Dear Editor,

As Jamaica enters a new school year in the midst of the hurricane season, families are facing multiple pressures at once. Hurricanes threaten homes and livelihoods, while ongoing drought, caused by the El-Nino event, and limited access to water disrupt daily routines and make regular school attendance even harder.

For children, these overlapping shocks can cause missed classes, reduced nutrition, and heightened risks of neglect and violence. The question is no longer whether Jamaica needs stronger social protection systems, but how quickly we can finance and scale them to safeguard our youngest citizens.

Jamaica’s social safety net, anchored by the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), is one of the region’s most important tools for protecting children. It provides predictable support to families living in poverty, ensuring that children can stay in school, access health care, and maintain stability even in difficult times.

But disasters like hurricanes Beryl and Melissa have shown that routine support is not enough. Families need rapid, flexible, and child-sensitive assistance to cope with sudden shocks. Emergency cash top-ups delivered through PATH have demonstrated their value. During Hurricane Melissa, rapid cash assistance helped families replace damaged essentials, cover transportation to clinics, purchase food, and stabilise household income during recovery.

Children experience disasters differently from adults. A covariate shock can mean interrupted schooling, loss of nutrition and early childhood stimulation, increased exposure to violence, and long-term developmental setbacks. Therefore, a child-responsive budget ensures that emergency funds are designed with these realities in mind. It prioritises food, infant supplies, transportation, health visits, and safe environments, needs that cannot wait for lengthy processes.

One of Jamaica’s strengths is its commitment to delivering emergency support through existing government systems and collaborating with international development partners rather than creating parallel structures. This approach reduces administrative costs, ensures transparency, improves reach to rural and vulnerable communities, and strengthens long-term resilience. But it also requires predictable financing, strong partnerships, and the ability to scale up quickly when disasters strike.

To sustain these gains, Jamaica must contemplate a Child-Responsive Disaster Budget. Protecting children in an era of climate uncertainty means moving beyond short-term relief and embedding child-focused priorities into national planning and financing by implementing:

• dedicated child-focused budget lines for emergency response

• flexible financing mechanisms to rapidly scale up PATH benefits

• better data systems to identify children most at risk

• stronger coordination across ministries, donors, and humanitarian partners

Investing in children before, during, and after disasters is not only a moral responsibility but also one of the most cost-effective strategies for national resilience.

As climate shocks become more frequent, Jamaica has an opportunity to lead the Caribbean in child-responsive social protection financing. With the right investments, policies, and partnerships, we can ensure that no child is left behind when disaster strikes, and every family has the support they need to recover with dignity.

The time to act is now, before the next hurricane season places more children at risk.

André Miller

Social policy specialist

United Nations Children’s Fund

andmiller@unicef.org