#EducationDay: Caribbean countries demonstrate commitments on the Worldwide Initiative for Safe School and enhances its implementation with concrete actions

Photo credit: UNDRR - FLICKR

Por: UNDRR – Americas and the Caribbean

PANAMÁ CITY, Panamá, January 24th, 2019 – Guyana, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda working on their commitments as part of the Caribbean Safe School Initiative (CSSI) and members of the Worldwide Initiative for School Safety (WISS) demonstrate how the CSSI implementation has increased awareness on school safety among school children, teachers and parents who are making their schools and homes more resilient.

Since the launch of the CSSI in 2017, several workshops were developed in the Caribbean through the implementation of the Safe School Programme. Participant countries of the training were invited to a call for good practices launched by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The call aims at identifying initiatives on how school children get engaged in making their school and community safer and more resilient to disasters. UNDRR is pleased to present the 4 videos commemorating the first ever Education Day by stressing the importance of a safe school to achieve the right to education for all.

Activities of disaster risk reduction implemented at school level range from practices such as preparedness plans, training in disaster emergency management for students, parents and authorities, and promotion of standards of school safety.

UNDRR launches a series of videos that systematize and demonstrate the commitment of schools and countries part of the CSSI and showcase the implementation of the three pillars of the WISS: Safe learning facilities (disaster – resilient infrastructure), school disaster management, and disaster reduction and resilience education.

Watch the videos here

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, pursues through its Target D: Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among them health and educational facilities, including through developing their resilience by 2030. The concrete actions showed in these videos demonstrate advances in the Caribbean to increase school safety and achieve target D of the Sendai Framework.

These videos were possible thanks to the financial support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the partnership with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). All videos were produced by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).