ASEAN safe school conference report
By: Meimei Leung
The first ASEAN Regional Conference on School Safety was held on 16-17 December 2015 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This event was led by the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management and the Senior Officials Meeting for Education, in collaboration with the ASEAN Safe Schools Initiative (ASSI) and the ASEAN Secretariat.
This two-day regional conference which took place at the same time as the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management (AMMDM), aims to gather major actors and stakeholders on school safety in the ASEAN region to exchange knowledge on school safety programming by showcasing good practices, strategies, as well as tools and resources.
ASSI’s aim is to ensure that children in ASEAN are safe and secure in school, protected from the impacts of all types of hazards and disasters and to ensure that education continues even when there is a disaster. The event also saw the launch of the ASEAN Common Framework for Comprehensive School Safety as a strategy for school safety implementation in the region.
World Vision sent 16 participants from 7 national offices. There were technical representatives from advocacy, education, external engagement and HEA. Two pre-conference events were moderated by World Vision’s own Christy Davis and Meimei Leung.
The launch of the World Vision publication: Comprehensive Safe School Good Practices was greeted with enthusiasm. This book documents each country government’s work and policies on school safety and also includes NGO’s response to this topic. World Vision is collaborating with ASSI Program Management Team to include their case studies in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Laos.
The participant consensus is that ASSI should include an advocacy component, that safe school must become a multiple sector approach.
The participant consensus is that ASSI should include an advocacy component, that safe school must become a multiple sector approach; and that a form of knowledge management, a repository for sharing of resources should be established.
While nothing new was committed to, many government delegates pledged to continue the good start they have done for Safe School Initiatives. The ASEAN Safe School initiative also aims to set an example for other non-ASEAN countries.
For more info, please go to:
http://www.wvi.org/cambodia/publication/comprehensive-school-safety-practices-asia