Hurricane Maria highlighted the need to strengthen national capacities to develop and implement Education in Emergencies strategies to improve preparedness and ensure children’s right to continued education in times of crisis.

Under the leadership of the Chief Education Officer, IsraAID, UNDP,  UNICEF and ECHO (European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office) collaborated to support the key actors in the Ministry of Education to design and test an Education in Emergencies contingency plan, including clear procedures and actions based on the principle of guaranteeing the Right to Education for all children and adolescents in Dominica.

This process included:

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1. Desk review of all essential national, regional and international documents.

2. Participatory training workshop on Education in Emergencies. The topics discussed include: INEE minimum standards, key interventions, humanitarian architecture – coordination mechanisms, linkages between education and other sectors, and an introduction to contingency planning.

IsraAID

3. Development of standard, inclusive operating procedures on what to do before, during and after an emergency, referring to UNDP, INEE, CDEMA, OECS, UNESCO and UNICEF standards and resources on the comprehensive safe school program framework.

4. Establishment of the Emergency Management Committee of the Education Division. Training sessions were facilitated by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Planning, the Office of Disaster Management, UNICEF, IOM and IsraAID.

Twenty-eight key actors within the education ministry and thirteen other key stakeholders were part of the training workshop and contributed to a draft contingency plan exercise. The process also included youth representatives, as the need for young people’s voices to be heard in decision-making and policy is highly recommended by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Education in Emergencies Contingency Plan addresses key issues within all three pillars under the Comprehensive Safe School Framework.

Source Material: GADRRRES (Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience in the
Education Sector)

7uNewsletterhttps://mailchi.mp/faf5c90d8d6f/gadrrres-newsletter-december-2019?e=%5bUNIQID%5d