Teachers, education officials and disaster-management specialists have gathered in Guinea for a three-day national workshop on integrating disaster risk reduction into the country’s education system, the ECOWAS Commission has announced.
The workshop is organised by the ECOWAS Directorate of Humanitarian and Social Affairs with Guinea’s National Agency for the Management of Humanitarian Emergencies and Disasters (ANGUCH) and national education authorities.
It falls under the project “Strengthening ECOWAS Disaster Risk Management Capacities,” financed by the European Union through the African Union Commission under the 11th European Development Fund Intra-ACP Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Programme.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on behalf of the Commissioner for Human Development and Social Affairs, Professor Nassirou Bako-Arifari, the Acting ECOWAS Resident Representative in Guinea, Mr. Salifu Iliasu, reaffirmed the bloc’s commitment to helping Member States embed risk awareness, prevention and preparedness in education.
The message described schools as platforms for protecting children and nurturing a culture of safety, not only places of learning, and drew particular attention to inclusive measures for girls, younger learners and children with disabilities.
Guinea’s education authorities welcomed the initiative as a timely contribution to protecting learners, educators and school infrastructure from floods and other emergencies.
In officially opening the workshop, the Director General of ANGUCH, Mr. Lancei Touré, set out the practical consequences disasters have for school continuity and called for stronger coordination, prevention and school-level emergency planning.
Across the three days, participants will examine school safety, hazard awareness, early warning, emergency preparedness, teacher training and the integration of disaster risk reduction into policies and curricula, according to Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed, Acting Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs.
Technical sessions and practical exchanges are expected to produce recommendations on locally relevant teaching materials, safer school procedures and clearer institutional follow-up.
The initiative supports the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 and regional resilience priorities.
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