FRESH Coordinating Committee Meeting: 28th March 2017

Participants: Doug McCall (ISHN), Franko Peel and Bachir Sarr (PCD), Cliff Lubitz (RTI), Yuka Makino (WHO), Seung Lee and Mohini Venkatesh (Save the Children- Meeting Chair/ note taker)


  1. Next steps to Refresh the FRESH partnership
 Doug is preparing a table of people to email in the current and future potential FRESH membership, for members to provide their inputs. This table will include details on which current member will be reaching out to these people in various agencies and by when to renew their commitment and interest in the FRESH partnership. This will be shared with the members for their feedback. As discussed during the February 2017 meeting the plan is to:
  1. First, email people who are not regularly attending with a personal message asking if they would like to participate more regularly in the partners meeting; OR prefer to only be part of the FRESH mailing list. The FRESH mailing list will receive monthly updates of upcoming and recently concluded events.
  2. Second, email those organizations that have been active in the FRESH group to either lead or participate in some of the working groups (e.g. on health services or life skills education) or other initiatives of FRESH partners. Also to ask them to link us up with others in their organization or partners who should be part of the group.
  3. Third, email those who want to be part of the FRESH group providing them the background and achievements of the FRESH partners, and asking them to participate. (e.g. Liam  from Plan International and the International Association for Adolescent Health).
 
2.FRESH Webinars and Other Webinars
 The FRESH webinars in 2017 are going on as planned, every mid-month, with very good attendance so far. The organizing team for the webinars include members from Save the Children, PCD, UNESCO Paris and IIEP, and ISHN. The webinars are centered around a monthly theme, which commemorates a global day:
  • UNESCO presented on SR-GBV (on the occasion of International Day of Social Justice and International Day of zero tolerance to FGM) in February,
  • Save the Children and USDA presented on school feeding in March (on the occasion of International School Feeding Day), and
  • LSHTM and Sanofi will be presenting on malaria in April (On the occasion of World Malaria Day).
Besides these monthly webinars, FRESH members are also hosting other webinars which is of interest to the FRESH partnership. In March, Irene Amongin from UNICEF hosted a WASH in Schools webinar which was publicized to FRESH partners through the schoolsandhealth mailing list. Doug McCall from ISHN, is planning on five webinars together with Plan International, couple of which will take place during the FRESH monthly webinars, and others will be publicized through the schoolsandhealth mailing list.
The tentative schedule for the rest of 2017 is as follows. Members who wish to present are requested to contact Mohini. Also members who are planning other webinars are requested to share this information with Mohini and Franko, so that it can be publicized to FRESH members through the schoolandhealth mailing list.

15th May 2017
 UNICEF?
World Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28th May; No Tobacco Day on29th May

15th June 2017
Substance abuse
UNODC, UNESCO, ISHN
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking; Int Day of Refugees

17th July 2017
 World Bank? GPE?
World Youth Skills Day

15th August 2017
Oral Health
WHO
Intl Youth Day

15th September 2017
Vision
Sightsavers/ Orbis/ PCD?
World Sight day on 13th Oct

16th October 2017
Mental Health
ISHN
Global handwashing day on 15th Oct, World Food day on 16th Oct; Mental Health Day; Intl Disaster reduction day

15th November 2017
 GIZ?
World Toilet day on 19th Nov; Universal Children's Day, World Aids day on 1st Dec; Intl day of persons with disabilities

3.Recent and Upcoming Events
Seung Lee provided an update on CIES, which took place in early March. PCD hosted a panel discussion on “mainstreaming SHN into education”. The panel included GPE, Sightsavers, and Save the Children. Save the Children organized a panel on “SHN as a social equalizer”, which included UNICEF, ISHN and EI. Save the Children and UNICEF organized another panel on MHM (Problematizing inequality in adolescent girls’ school learning experience due to poor Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Bolivia, DRC and Benin).
Other events that took place during Feb-March are as follows. Colleagues from UNESCO and EI are requested to share updates from these events with the FRESH coordinating group via email.
  • UNESCO Week for Peace and Sustainable development- This UNESCO event for Peace and Sustainable Development will discuss the 'The Role of Education'. Discussions will address two UNESCO programmes, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED), and their practical contribution to achieving SDG target 4.7 (By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development,). The Week will focus on the issue of teachers and teacher training, and highlight best practices in the field of ESD and GCED.
  • Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) – 13-24 March, New York. UNGEI and EI co-convening a side event looking at 'Teachers, Schools and Decent Work: The Imperative to End School-Related Gender-Based Violence'.
Some upcoming events of interest to the FRESH partnership are as follows. Members are requested to contact organizers OR visit the FRESH partners site for more information.
  • Save the Children International Road Safety Workshop, 1-3 May, Bangkok. Save the Children is conducting an international road safety workshop. Supported by the FIA foundation, this will be attended by colleagues at the GRSP, 100 Resilient Cities and the AIP foundation.
  • UNAIDS Inter Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education and School Health Symposium, 10-11 May, 2017, Zambia. Organized by UNESCO Paris.
  • BZGA European Regional Conference on Sexuality Education, 15-16 May, Berlin. UNESCO a supporting partner.
  • WHO World Health Assembly, 22-31 May, 2017, Geneva. The Global Framework for Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (the AA-HA Framework) expected to be presented.
  • Conference of the International Association for Adolescent Health being held in New Delhi on 27-29 October, 2017. ISHN is planning on a panel to contextualize school health and development for adolescents, as well as a skills building workshop on how to develop, implement and evaluate school based programs. For more information, please contact Doug McCall.