St. Kitts and Nevis received positive news from UNESCO that promotes the government’s sustainable development agenda.
Through the federation’s envoy to the agency, the St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission for UNESCO was informed that three (3) grants had been awarded to the Federation to receive technical and financial support in the fields of education, biodiversity and gender policy implementation, all aimed at strengthening institutional capacity.
Approximately US$60,000 will be forthcoming from UNESCO under its Participation Programme to enable the Federation to implement the final stages of the national accreditation of qualifications scheme, roll out the national gender policy framework and elaborate a plan for sensitisation towards the transformation of the St. Mary’s Biosphere Reserve into a plastic-free zone.
Secretary General Ms. Dorothy Warner noted: A major part of this funding is dedicated to education policy, covering the professionalising of the national teaching force; integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) into the national curriculum and strengthening the Federation’s National Accreditation Framework. We are very happy to benefit from UNESCO’s unique expertise in these fields.”
The Hon. Minister with responsibility for UNESCO matters, Dr. Geoffrey Hanley described the UNESCO decision to contribute to the Federation’s sustainability goals with tangible expertise in education, gender and biodiversity expertise as “Excellent”.
Two UNESCO-appointed experts will return to St. Kitts and Nevis early next year to finalize the implementation of the Federation’s National Accreditation Framework designed to ensure a rigorous system for reviewing and approving higher-level qualifications in the post-secondary sector. This will include a draft legislative framework with policies and procedures to be followed by the reformed Accreditation Board, covering accreditation policies, registration and accreditation. The measures are designed to create education qualifications that singularly match the Federation’s labour needs.
Parallel to this recent funding decision, St. Kitts and Nevis is pursuing a range of other capacity-building projects with UNESCO input. These include:
- The completion of the 1st phase of a National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) campaign to identify and preserve local customs and traditions, cumulating in the first-ever national ICH framework to be presented to cabinet by the end of 2024.
- The pursuit of a water data-gathering exercise for technical and policy analysis to influence decision-making related to water use in St. Kitts and Nevis
- Preparation of a UNESCO-St. Kitts and Nevis framework to raise funding to implement a scaling-up of investments in the St. Mary’s Biosphere Reserve aimed at developing the cultivation, preservation and monetization of biodiversity-led sustainable agriculture processes in the reserve, including greenhouse cultivation.
- Continuing efforts in St. Kitts and Nevis via the National Sport Council to make significant progress towards achieving full compliance with the Anti-doping in Sport standards (now at 73.8%).
H.E. David Doyle, the Federation’s Ambassador to UNESCO works closely with the National Commission in articulating the Federation’s sustainability needs at UNESCO HQ level. He was equally delighted with the recent UNESCO funding decision and commented, “The targeted and focused nature of high-level technical expertise negotiated with UNESCO is now bearing fruit, benefiting the government ministries, professions, and the wider stakeholder communities, including youth. A significant contributing factor is the solid alignment between the ministries, the SKN National Commission and the Federation’s permanent Delegation to UNESCO.”
