Safe to Learn Roundtable: Preventing and responding to violence at the school level in East Asia and Pacific
Safe to Learn is pleased to announce the first Safe to Learn Regional Roundtable in East Asia and Pacific!
The first of the three-roundtable series to be held in East Asia and Pacific, this Regional Roundtable focued on Strengthening Violence Prevention and Response at the School Level (Call to Action 2).
The challenge:
Regional and global evidence shows that exposure to violence including in and around education environments, online and on the way to and from school undermines education outcomes and educational investments. Violence in any of its forms, including physical, sexual, and emotional, negatively affects students’ education, health, development, and well-being, with long-lasting adverse consequences that can be carried from generation to generation. The impact of COVID-19 on children in East Asia and Pacific has been devastating. The increased exposure to violence, including gender-based violence, and school closures have affected their well-being, learning, and mental health. As countries in East Asia and Pacific invest in recovering from the unprecedented education crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring schools and all learning environments provide the access to protective and supportive space that children need is more crucial than ever.
The solution:
The Second Regional INSPIRE Conference uniting 25 countries in November 2021 underlined the critical role of the education sector as central to ensuring all children are safe to learn in the region. In June 2022, the 2nd Asia Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC - II) Side Event, reiterated the connection between children’s learning and their mental health and protection from all forms of violence supported by a strong education sector. But how to make this happen? How can we ensure all girls, and boys, in all their diversity, are safe to learn? This action-oriented roundtable will focus on strengthening violence prevention and response at the school level, to accelerate action towards ending violence in and through school in the region.
Purpose:
The Safe to Learn Regional Roundtable aimed to incentivise action at the country level to ensure all children are safe to learn. It is designed to engage participants in practical peer-to-peer discussion with the goal to support problem-solving and to provide a space for the sharing of evidence, knowledge, and tools to support learning recovery through accelerated action to end violence in and through school. To ensure violence prevention and response at the school level, school staff, students, and management committees need to work together to provide safe and gender-transformative learning environments for all children. This policy and practice event will leverage and share countries’ actions and lessons around ‘what works’ throughout the East Asia and Pacific region to strengthen violence prevention and response at the school level as well as major challenges being faced.
Countries involved:
Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Viet Nam.
What to expect:
On the 27th of October, working in a peer-supported context, we explored effective ways to prioritise violence prevention and response in schools as an entry point to improve learning and wellbeing outcomes. During this dynamic 2-hour event saw participants:
- Share lessons around ‘what works’ throughout the East Asia and Pacific region to strengthen violence prevention and response at the school level as well as major challenges being faced.
- Problem-solve by drawing on lessons learnt while implementing policies and programmes to prevent and respond to violence at the school level
- Draw on peer-to-peer inspiration
The roundtable is designed for policymakers working in Eastern Asia and Pacific Region, including Ministries of Education staff members accountable for ensuring safe schools and staff from Ministries of Social Affairs (or equivalent) responsible for coordinating country work on violence against children. Country practitioners will join to create a rich and innovative exchange that reflects on-the-ground realities. Selected partners will also join to support national leaders.
The event is co-convened by the Safe to Learn Secretariat/End Violence Partnership, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, UNESCO Office in Bangkok Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific and the global task force of the Safe to Learn Regional Roundtables Series initiative (2022-24) – including the CSO Forum to End Violence against Children, the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO and UNICEF Headquarters - with support from the University of Edinburgh.
Learn more about the Safe to Learn Regional Roundtable series.