ASEAN Safe School Initiative (ASSI) Open Session of the 21st Meeting of the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) Chiangmai, Thailand, 10 January 2013

10 Governments of ASEAN Countries work together to make sure children in schools are safe from disasters? One collaboration One regional guideline One tool to assess school safety One vision to build models of Safe Schools

Children are at risk in schools schools building collapsed, damaged, or unroofed due to disasters 11,140 ( )

Context in South East Asia Over the last decade Asia has suffered the greatest number of natural disasters with 80% of the global death toll More than 100 millions of children in ASEAN countries are at risks in schools that are prone to high earthquake and hundreds of millions more face regular flood, landslide, extreme wind, and fire hazards Localized disasters were found to reduce school enrolment in Bolivia, Indonesia, Nepal and Viet Nam A disaster can obliterate hard-won educational achievements and slow the development of an education sector ASEAN countries faces similar characteristics of hazards and also share and promotes common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields

Safe School in ASEAN AADMER Work Program includes: Integrating DRR in School Curriculum and Disaster Safety of Educational Facilities. ASEAN Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Education (2011) ASEAN Guideline on Mainstreaming DRR in the school curriculum Many ASEAN Member States have launched the Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign that proceeded with their own initiatives on safe schools

ASEAN Safe School Initiative Supporting the implementation of AADMER Work Programme , mainly on Disaster Safety of Educational Initiatives Lead Shepherd: Viet Nam Documentation of current practices and creation of Safe School models in Member States Guideline to conduct vulnerability assessment of schools Developing compendium of existing guidelines on safe school Building capacity of the school community on Safe School

Working with ASEAN Secretariat – Recruitment of Safe School Advisor to support ASEAN Secretariat – Design phase until April 2013 – Launching of full implementation plan by ACDM during the next COP in April 2013 Consortium approach by the APG ASEAN Safe School Initiative How?

ASEAN Safe School Initiative What has been done: Discussions with ASEAN Secretariat in preparing for the proposal of ASEAN Safe School Initiative starting since July 2012 Consultations with the APG members Proposal has been submitted by ASEAN Secretariat for approval Presentation at the 1st ACDM Working Group on Prevention and Mitigation meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on 10 October 2012 Funding support from Ausaid for the design phase Discussions with key stakeholders, including Unicef, UNISDR and USAID.

ASEAN Safe School Initiative Preparatory Phase 6 months Nov‘12Apr ‘13 Recruitment of consultant for developing full implementation plan Country Consultation Workshop in 8 Member States Key Informant Interviews with relevant stakeholders Regional Consultation Workshop Full implementation plan ready to be launched

ASEAN Safe School Initiative Preparatory Phase 6 months Nov‘12Apr ‘13 Recruitment of consultant for developing full implementation plan (Dec 2012) Country Consultation Workshop in 8 Member States (Jan – March) Key Informant Interviews with relevant stakeholders (Jan – March) Regional Consultation Workshop (March 2013) Full implementation plan ready to be launched

Our initial idea for the outcomes... A regional guideline of existing national guidelines, standards, and indicators on Safe Schools Children of ASEAN Countries are engaged and provides their views and opinions on Safe Schools Vulnerability Assessment Tools to assess school safety applicable in the ASEAN region are developed and tested in ASEAN countries Build capacity of relevant stakeholders on Safe Schools Actual models of Safe Schools in a number of ASEAN Countries with different designs and approaches Increased public awareness that Safe Schools is a collective responsibility

Questions?