Calling the Government of Myanmar to sign up to the Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS)
This policy brief provides background information on the need for disaster resilient schools and calls for Myanmar to join the Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS). Despite progress on DRR in education, significant challenges remain in making schools safe from disasters and ensuring that students can continue their education following an extreme event.
The document provides the following recommendations for the Government of Myanmar:
- Sign up to the Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools and become a Safe Schools Leader;
- Ensure that policies, guidelines and legal frameworks for a comprehensive approach to school safety are in place at the national and sub-national level, which will be part of a national disaster risk reduction and education sector plans and strategies with adequate budget allocation;
- Build capacity for teachers and personnel to teach children and youth what they should do before, during and after disasters, and encourage children to participate in decision-making processes on how schools can be made safer for themselves;
- Build a national level committee and full-time focal point to lead comprehensive school safety on safe facilities, school disaster management, disaster risk reduction and resilience education;
- Collaborate with development partners and donors so that they are able to provide technical and financial support to reducing risk in the education sector.