USAID. Its Model Safe School Programme (MSSP) has also delivered standardized school safety assessment tools including a mobile application. Among Riley鈥檚 key recommendations are for ministers to anchor schools鈥� resilience policies through a fully integrated school safety program in Education Ministries, budgeting for this and leveraging external funding such as the Green Climate Fund and the explicit inclusion of digital solutions in school safety programs.听
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Ministers of Education throughout the Caribbean Region and representatives of donor agencies convene at the Opening Session of the Review on School Safety in the Context of Systemic Risk: The Virtual Pre-Ministerial Forum being held during March 15-26, 2021
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