While UNICEF has been involved in assistance to Caribbean children since the 1950s, its first Caribbean Area Office was established in Jamaica in 1976. The Office was after transferred to Barbados in 1986. Today UNICEF has offices in Barbados (which serves the Eastern Caribbean Area), Jamaica and Guyana.
The UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area is responsible for Programmes of Cooperation with the Governments of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Virgin Islands (UK), Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
From its office in Bridgetown, Barbados, the UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area works with a range of partners in government, civil society, academia and various other sectors to create a safer and healthier environment for every child.
The Eastern Caribbean Multi Country Programme works closely with governments of Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands to help them fulfil their commitments to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child so that every child can grow and develop to reach his or her full potential.
Lifelong learning
They work with all governments and partners to ensure that by 2021 all girls and boys, especially the most disadvantaged, have every opportunity to improve their education and developmental outcomes and access equitable and inclusive learning environments across the lifecycle, including in emergencies.
This is achieved through: equitable and inclusive early childhood services especially for the most vulnerable girls and boys; promotion of positive learning and inclusive environments for all children and adolescents; and strengthening institutional capacity for planning, monitoring and disaster risk reduction, including the impact of climate change on children.
Safety and justice for children
All their efforts go towards ensuring that by 2021, national legislation is implemented to prevent, mitigate and address violence and other childhood abuses and the justice, education, public health, security and other sectors observe children’s rights to this protection.
This is done through: capacity development for national justice and systems that enable the prevention and treatment of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect; fostering political commitment to legislation and budgets for strengthening interventions that prevent and respond to violence, abuse, exploitation; and capacity of adults and children to foster positive practices and norms to protect children from violence and abuse.
Social inclusion and child rights monitoring
Their aim is that by 2021, national systems and policies are effectively addressing multiple deprivations affecting the most vulnerable boys and girls across the lifecycle, and building their resilience, through adequately funded social investments and rights-based quality social policies, and based on disaggregated data on children.
Through facilitating south-south exchanges and technical support, the programme supports efforts in strengthening national governments’ capacities to develop and deliver inclusive and equitable child-focused social protection systems supported by national development planning to reduce social vulnerabilities and strengthen the resilience against food, fuel, financial, environmental crises and other shocks and protect children from all forms of poverty and social exclusion.
Cross-cutting issues
As they focus on these areas, attention is being placed on strengthening data systems and the monitoring of child rights. Disaster risk reduction, including addressing the impacts of climate change on children, is also a part of what they do. Furthermore, they promote gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women.
