THE UNITED Nations’ Rights of the Child Commission (UNRCC), in partnership with UNICEF and the National Aids Programme Secretariat, will be hosting the opening of the multi-stakeholder consultation on the establishment of the National Peer Education Programme, on February 17, 2014 at the Regency Hotel on Hadfield Street, Georgetown from 9am.The central idea undergirding the peer education concept is that young people themselves will be educated and empowered to serve as educators of their fellow peers. Thus the cadre of peer educators that would be assembled will serve as substantive instruments or agents of change.

It is the ultimate manifestation of the UNICEF/UNRCC child participation project implemented in 2013.

The first activity adopted towards the establishment of the peer education programme was the First Stakeholder Consultation, which took place in March of 2013 when representatives of stakeholders, in their deliberations, noted, inter alia, the absence of standards, guidelines, common curriculum, code of ethics, supervision and monitoring & evaluation.

Thus the multi-stakeholder consultation, planned for February 17, is essentially a response to the pertinent observations cited above. There, representatives of stakeholders will review, deliberate, and sanction a draft document on: (1) standards & guidelines, (2) peer educator code of ethics, (3) attraction, selection, retention of peer educators, (4) roles, responsibilities and qualities of peer educators, (5) education and training components, (6)overall goals and objectives of the National Peer Education Programme, and (7) plan for reviewing standards/guidelines, curricula/manual and other implementation elements of the NPEP.

The review, deliberation and consensus arrived at during this second stakeholders’ consultation will inform and guide the compilation of the National Peer Education Manual, which will have a special emphasis on: (1) children’s rights(2) health and family life, (3) relationship skills (4) peer counselling and peer support. (5) sexuality and sexual orientation, (6) gender issues (7) conflict resolution, (8) stigma and discrimination (9) drugs, alcohol & other substance abuse, (10) music and lyrics,(11) suicide (12) environment and sanitation issues.