Schools, agencies, systems For Resilience, Equity, Safety and Health
The FRESH Partnership is comprised of a extensive number of UN agencies, donor organizations and global non-governmental/ civil society organizations concerned with promoting basic education, health, safety, equity and various types of economic, social, sustainable and human development through, with and within schools, agencies and systems. A common set of goals, values, principles and knowledge unites the FRESH Partnership around the FRESH approach. They include:
The FRESH Partnership includes a Coordinating Committee of about 40 representatives and several designated Working Groups/Individual Advisors which have been assigned specific tasks or roles. As well, the Partnership has established and communicates regularly with an defined list of Corresponding or Affiliated Organizations and Networks.
An “Education for All” means ensuring that all children have access to a basic education of good quality that serves the needs and aspirations of the whole child. This implies building or rebuilding schools and education systems, creating an environment in schools and in core education programmes in which children are both able and enabled to learn. Such an environment must be friendly and welcoming, promote health, ensure safety, protect children from exploitation, engage students and involve parents. The development of such learning environments is an essential part of the overall efforts by countries around the world to increase access to, and improve the quality, of their schools. The FRESH Partners have agreed to work together towards this common goal for all children and their schooling by encouraging the use of the FRESH framework to promote the educational success, health and development of all school-age children.
- Schooling and schools provide a primary vehicle for recovery and relief aid from emergencies/conflicts, for equitable access humanitarian aid & development, for sustainable and social development and for health and human rights. This has been recognized by UN leaders and leading organizations through statements from the UN Secretary General on the Global Education First Initiative and in a meeting of senior global leaders at the time when the 2030 UN Goals were adopted.
- To be effective, school-based and school-linked health promotion & social development needs to be built on the pillars/components identified by the FRESH framework. (Policy requiring a multi-component approach, a core curriculum/learning goals for students, a defined minimum set of health and other services and defined minimum conditions/standards for inclusive, safe and healthy social as well as physical environments in and near schools)
- Inter-sectorial action has also been recognized as a pre-requisite for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (UN Expert Working Group, 2015, Waage et al, 2015). Schools and education systems are one key hub for such inter-sectorial action. Hence, we need to think in terms of school-based and school-linked programs. We also need to recognize that the integration of the health, social, equity, safety and environmental goals within the core mandates, constraints and concerns of education systems is essential.
- Our actions and activities at the global level, indeed any such international initiatives, must inform, motivate, support and help to frame the work being done at the regional, national/state and local levels around the world. As a group, the FRESH Partnership acts as an advisor through international exchanges of knowledge and information, by creating consensus among its partners and undertaking other activities at the global level. However, the FRESH Partnership, as a group, does not undertake actions at the regional or national levels nor does its membership include regional, national, private or university-based centres. It is the individual FRESH partners that take such regional/national actions and engage regional, national organizations and research/knowledge centres through their respective constituencies, memberships and communications channels as well as global activities related to their respective mandates or concerns.
The FRESH Partnership includes a Coordinating Committee of about 40 representatives and several designated Working Groups/Individual Advisors which have been assigned specific tasks or roles. As well, the Partnership has established and communicates regularly with an defined list of Corresponding or Affiliated Organizations and Networks.
An “Education for All” means ensuring that all children have access to a basic education of good quality that serves the needs and aspirations of the whole child. This implies building or rebuilding schools and education systems, creating an environment in schools and in core education programmes in which children are both able and enabled to learn. Such an environment must be friendly and welcoming, promote health, ensure safety, protect children from exploitation, engage students and involve parents. The development of such learning environments is an essential part of the overall efforts by countries around the world to increase access to, and improve the quality, of their schools. The FRESH Partners have agreed to work together towards this common goal for all children and their schooling by encouraging the use of the FRESH framework to promote the educational success, health and development of all school-age children.
