ASEAN Safe Schools Initiative

ASSI is implemented by ASEAN Secretariat in close cooperation with civil society organisations (namely Plan International, World Vision, Save the Children, and MERCY Malaysia) and the AADMER Partnership Group and is supported by European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) and Australian Aid. The ASEAN Safe Schools Initiative contains 3 resources, individual descriptions follow below:

ASEAN Common Framework on School Safety

80% of disaster deaths happen in Asia and children are disproportionally affected by disasters. Nine of 10 children in Southeast Asia spend half of their waking hours in school and oftentimes, schools facilities are not constructed to be disaster resilient. ASEAN Safe Schools Initiative, an ASEAN government-led safe school initiative, developed the ASEAN Common Framework on School Safety (ACFCSS), a SEA regional framework to enhance school safety against the adverse impacts of natural and man-made hazards for ASEAN nations. This operationalization of this framework in 10 ASEAN nations is aimed to create a safe and secure learning environment for children. This framework comes with a roll-out manual for its operationalization.

School Disaster Risks Management Guidelines

The guidance notes on safer school construction provide a set of suggested steps to consider when planning and implementing the construction, retrofitting and/or repair of safer schools along with key design and construction principles to consider for greater resilience to natural disasters. The tool also contains links to numerous supporting documents and resources. The tool provides step-by-step guidance to ensure the construction/rehabilitation of safer, more resilient schools.

ASEAN Safe Schools Initiative: A Compilation of Case Studies

“I am responsible for telling other students to watch their steps when crossing the bridge so they will not slip and fall into the water”, a student in a Cambodian floating school said. This is one of the testimonials showing a student’s improved understanding of hazards and disaster risks is something that we all can learn from students in this book. This book is a compilation of six ASEAN country case studies that discuss ASSI’s good practices and key learnings in implementing comprehensive school safety framework (CSSF). This compiles such stories in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand.