UNICEF Regional Director, Mr. Bernt Aasen, and UNICEF representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Ms. Khin-Sandi Lwin, in a press conference with Minister of Health and Social Development, Hon. Mr. Evans McNeil Rogers, summarized a two day visit to Anguilla by the representatives. The visit lasted from October 18th to October 19th, 2015.
This was Mr. Bernt Aasen’s first visit to Anguilla as part of a regional tour to identify issues being worked on by UNICEF both on a micro and macro level. Mr Aasen was appointed UNICEF Regional Director of Latin American and Caribbean in August of 2009. He served as Director and Chief of Staff, in New York, prior to his assignment. He observed, “Two areas that are of most interest to me are education and violence. It seems that today in the Caribbean all parents want their children to go to school. It is not like 25 years ago where, in many countries, that was not the case. However, we still have issues relating to the completion of education with the right level of knowledge, as well as issues relating to the behaviour of children in school”. He also stated, “Violence in all of its dimensions is a serious problem. It is very important that there are clear protocols on how you should react in schools and communities when you come across these issues”.
Mr. Aasen highlighted the fact that these two issues seem to be a trend throughout the region and may require a larger scale of effective response. He noted that it was refreshing to see that Anguilla is progressive in addressing these issues, especially putting protocols in place as it relates to behaviour in schools and communities.
Anguilla is the most recent country to join the UNICEF Multi Country Programme in 2012. Ms. Khin-Sandi Lwin commented, “Where ever there is a committed government, things move. Anguilla came on board four years ago and things have been moving very quickly on the Child Protection front, education and now on social protection. We hope that Mr. Aasen can see that things can happen where there is commitment and funding available that can be obtained from the UK Government”. This marked Ms. Lwin’s fourth visit to Anguilla.
In his comments, Mr. Rogers welcomed the support and contribution from UNICEF. He highlighted some of the areas discussed by the parties such as the child protection legislation; child friendly schools; statistics in education and technical assistance in the developmental framework. He commented, “There are a number of things we spoke about, including funding the entire component of the programme for the digital media. We are hoping that with UNICEF, and the sort of relationship that they have with DFID, we will be able to at least access some additional funding so we will be able to provide these services for our children moving forward”. When asked about the protocols and gathering information Mr. Rogers stated, “The whole Educational Statistics Framework is what we’ve been assisted with. It is a wide scope of things and this is Ms. Lwin’s fourth occasion that she’s had connections with the ministry. The information is not gathered just on this trip alone. It is a combination of a number of things including the interaction and exchange of information”.
During the trip to Anguilla the representitives visited a number of schools across the island. Mr Aasen stated, “An issue that to me is very interesting is to hear from the teachers and headmasters in schools about the experiences they have had after banning physical punishment in the school because you [Anguilla] are ahead of many other countries in that area. It is important to give the teachers tools and train them to be able to deal with negative behaviours without physical punishment. He has certainly made a lot of progress with those discussions but we still need to support the teachers”. Mr. Aasen noted that it is very important that children learn in school that the solution to disagreements and bad behaviour is not violence. He stated, “The experience from this country is something I would like to take to other counties”.
The UNICEF Multi Country Programme is a five-year programme cycle which ends in December 2016. The next programme cycle starts in 2017. When asked about funding Ms. Lwin commented, “We have a budget that is for 12 countries and territories – eight countries and four overseas territories. We have special funding for the overseas territories from DFID at $2 million US for two and a half years”. The special funding for the overseas territories, as mentioned by Ms. Lwin, comes to an end in 2016 and it is hoped that with good progress and evidence, that funding will be extended further. When asked for a progress report Ms. Lwin said: “On the Child Protection front, with regards to the reporting protocol, The Break the Silience initiative has been rolled out very quickly as well as the strengthening of the response services for the protection of children. The government is also looking into diversion programmes for children in trouble with the law as well as the separation of children who are in need of protection and those in trouble with the law from being in the same home”. She also added that the child friendly school initiative has been rolled out to all primary schools with hopes of reaching the high school very soon.
UNICEF is also working with the West Indies Cricket board to train coaches as role models and to convey messages about self-discipline and protection of self at home and at school. Mr. Rogers added, “In terms of separating children based on their needs, though it is a costly exercise, we are fine tuning it and have named it a place of safety. We will try to roll it out and continue in that direction whereby some of our children who we try to take out of environments where they can be sexual and otherwise abused and place them in a facility of safety”.
The place of safety is being organized with some of the expertise from the Zenada Haven facility. Mr. Rogers noted that training is an important aspect of the initiative and there is a need for a cadre of trained professionals when dealing with children taken from abusive environments.
In closing Regional Director, Mr. Bernt Aasen, commented, “We hope that the Ministry of Finance will work closely with the social ministries. It is very important that there is an analysis on how funds are allocated. UNICEF have been working with governments in several coutries in the Caribbean region analyzing how funds in social sectors have been spent. We have offered this methodology and this exercise to the Chief Minister”.
