UNICEF Western and Central African Regional Office Safe School Consultancy, October 2017 to January 2018
Lidra Remacka, Sustainability Frontiers, Canada, is undertaking a three-month field consultancy in Borno and Yobe states in Nigeria as part of a UNICEF Western and Central African Regional Office (WCARO) initiative to support and strengthen access to basic education and child protection in emergencies for conflict affected children in the Lake Chad Basin (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria). With European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations’ (ECHO) funding, WCARO is leading a Children of Peace project as part of its ‘Safe School’ strategy. The main objectives of the consultancy assignment are:
- To develop guidelines for combining and jointly using psychosocial support (PSS) and conflict disaster risk reduction (CDRR) learning activities
- To provide technical assistance to WCARO country offices on promoting a safe and protective learning environment through the infusion of PSS and CDRR into the national curriculum using teacher training and in-classroom coaching
- To provide in-classroom coaching and other technical support to train school principals and teachers in building collaborative implementation of school-based and community-based child protection mechanisms to identify hazards and risks affecting children and their teachers and to identify best means of addressing those risks through quality school emergency preparedness and response plans (SEPRPs).
Each school is to develop its own SEPRP.
Initial activity will involve refresher teacher training on PSS and CDRR in Maiduguri, capital of Borno and Yobe city in Nigeria. Meanwhile, an extensive consultative process involving teacher training institutions and the University of Maiduguri will work alongside and support the field consultancy. The second part of the mission will involve in-classroom coaching, supporting 33 schools targeted by the ECHO Children of Peace project.
After receiving PSS and CDRR training, teachers will be requested by their regional education authority to develop SEPRPs for their schools. The promotion of integrated PSS and CDRR education will continue through the remainder of 2017, culminating in the submission of a final report to UNICEF by January 2018.
For Lidra’s earlier WCARO consultancy work click here.