Creating Safe Spaces And Healing Hearts For Bright Futures

Suva, Fiji, 3 April 2025 – A staggering number of Pacific children, some as young as five, experience abuse, neglect, and mental health challenges both in and out of school. Strengthening child protection mechanisms in schools will enhance capacity to manage risks to children, ensuring their safety and well-being wherever they may be affected.

Representatives from the education systems of 11 Pacific Island countries have come together for a two-day Regional Conference on Counselling and Child Protection Policy in Schools this week. They are collaborating and sharing resources to address gaps and to overcome challenges in prioritising a safe, protected school environment.

They are also focusing on creating quality inclusive and accessible child protection policies, ensuring these translate into concrete actions within school communities.

Rates of violence against children in the Pacific remain among the highest in the world and is evidenced in all the countries in the region where the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey* and other research projects have been conducted so far. In Fiji and Nauru, 81 per cent of children aged between 1-14 years have experienced violent discipline, while the number increases to 91 per cent in Samoa.

“With high rates of violence and abuse in the region, safe schools with quality counselling and strong child protection systems are critical,” said UNICEF Pacific Representative, Jonathan Veitch. “Urgent action is needed to strengthen support systems and ensure that every child receives the protection and care they deserve within the school environment.”

The 11 Pacific Island Countries participating in the conference include Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.

This regional conference is part of UNICEF's contribution to the PacREF partnership, which is funded through support from the Global Partnership for Education, Government of New Zealand, and the Asian Development Bank.

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Notes:

*Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS)

MICS is an international household survey programme developed and supported by UNICEF, designed to collect estimates of key indicators that are used to assess the situation of a country’s population, particularly the children and women.

It is the largest source of statistically sound and internationally comparable data on children worldwide and covers the largest number of Sustainable Development Goal indicators (40 out of 80) that can be sourced from household surveys.

Over the past 75 years, UNICEF has played a leading role in highlighting progress as well as inequities in the realisation of children’s rights through these MICS surveys.

Since its inception more than 400 MICS surveys have been implemented in 120 countries globally, including 8 here in the Pacific region.

About PacREF

The Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) is a regional policy guide endorsed at the Forum Education Minister Meeting (FEdMM) in 2018 for 15 Pacific Island country members. PacREF is focused, demand-responsive and built on the need to develop the region’s capacity to deliver high-quality education services. PacREF has a long-term policy agenda with specific outcomes:

• Identify shared challenges
• Develop solutions to address those challenges
• Improve student outcomes and well-being
• Build the capacity of our Pacific education institutions
• Maximise our shared resources

About UNICEF:
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.

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