A small Caribbean nation, Antigua and Barbuda, has brought its ongoing work to build disaster risk resilience into the global spotlight after sending an official education delegate to a landmark United Nations education gathering in New York.
Chevaughn Burton, who serves as Assistant to the Focal Point for Safe Schools within Antigua and Barbuda’s Ministry of Education, represented the country at the high-profile Transforming Global Education Summit. The event convened on 1 May 2026 at UN Headquarters in Manhattan, drawing a diverse cross-section of education stakeholders from every region of the world.
The core mission of the summit was to facilitate collaborative dialogue between governments, international agencies, civil society groups and education practitioners. Attendees joined together to brainstorm and refine actionable strategies that can strengthen education systems worldwide, and boost their ability to adapt and persist amid a growing range of complex global challenges, from climate shocks to public health crises.
A central theme that shaped much of the summit’s discussion was the critical urgency of embedding disaster risk resilience into national education planning. During the proceedings, delegates highlighted Antigua and Barbuda’s sustained national efforts to expand institutional and community capacity for disaster-resilient education as a notable case study within broader regional and international capacity-building initiatives.
Following the summit, government officials emphasized that participation in this kind of global forum aligns with Antigua and Barbuda’s longstanding national commitment to protecting its education infrastructure and learning communities. By engaging with global partners and sharing local progress, the country advances its goal of building education systems that are better equipped to withstand disaster impacts, and recover more quickly when crises do occur.