The Hemispheric Plan For Reducing The Education Sector’s Vulnerability To Disasters EDUPLANhemisférico

Promoted by the Unit for Sustainable Development
and Environment, Organization of American States (OAS)

What is EDUPLAN?

It is the Inter-American strategy for reducing the vulnerability of the education sector to disasters of all kinds through the constitution of a group of public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations, national and international agencies, and private individuals dedicated to the formal adoption by the OAS member states of the Action Plan for Reducing the Vulnerability of the Education Sector to Disasters, an initiative developed in a host of international forums.

EDUPLAN focuses on the following activities:

1. Reinforcing a vision of integrated, complementary actions to ensure the success of national, regional and international initiatives for reducing the vulnerability of the education sector.
2. Strengthening and complementing existing actions with new ones in order to channel political, economic and institutional support towards improving the safety and general quality of the hemispheric education sector.
3. Improving and protecting the physical infrastructure of the education sector by standardizing design, construction and maintenance criteria and developing new technologies to guarantee the physical integrity of the education community in the Americas.
4. Training and educating the general public to secure its direct participation in emergency preparedness and response activities to strengthen communities at risk and mitigate the impact of natural disasters on the school population and infrastructure.
5. Optimizing scientific and technological exchanges to obtain economies of scale and increase the potential benefits by taking greater advantage of current advances and the experiences of our communities, institutions and experts.
   Our task as a hemispheric macro-system began on 1 January 2000, at the same time as the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR). We currently have technical secretariats in the United States, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, and Venezuela.

In addition to the Technical Secretariat for General Coordination, which is based in Peru, there is a special secretariat in Guatemala that has been entrusted with organizing the Third Hemispheric Conference on Reducing the Vulnerability of the Education Sector, which will be held in 2002.

The Special Secretariat on Virtual Communications is ECIE, a U.S.-registered NGO with considerable experience in information technology, virtual conferences, and so on. You may find more information about this and other subjects on our Web site.
We would like to encourage you to join our electronic mailing list and turn it into a dynamic, integrative forum that brings together a wide variety of capabilities and efforts to reduce the vulnerability of the education sector to disasters throughout our Continent. Your participation will be welcome.

Jesús Ángel Chávez Machado
EDUPLANhemisférico
eduplan@ecie.org

OAS informs about EDUPLANhemisférico

Education and its influence on the behavior of social agents is a determining factor in the creation of the conditions that generate vulnerability to natural disasters—or their reduction. It must therefore be a key component of disaster prevention.

In 1992, the Organization of American States (OAS) launched the design and implementation of a plan of action for reducing the consequences of natural disasters on the education sector across the Americas. This broad process of consultation and consensus building, supported by international, regional and national bodies, culminated in the adoption of the EDUPLANhemisférico, the Hemispheric Action Plan For Vulnerability Reduction In The Education Sector To Socio-Natural Disasters. It was adopted during the first Hemispheric Conference for the Mitigation of Socio-Natural Disasters in the Education Sector.

EDUPLAN is currently being promoted among various government and non-governmental institutions to build up the political, technical and financial support required for the execution of programs focusing on the three key thematic areas of the Plan:

1. Physical Infrastructure. Developing safe education facilities that are resistant to natural disasters. This component involves strategies such as improved planning, design, construction, retrofitting, repair, and maintenance of such facilities to reduce their vulnerability and improve their safety.
2. Citizen Participation. Training and educating the general public to secure its direct participation in emergency preparedness and response in order to mitigate the impact of natural disasters on the school population and infrastructure.
3. Academic Aspects. Improving the primary, secondary and university curricula in order to prepare individuals and groups from various disciplines to work in disaster reduction.

EDUPLAN carries out local, national and regional activities with the support of several Technical Secretariats. These Technical Secretariats involve a wide variety of agencies, organizations and educators who have volunteered to reduce the vulnerability of the schools they work in. The Technical Secretariats work directly with institutions operating in the community and educational sectors. Their activities are primarily local in scope, but added up they can have an impact at the national, regional and hemispheric levels. Technical Secretariats strive to develop programs, encourage citizen participation, and forge links between education professionals and experts in the field of infrastructure.

The Technical Secretariats are emerging throughout the hemisphere, within agencies, organizations, and institutions willing to commit their time, staff and (when available) funds to support these mitigation efforts. By early 2001, eight Technical Secretariats had been established. Peru’s National University at Trujillo operates as the Technical Secretariat for the General Coordination of EDUPLAN in Latin America and the Caribbean, while the Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment (USDE) of the Organization of American States functions as the Advisory Committee.

At present, EDUPLAN is encouraging other institutions of the public and private sectors interested in reducing the vulnerability of the education sector to act as Technical Secretariats. Of special interest are community NGO networks, professional guilds, technical associations and institutions working in the field of development assistance.

For more information about EDUPLANhemisférico,
please visit the Web site of the Natural Hazards Project of the OAS Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment (USDE), http://www.oas.org/nhp, or write to natural-hazards-project@oas.org. For additional information or to contact the Technical Secretariats, please write to EDUPLAN’s electronic mailing list at the following address: EDUPLAN@listas.rcp.net.pe