“Imagine a world where the sky darkens, the winds howl with unearthly fury, the sea rises like a wrathful beast, and a child crumbles to her knees in fear. This is not a scene from a horror movie, but a grim reality of what we in the Caribbean face due to the devastating impact of climate change.”
Lyston Skerritt, an adolescent development specialist at UNICEF’s Eastern Caribbean office, recalled this vivid story that was originally shared by a youth advocate from Saint Vincent during a recent UNICEF executive board meeting. His words captured a reality that is increasingly familiar across the region.
The Caribbean, Skerritt noted, is among the most hazard-prone areas in the world. According to UNICEF, nine in ten children in the region are exposed to at least two climate and environmental shocks. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 1 500 disasters have struck in the last two decades, affecting over 190 million people. Of these, 83 per cent were climate related.
It is against this backdrop that the Caribbean School Safety Initiative (CSSI) is ramping up efforts to make schools across the region more resilient, not just to withstand natural disasters but to spur policy and systemic change that ensures safer learning environments.
An additional step was taken in that direction as regional ministers and education and youth stakeholders gathered for the fourth Caribbean Ministerial Forum on School Safety on Wednesday. The event marked a leadership handover, with St Maarten’s Education Minister Melissa D Gumbs handing over the chair to her Saint Lucian counterpart Shawn Edward after a three-year term.
“It’s about protecting lives, yes,” Edward said in his keynote address, “but also about preserving human capital, ensuring social equity, and enabling economic resilience.” He emphasised that the CSSI’s impact must be collective, echoing across the Caribbean rather than functioning in silos.
Forum organisers promised to use the two-day forum to examine progress on the region’s school safety roadmap, engage in dialogue on school-based violence, discuss the importance of resilient infrastructure and explore ways to better integrate multi-hazard early warning systems into education systems.
Edward was candid about his expectations. Too often, he said, forums conclude with optimism, only for momentum to be lost in the months that follow. “I want to make sure what’s discussed is actionable,” he told the room.
He underscored the urgency by referencing post-pandemic setbacks. “The World Bank estimates that learning losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic could cost today’s school children up to $17 trillion in lifetime earnings if collective actions aren’t taken.”
Saskia Carusi, Deputy Chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) – Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, added another layer to the conversation: infrastructure.
Regional assessments, she said, estimate annual expected losses of around US$58 billion due to infrastructural damage. Hurricane Beryl alone caused $6.7 million in damage to schools in Grenada.
Yet, she pointed out, only a small fraction of national budgets across the region address the disaster-related vulnerabilities of schools. “We also need to consider that budgets are focused on response and recovery, and less on preventative action,” Carusi explained. “Very little of the national budget, as our report shows, goes to disaster risk reduction, and from this little amount, 73 per cent goes to response and reconstruction. Only 6 per cent is invested in prevention, and 16 per cent in reducing existing risks.”
Perhaps more concerning: just 13 per cent of governments consistently allocate sufficient funds for the routine maintenance of school buildings and sites. Fewer than 12 per cent report having systemic funding in place for upgrading school infrastructure, despite 75 per cent acknowledging frequent damage from high winds and earthquakes.
It’s this funding gap, Carusi said, that the region must urgently address.
