The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) has partnered with Georgia State University (GSU) to provide a structured collaboration platform, called the Caribbean Education Working Group, which aims to support education efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and foster long-term resilience across the region. In hearing from multilateral organizations, the private sector, think tanks, nonprofits, and on-the-ground community leaders and educators, we understand that the pandemic has underscored the urgency of designing a coordinated response to address interrelated themes of education, climate, health, and the economy, and that the response effort must consider the systemic inequities students face at home and at school. On March 24, 2021, CGI and the Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diapora convened to offer a space for non-traditional dialogues that took on-the-ground realities into account and present a call to action for partners to work together to promote a data-driven and ground-up approach to education delivery.
Opening remarks were shared by Dillon Alleyne, Deputy Director, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The webinar featured a panel discussion spotlighting educators Virginia Asin-Oostburg, Public Health Practitioner and Mr. Michael Augustine, Educator, Ministry of Education Dominica. There was also a panel discussion issuing a call to action with Nikima Royer, Chief Executive Officer, Digicel Dominica; Tiffany Bain-Saunders, Lead of ORG Education, The Organization for Responsible Governance Bahamas; and Gertrude Marilyn Tinker Sachs, Chair of Department of Middle and Secondary Education, Georgia State University.