KINGSTON, Jamaica — Cabinet has approved the National Plan of Action for an Integrated Response to Children and Violence (NPACV), says Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr Grace McLean.

Speaking at a plenary session for the eighth Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston yesterday, Dr McLean said the plan was also tabled in the Parliament recently.

The National Plan of Action is part of Jamaica’s response to its commitment made to the Global Partnership to end violence against children and will be implemented over a five-year period.

The goal is to create and maintain a protective environment supportive of and responsive to the issues of violence, child abuse and maltreatment of children in Jamaica.

“What this means is that, for the first time, we have a comprehensive response, an inter-sectoral response to treating with violence against children,” she said.

The plan involves collaboration among several government ministries, agencies and departments, civil society groups and other stakeholders

The core objective of the NPACV is to reduce the impact of violence against children through an integrated approach to prevention, control, intervention responses, monitoring and evaluation.

This is to ensure that the rights of children are preserved, and that an environment is created to stimulate their positive growth and development into productive citizens of Jamaica.

The Diaspora Conference is being hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade under the theme ‘Jamaica and the Diaspora: Building Pathways for Sustainable Development’.

This staging will target expanding and building pathways for the diaspora and Jamaica to work together to prepare effectively for the future within the context of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which incorporate the core goals of the Vision 2030 National Development Plan.

The focal areas for dialogue, as well as the expected outcomes of the conference, take into consideration important global trends and their impact on the future marketplace and the workplace as well as critical Jamaica-Diaspora partnerships.

The conference concludes on Thursday.

— JIS