St. Kitts - Nevis National Commission for Unesco

14/08/2026

Over July, Ambassador David Doyle, Permanent Delegate of St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis to UNESCO paid a courtesy visit on Taiwan’s representative to France, H.E. Hao Pei-chih, who took office in September 2024 as the first woman in the role. She heads the Taipei Representative Office in France.

14/08/2026

All are Invited!

01/08/2026

Happy Emancipation Day 2026!

From the St. Kitts and Nevis National Committee for the UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project

Today, as we raise our voices in remembrance and in freedom, we do not simply mark a date on the calendar.

We commemorate Emancipation — the moment our ancestors broke the chains of bo***ge, and reclaimed their humanity, their dignity, and their right to determine their own destiny.

Emancipation Day is not only about looking back. It is about looking forward with the same courage, resilience, and vision that carried our foreparents from the hold of the slave ship, to the cane field, to the village, to the ballot box, and to nationhood.

This year, our celebration is charged with new meaning. Across the Atlantic and across our Caribbean Sea, the call for Reparatory Justice is no longer a whisper. It is a demand, rooted in truth, and gaining ground.

We salute the bold leadership of Ghana, which championed the UN Resolution declaring chattel slavery and the trans-Atlantic trade in African peoples, the gravest crime known to humanity. We highly applaud Ghana's ongoing engagements such as hosting the recent high-level conference on reparations and opening its doors, its archives, and its heart to the descendants of Africa — declaring that the rupture of the Transatlantic Slave Trade must be healed through reconnection, responsibility, and repair.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with CARICOM and the CARICOM Reparations Commission, which has placed on the table of the world a revised ten-point plan for justice: for education, for health, for cultural institutions, for debt cancellation, and for the recognition that the wealth of Europe and the Americas was built on the uncompensated labor and suffering of our ancestors.

These are not acts of bitterness. They are acts of healing. They are preparation for a future where justice is the foundation, not an afterthought.

And in this global movement, the SKN National Committee for the UNESCO ROEP Project firmly believes that UNESCO has a vital role to play.

Through the UNESCO International Scientific Routes of Enslaved People's Project we are charged to remember — not to reopen wounds, but to transform memory into power.

UNESCO gives us the framework to map the routes of enslavement, yes — but also the routes of resistance, of marronage, of music, of faith, of language, and of survival that connect Basseterre to Accra, to Kingston, to Brasilia, to New Orleans.

This is the work of
Pan-Africanism in the 21st century. Not just a political idea, but a cultural and spiritual reality. One people, scattered by force, now choosing to find each other again through truth, through education, and through solidarity.

To our youth: know that you are the descendants of kings, queens, warriors, and builders. The same spirit that refused to be broken on the Middle Passage lives in you today.

To our nation: let us continue to teach this history in our schools, preserve it in our museums and heritage sites, and live it in how we treat each other — with equity, with respect, and with pride.

St. Kitts and Nevis, is a small island. But our story is a big one. And through UNESCO, through CARICOM, and through our reconnection with Mother Africa led by nations like Ghana, our story is now being told on the world stage — not as victims, but as victors.

On this Emancipation Day, let us pledge:

- To remember without bitterness.
- To demand justice without apology.
- To build unity without borders.

And to walk forward together — Africans at home and Africans abroad — toward a future of repair, restoration, and shared prosperity.

Emancipation is not a moment in the past. It is a mission for the present,
and the work continues.

Happy Emancipation Day!

14/07/2026

The UNESCO St. Mary’s Biosphere Reserve is a very important designation for our Federation. The National MAB Committee is in the process of updating the MAB Plan for the next 10 years.

We invite residents, businesses, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders in the SMBR to attend this important validation meeting and make your contribution to this Plan as we all work to protect this important environmental, cultural, historical and economic asset that is recognized worldwide but belongs all of us as a small island nation.

See you there!

11/07/2026

H.E. Nerys Dockery congratulates the UNESCO Caribbean team and CARICOM leaders on the Regional Adoption of the UNESCO Caribbean AI Policy Roadmap

I congratulate our regional leaders, and the CARICOM COTED, in particular, for taking this decisive step to align with the UNESCO Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Policy Roadmap.

In a time when AI is moving faster than policy, this roadmap gives us something more important than speed: direction, ethics, and purpose.

The UNESCO framework reminds us of 3 critical truths:

1. AI must serve people first — with equity, inclusion, and human rights at the center.

2. AI must be governed — with transparency, accountability, and strong data protection for our citizens.

3. AI must be built for development — to strengthen education, health, climate resilience, and jobs in our region.

As Small Island Developing States, we cannot afford technology that widens gaps. We need technology that closes them.

As I have said elsewhere, "Technology is a tool. It should solve problems, not create new ones."

This regional commitment ensures that AI in the Caribbean will be used to empower teachers, protect students, improve public services, and build more resilient communities — not to replace human judgment or deepen inequality.

St. Kitts and Nevis stands ready to work with our CARICOM partners and UNESCO to turn this roadmap from paper into practice.

I extend sincere congratulations and thanks to Mr. Eric Falt, Regional Director of the UNESCO Caribbean Office, based in Jamaica and his team for spearheading the publication of this critical policy roadmap to give coherence, focus and voice to regional advocacy in this area.

I support Mr. Falt fully in his statement that:

"The Caribbean should not simply consume AI technologies developed elsewhere, but should help shape how AI is governed, used and directed toward the public good. AI will shape the future of the Caribbean. Together, we can ensure that it does so in ways that protect rights, advance inclusion, strengthen resilience and expand opportunity for every citizen, in every island and territory."

The future we want should be guided by the voices of our youth and must be humane, ethical, and sustainable.

UNESCO’s Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Policy Roadmap has received regional backing from the CARICOM: Caribbean Community's Council for Trade and Economic Development – Information and Communication Technologies (COTED-ICT), signaling growing regional alignment on ethical and inclusive AI governance.

Launched by Unesco Caribbean, the Roadmap offers a framework for AI policy development and collaboration, grounded in the UNESCO 'Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence' and shaped by consultations with more than 1,000 stakeholders across the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

Eric Falt, Regional Director and Representative of the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean, said the region should not simply consume AI technologies developed elsewhere, but should help shape how they are governed and used for the “public good”.

🗞️ Read more: https://bit.ly/4grFJ4n

10/07/2026

Honourable Dr. Geoffrey Hanley’s Address at the UNESCO Summit Very Well Received

Today at the UNESCO Thematic Session on Environmental and Climate Education, Hon. Dr. Geoffrey Hanley, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Education, via video presentation, shared St. Kitts and Nevis’ journey to becoming a leader in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). 🇰🇳🌎

Here are the key highlights:

1. ESD is Now in Our National DNA
The ESD curriculum is not a one-off project. It embeds sustainability into everything: our curriculum, teacher training, learning environments, and national policy. For us as a Small Island Developing State, climate resilience and environmental stewardship are everyday realities.

2. Big Milestone for 2026

With UNESCO’s support, we are launching a dedicated, adapted ESD curriculum for Grades 3 and 5 in the 2026–2027 school year. Full rollout to all secondary schools is planned before 2030.

3. Teachers First

Curriculum means nothing without confident teachers. We invested in:
- A national self-paced ESD Foundations Course for teachers
- Grade-specific manuals
- Strengthened capacity in our Curriculum Unit and EMIS team

4. Greening Schools & Communities

Through the Climate Smart Schools initiative launching next year, students will learn through sustainability with rainwater harvesting and renewable energy at the National School Farm.

We have also expanded our national school recycling program and will use the UNESCO St. Kitts MAB Reserve as a living classroom.

5. Policy to Action

Our National ESD Policy and Action Plan, approved by Cabinet in Oct 2025, is fully aligned with the Government’s Sustainable Island State Agenda (SISA). This ensures education reform directly fuels our national vision for a resilient, sustainable future.

Minister Hanley’s message:

“Our ambition is clear: to ensure that every learner in St. Kitts and Nevis experiences sustainability not simply as something they study, but as something they understand, value and live.”

The Minister extended sincere appreciation to UNESCO, the Government of Japan, and the OAS for their partnership. This is how we build the next generation of climate leaders.

08/07/2026

On July 10, 2026, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis will join global education leaders at a high-level Ministerial Summit convened by UNESCO and the Greening Education Partnership (GEP) to accelerate climate-ready education systems ahead of 2030.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Youth, Social Development, Gender Affairs, Ageing and Disabilities, the Hon. Dr. Geoffrey Hanley, will deliver a featured video presentation highlighting St. Kitts and Nevis’ Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Country Initiative as a flagship project and emerging global best practice for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The Summit, to be held in-person at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris with remote participation available, marks four years since the UN Transforming Education Summit (TES). It brings together Ministers, youth, teachers, and over 2,000 stakeholders from 99 countries to take stock of progress on greening education across four pillars: Greening Schools, Greening Every Curriculum, Greening Teacher Training and Education System Capacities, and Greening Communities.

Dr. Hanley’s video presentation will spotlight how St. Kitts and Nevis has embedded ESD into national policy, curriculum, and community life in direct response to the unique vulnerabilities of SIDS and the climate crisis.

Key milestones to be featured include:

1. National Policy Leadership: Cabinet approval of the National ESD Policy and Strategy & Action Plan on 27 October 2025, establishing a transformative, holistic framework for sustainability education.

2. Curriculum Reform: Integration of ESD into Grades 3–6 and Forms 1–2 Social Sciences, with new learning outcomes on environmental stewardship, climate resilience, and global citizenship.

3. Teacher and System Capacity: Launch of a national online ESD training platform hosted within EMIS, with mandatory in-service training for all new teachers beginning September 2026.

4. Whole-School & Community Action: Positioning the St. Mary’s Biosphere Reserve as a living learning center, where students engage in hands-on lessons on biodiversity, water, and sustainable livelihoods.

The full national ESD-enhanced curriculum, teaching manuals, and student materials will be officially piloted in schools across St. Kitts and Nevis in September 2026.

“St. Kitts and Nevis is proving that small island states can lead big solutions. Our Education for Sustainable Development Initiative shows how policy, curriculum, and community can come together to make every learner climate-ready,” said Hon. Dr. Geoffrey Hanley. As we prepare to launch in September 2026, we are honoured to share our model with the world and to reaffirm UNESCO’s role as a vital partner in building resilient education systems for the future

The Ministerial Session aims to:

• Take stock of global progress in greening education since TES 2022.
• Demonstrate education as a long-term solution to the climate crisis.
• Promote knowledge sharing through country experiences and tools such as the GEP Tracker and Youth Call to Action.
• Renew commitment to ensure every learner is climate-ready by 2030.

Dr. Hanley will join fellow Ministers from Seychelles, Tonga, and Uzbekistan in a panel discussion on country achievements and the way forward.

H.E. Nerys Dockery, Secretary-General of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission for UNESCO stated that:

“This Summit is a moment to move from ambition to action. Through our partnership with UNESCO and the Government of Japan, St. Kitts and Nevis has placed sustainability at the heart of teaching and learning. We are especially proud that our youth are at the center of this work — because protecting the right to education in the face of climate change begins in the classroom and in our communities.”

H.E. Dr. David Doyle, Permanent Representative of St. Kitts and Nevis to UNESCO, will represent the Federation in-person at this important summit. Reflecting on the journey that the flagship ESD project has taken, added that:

"This is yet another milestone in our close collaboration with UNESCO experts in tangibly contributing to St. Kitts and Nevis' strategic goal to transform the country into sustainable Island state, with ESD as a fundamental pillar of this ambition.”

04/07/2026

Happy CARICOM Day 2026!

Today, we celebrate more than a treaty. We celebrate a truth: that together, we are more than the sum of our islands.

From the coral shores of St. Kitts and Nevis to the forests of Guyana, from the rhythms of reggae to the wisdom of our elders, CARICOM is the living proof that small states can hold big dreams and make them real.

We are a family bound not just by sea, but by shared struggle and shared hope. A family that knows hurricanes, but also knows how to rebuild. That knows history, but chooses unity. That knows vulnerability, but practices resilience every single day.

In a world that often divides, CARICOM dares to integrate. In a world that often extracts, we dare to sustain. Through education, through culture, through climate action, and through the voices of our youth, we are writing a Caribbean story where no island is left behind and no dream is too distant.

Let this CARICOM Day remind us: Our strength is not in our size, but in our solidarity. Our wealth is not just in our beaches, but in our people. And our future is not promised it is created, together.

So today, lift your flag a little higher. Teach a child what CARICOM means. Hold space for each other’s language, music, and struggle. Because when we move as one Caribbean, we don’t just survive the storms — we shape the weather.

Happy CARICOM Day!

May we keep building the region we all deserve — just, sustainable, sovereign, and unbreakably united.

One Caribbean. One People. One Future.

From the desk of:

H.E. Nerys Dockery
Secretary General
St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission for UNESCO

03/07/2026

To provide timely and relevant information in a highly efficient manner to the general public regard