Antigua and Barbuda Selected for Field Mission in World's First Cradle-to-Career Disability Study

Antigua and Barbuda has been selected as one of four Caribbean countries for in-depth field missions in what UNICEF and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States describe as the world’s first Cradle-to-Career systems assessment of children with disabilities.

The selection places the country at the centre of a major regional initiative examining how children with disabilities are supported through early childhood, education and the transition into employment.

Antigua and Barbuda will join Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago as the four countries where researchers will conduct detailed fieldwork, generating evidence to guide more inclusive policies, programmes and services.

The assessment was endorsed at the recent meeting of the OECS Council of Ministers for Human and Social Development, which Minister of State in the Ministry of Social and Urban Transformation, Hon. Kiz Johnson, attended.

Minister Johnson highlighted the significance of Antigua and Barbuda’s selection and the global importance of the initiative, stressing that the country’s participation should be prominently recognised.

Led by UNICEF and the OECS, the assessment will examine how health, education, social protection, child protection, community services and employment systems support children and young people with disabilities.

Its Cradle-to-Career approach will look across these interconnected systems, assessing support throughout a child’s development rather than examining individual services in isolation.

For Antigua and Barbuda, the field mission will provide an opportunity to examine how existing services work together, identify gaps in support and generate evidence to inform improvements. The findings are intended to help shape systems that enable children with disabilities to thrive and reach their full potential.

The wider assessment covers 11 Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Described by its organisers as the first study globally to adopt this systems approach for children with disabilities, the initiative positions the Caribbean at the forefront of disability inclusive development, with Antigua and Barbuda playing a central role in its detailed research.