In April 2017, the first Caribbean Safe School Ministerial Forum was held in Antigua and Barbuda. During this event, the Caribbean Declaration and the Road Map on School Safety were adopted. The second Ministerial Forum on School Safety in the Caribbean is therefore a follow-up, which will respond to the need for a more collaborative and coordinated approach among actors in the region’s education sector. The lesson learnt from the 2017 Hurricane season will feed into a revised version of the Road Map for School Safety. One of the outcomes of the forum will be to increase the number of countries joining the Caribbean Safe School Initiative.
The forum will particularly contribute to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Regional Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy and Programming Framework 2014-2024; the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS); Caribbean Safe School Initiative; 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.
This second forum will be also linked to a Youth Forum “My Island, My Life” that will identify safety issues around the three pillars of the Comprehensive School Safety Framework: safe learning facilities (disaster-resilient infrastructure), school disaster management; and, disaster risk reduction and resilience education. The conclusions and recommendations of the Youth Forum will be presented during the Ministerial Forum.