Remarks by Resident Coordinator on SALIENT's National Seminar Tackling the Presence of Firearms in Schools

Acknowledgements

• Thank you Chair - Dr. Kasan Troupe, Acting Chief Education Officer, Ministry of Education and Youth

• The Honourable Fayval Williams, Minister of Education and Youth
• Delores Wade Director at the Planning Institute of Jamaica and other representatives from the Government of Jamaica.
• Soledad Urruela, Director UNLIREC and other members of the UNLIREC team and the participating UN Agencies in the SALIENT project
• Representatives from the Jamaica Constabulary Force
• Members of the Press
• Colleagues
• Good day to you all.

The Background and Context 

In 2021, our UN Country Team agreed to a new Cooperation Framework with Jamaica. Within this framework, the UN committed to maximizing its support to the Priority Area of Peace, Safety, Justice, and the Rule of Law.

To address this Priority Area, the UN is working, first - to strengthen systems and institutions for the promotion of rule of law, justice, safety and security. Second, we are working with people, schools and communities to foster a culture of peace, as well as to address the often intersecting socioeconomic and environmental conditions that make people and societies vulnerable to violence and crime.

Honourable Minister, in 2021, we made this commitment and through programmes like SALIENT the UN is delivering on this promise to Jamaica to reduce small arms and light weapons, tackle root causes and effects of violence, and overall address the challenges that hinder the realization of Vision 2030.

Delivering as One

The SALIENT Programme is an initiative of which we are proud. In fact, it represents a budding best practice in UN resident-and-nonresident coordination where we have leveraged and convened UN expertise from within and off the island in order to support Jamaica in achieving and sustaining its own development priorities.

Permit me to use this forum to recognize the UN Agencies who are working directly with the  Government to robustly operationalize SALIENT in Jamaica – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA), The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC).

When SALIENT comes to an end, this year, we will ensure to have fully met all the programme’s objectives. To this end, we have taken steps to extend the programme a few months.

Support to the Ministry of Education and Youth

The objectives of the Seminar today acknowledge that the scourge of violence in our society has spilt over into our schools. Honourable Minister, during your Sectoral Debate this month, we heard and welcomed your approaches to addressing school violence. There have been increased media reports across the region of the presence and use of firearms in schools. Jamaica is not alone in this challenge.

Indeed, youth are one of the largest populations affected by crime and violence, both as victims and perpetrators. Males, between the ages of 16-24 are disproportionally impacted by violent crimes. ​ In terms of youth violence, dominant negative narratives tend to portray youth as violent or troublemakers, without recognizing the myriad of challenges they face. Nevertheless, when youth are provided with the opportunities, tools and skills to build on their resilience constructively, they can become agents of positive change in their schools and wider communities. Addressing the prevalence and impact of all forms of violence through a holistic youth-centred approach while fostering peacebuilding, therefore, is imperative.

Minister Williams, when we launched SALIENT last year, we highlighted our support to Deputy Prime Minister Chang and I echo that support to you today. The UN will work alongside you to share, learn and generate solutions – within the scope of SALIENT and beyond.

Call to Action

Therefore, as I welcome you all today, I encourage you to take full advantage of today’s Seminar so we can better equip ourselves to tackle the menace of small arms in our society and by extension secure our children and schools from their impacts.

Let us commit to full engagement in today’s activity. To turn a phrase from the Honorable Bob Marley, “The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should we?”

Jamaica recognizes that the issue of violence in schools requires a multi-stakeholder and all-of-society approach, and the UN welcomes this opportunity to play our role as your partner.

Welcome and thank you.

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