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Upcoming, Ongoing & Recent Global Initiatives Related to School Health & Development
The list of upcoming, ongoing and recent global events and initiatives found below is maintained for the members of the FRESH Partnership and other concerned organizations with promoting access to schooling, health, safety, equity, humanitarian and development aid, community, social and sustainable development through schools. This list is updated at the end of each month. The items posted are added in the month that we have identified them and, consequently, may not always be chronological. This list will be updated periodically by the members of the partnership. If readers would like to suggest other events and initiatives, please send that suggestion, with relevant web links, to [email protected] Please note that this list contains only global events and ongoing initiatives which include an opportunity for input by global organizations, donors or other UN agencies and does not include the many other international activities underway at the regional or country levels. This web site also maintains a calendar version of events and announcements. We welcome additions and suggestions to that calendar as well. If you would like to receive an email alert each month when this page is changed with the latest updates, please add your name to the list on this web page. The monthly collection of items are added to this archive document. For previous postings, you can scan that document at your leisure. |
Visitors to this web site may also be interested in this blog maintained by the International School Health Network and other FRESH partners.
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Items Added This Month:
On 4 and 5 July 2019, the G7 Development and Education Ministers met in Paris. These meetings, preparing the Biarritz Summit, drew on the expertise of international organisations and the presence of representatives from non G7 member states and civil society, in line with the desire of the French G7 Presidency to open up the G7. A joint statement was issued by Ministers at the meeting. It supports gender-responsive education, health services and health education in schools and preventing violence. Read the statement...
Co-produced with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, this paper highlights the first ever projections for SDG 4 targets. A third of the way to 2030, it shows that the world is drastically off track."There are 11 global indicators for SDG 4, and the UIS is responsible for compiling data for 9 of them. As the 11 global indicators do not capture the full scope of the education agenda, a total set of 43 thematic indicators, including the 11 global indicators, constitute the SDG 4 monitoring framework. These are endorsed in the Education 2030 Framework for Action. Marking the occasion of the SDG 4 review at the 2019 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, the main UN apex platform for the follow-up and review of Agenda 2030, this publication builds on the SDG Report to present the progress so far towards the SDG 4 targets, with data from selected global and thematic indicators. Key points include:
- Since only the hardest-to-reach children remain out of school, progress has slowed down in middle-income countries. However, it seems surprising that progress in reducing the out-of-school rate in low-income countries stopped when the rate reached 20%. This interruption coincides with the sudden halt in the growth of aid to education to low-income countries after the onset of the financial crisis.
- In addition, 61 million or 16% of adolescents of lower secondary school age (12–14 years) are out of school. The out-of-school rate for this age group fell from 25% to 17% between 2000 and 2010, but has since remained stagnant. The out-of-school rate is 14% in middle-income countries. In low-income countries, the rate is 36%; between 2012 and 2015, the rate increased in this group,
- SDG 4 also calls for all children to complete their schooling. Globally, across 148 countries with estimates, the primary school completion rate has reached 84% in 2018, up from 70% in 2000
- Monitoring progress on Target 4.7, with its unique focus on the content of education, remains challenging. A methodology has not yet been adopted for the global indicator, which aims to capture country efforts to mainstream global citizenship education and education for sustainable development, including gender equality and human rights, at all levels in their education policies, curricula, teacher education and student assessment.
- In low-income countries, only 32% of primary, 43% of lower secondary and 52% of upper secondary schools have access to electricity
- Among upper secondary schools, only 53% in low-income countries and 84% in middle-income countries have access to basic drinking water.
Read more....
Produced under the auspices of the SDG - Education 2030 Steering Committee, this special report shows the different ways that countries have taken on the challenge of implementing SDG 4 at the national level. "increasingly, member states demand more than quantitative information. They ask for guidance on how to respond when their education systems do not reach their targets. To respond to this demand, this publication has the following purposes:„Understand countries’ perceptions of SDG 4 based on responses to a questionnaire prepared for this publication, which asked countries to report on their flagship SDG 4 policies„ Distil those perceptions into a framework of the types of national policies that are best aligned with SDG 4 and whose implementation should be monitored„Communicate the framework succinctly and provide a complementary input for the review of SDG 4 at the 2019 HLPF„Provide an opportunity for countries to engage in dialogue on how they approach SDG 4"
Six areas were identified as ways to accelerate progress. Here are some examples:
- Beyond Averages-equity and inclusion: Inclusive education should encompass all learners. Yet over a third of countries mentioning policies on inclusion referred to a single group only, mostly learners with disabilities or special education needs; Education and social assistance policies need to be designed jointly to promote equity, as is the case with school vouchers for indigenous students in Bolivia or the abolition of tuition fees for the poorest in Viet Nam
- Beyond access-quality & learning: Information from national monitoring frameworks should be used to inform curriculum, textbook and teacher development and drive policy evaluation, as in the Bahamas, China, the Czech Republic and Panama
- Beyond basics-content for sustainable development: Curricula are being updated to promote sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and cultural diversity
- Beyond schooling - lifelong learning: A continuum of approaches is needed to link formal and non-formal education opportunities, as in Armenia’s national register of training opportunities, Estonia’s lifelong learning strategy, Japan’s community learning centres and the sustainable development plan of Montréal, Canada
- Beyond education - cross sector cooperation: Education ministries should actively remove administrative hurdles that stand in the way of multisector partnerships. In Norway, four ministries joined forces to coordinate their work supporting vulnerable children and youth
- Beyond countries - regional & global cooperation: Peer networks for education are global public goods whose coordination and communication functions need to be properly funded. For instance, the Technical Cooperation Group that develops the SDG 4 monitoring framework requires more resources to strengthen country participation. Read more....OND COMMITMENTS
- "The Guideline, as summarised in A72/13 (paras 10 & 11), concludes that:- 10. Evidence across and within countries indicates that support for community health workers and their integration into the health system and the communities they serve is uneven. Examples of good practices exist but are not necessarily replicated. Policy options for which there is greater evidence of effectiveness are known but not uniformly adopted. Accordingly, the performance of community health worker programmes is highly variable, hindering the full realization of their potential contribution to the implementation of primary health care policies.
- 11. Common shortcomings identified across a range of community health worker programmes include: poor planning; unclear roles, education and career pathways; lack of certification hindering credibility and transferability; multiple competing actors with little coordination; fragmented, disease-specific training; donor-driven management and funding; tenuous linkage with the health system; inadequate coordination, supervision, quality control and support; and lack of recognition of the contribution of community health workers. These challenges can contribute to the inefficient utilization of human capital and financial resources. Many community health worker initiatives fail to be properly integrated into health systems and remain pilot projects or small-scale initiatives that are excessively reliant on donor funding; conversely, uneven management and support for community health workers in many contexts may result in substandard capacities and performance of the health workers concerned. The summary of the Guideline in A72/13:
- lists 6 key principles which should be realised in CHW programs;
- lists 7 policy recommendations (selection, certification, supervision, compensation, entitlements, career development, service delivery models);
- lists key actions for the design and implementation of CHW program at the national level, and for international organisations (donors and IGOs)."
In accordance with paragraph 84. of the 2030 Agenda, Member States have decided that the HLPF shall carry out regular voluntary reviews of the 2030 Agenda which will include developed and developing countries as well as relevant UN entities and other stakeholders. The reviews are state-led, involving ministerial and other relevant high-level participants, and provide a platform for partnerships, including through the participation of major groups and other relevant stakeholders.In 2019, 47 countries (7 for the second time) have volunteered to present their national voluntary reviews to the HLPF. For more details, please click here.
General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/299 decided to review the format and organizational aspects of the high-level political forum at its seventy-fourth session, in order to benefit from lessons learned in the first cycle of the forum as well as from other processes under the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council related to the follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this context, an Expert Group Meeting was held from 6 to 7 May 2019 in UNHQ in New York with the aim to bring Member States, the UN system, experts, academia and other stakeholders together to prepare the discussions of the 74th session. The Summary of the meeting can be found here.
On 4 and 5 July 2019, the G7 Development and Education Ministers met in Paris. These meetings, preparing the Biarritz Summit, drew on the expertise of international organisations and the presence of representatives from non G7 member states and civil society, in line with the desire of the French G7 Presidency to open up the G7. A joint statement was issued by Ministers at the meeting. It supports gender-responsive education, health services and health education in schools and preventing violence. Read the statement...
Co-produced with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, this paper highlights the first ever projections for SDG 4 targets. A third of the way to 2030, it shows that the world is drastically off track."There are 11 global indicators for SDG 4, and the UIS is responsible for compiling data for 9 of them. As the 11 global indicators do not capture the full scope of the education agenda, a total set of 43 thematic indicators, including the 11 global indicators, constitute the SDG 4 monitoring framework. These are endorsed in the Education 2030 Framework for Action. Marking the occasion of the SDG 4 review at the 2019 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, the main UN apex platform for the follow-up and review of Agenda 2030, this publication builds on the SDG Report to present the progress so far towards the SDG 4 targets, with data from selected global and thematic indicators. Key points include:
- Since only the hardest-to-reach children remain out of school, progress has slowed down in middle-income countries. However, it seems surprising that progress in reducing the out-of-school rate in low-income countries stopped when the rate reached 20%. This interruption coincides with the sudden halt in the growth of aid to education to low-income countries after the onset of the financial crisis.
- In addition, 61 million or 16% of adolescents of lower secondary school age (12–14 years) are out of school. The out-of-school rate for this age group fell from 25% to 17% between 2000 and 2010, but has since remained stagnant. The out-of-school rate is 14% in middle-income countries. In low-income countries, the rate is 36%; between 2012 and 2015, the rate increased in this group,
- SDG 4 also calls for all children to complete their schooling. Globally, across 148 countries with estimates, the primary school completion rate has reached 84% in 2018, up from 70% in 2000
- Monitoring progress on Target 4.7, with its unique focus on the content of education, remains challenging. A methodology has not yet been adopted for the global indicator, which aims to capture country efforts to mainstream global citizenship education and education for sustainable development, including gender equality and human rights, at all levels in their education policies, curricula, teacher education and student assessment.
- In low-income countries, only 32% of primary, 43% of lower secondary and 52% of upper secondary schools have access to electricity
- Among upper secondary schools, only 53% in low-income countries and 84% in middle-income countries have access to basic drinking water.
Read more....
Produced under the auspices of the SDG - Education 2030 Steering Committee, this special report shows the different ways that countries have taken on the challenge of implementing SDG 4 at the national level. "increasingly, member states demand more than quantitative information. They ask for guidance on how to respond when their education systems do not reach their targets. To respond to this demand, this publication has the following purposes:„Understand countries’ perceptions of SDG 4 based on responses to a questionnaire prepared for this publication, which asked countries to report on their flagship SDG 4 policies„ Distil those perceptions into a framework of the types of national policies that are best aligned with SDG 4 and whose implementation should be monitored„Communicate the framework succinctly and provide a complementary input for the review of SDG 4 at the 2019 HLPF„Provide an opportunity for countries to engage in dialogue on how they approach SDG 4"
Six areas were identified as ways to accelerate progress. Here are some examples:
- Beyond Averages-equity and inclusion: Inclusive education should encompass all learners. Yet over a third of countries mentioning policies on inclusion referred to a single group only, mostly learners with disabilities or special education needs; Education and social assistance policies need to be designed jointly to promote equity, as is the case with school vouchers for indigenous students in Bolivia or the abolition of tuition fees for the poorest in Viet Nam
- Beyond access-quality & learning: Information from national monitoring frameworks should be used to inform curriculum, textbook and teacher development and drive policy evaluation, as in the Bahamas, China, the Czech Republic and Panama
- Beyond basics-content for sustainable development: Curricula are being updated to promote sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and cultural diversity
- Beyond schooling - lifelong learning: A continuum of approaches is needed to link formal and non-formal education opportunities, as in Armenia’s national register of training opportunities, Estonia’s lifelong learning strategy, Japan’s community learning centres and the sustainable development plan of Montréal, Canada
- Beyond education - cross sector cooperation: Education ministries should actively remove administrative hurdles that stand in the way of multisector partnerships. In Norway, four ministries joined forces to coordinate their work supporting vulnerable children and youth
- Beyond countries - regional & global cooperation: Peer networks for education are global public goods whose coordination and communication functions need to be properly funded. For instance, the Technical Cooperation Group that develops the SDG 4 monitoring framework requires more resources to strengthen country participation. Read more....OND COMMITMENTS
- WHO Guidelines for Community Health Workers (October 2018) Posted 6/24/2019
- "The Guideline, as summarised in A72/13 (paras 10 & 11), concludes that:- 10. Evidence across and within countries indicates that support for community health workers and their integration into the health system and the communities they serve is uneven. Examples of good practices exist but are not necessarily replicated. Policy options for which there is greater evidence of effectiveness are known but not uniformly adopted. Accordingly, the performance of community health worker programmes is highly variable, hindering the full realization of their potential contribution to the implementation of primary health care policies.
- 11. Common shortcomings identified across a range of community health worker programmes include: poor planning; unclear roles, education and career pathways; lack of certification hindering credibility and transferability; multiple competing actors with little coordination; fragmented, disease-specific training; donor-driven management and funding; tenuous linkage with the health system; inadequate coordination, supervision, quality control and support; and lack of recognition of the contribution of community health workers. These challenges can contribute to the inefficient utilization of human capital and financial resources. Many community health worker initiatives fail to be properly integrated into health systems and remain pilot projects or small-scale initiatives that are excessively reliant on donor funding; conversely, uneven management and support for community health workers in many contexts may result in substandard capacities and performance of the health workers concerned. The summary of the Guideline in A72/13:
- lists 6 key principles which should be realised in CHW programs;
- lists 7 policy recommendations (selection, certification, supervision, compensation, entitlements, career development, service delivery models);
- lists key actions for the design and implementation of CHW program at the national level, and for international organisations (donors and IGOs)."
- High Level Political Forum 2019 in Achieving SD Goals (9-18 July, 2019 New York)
- Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
In accordance with paragraph 84. of the 2030 Agenda, Member States have decided that the HLPF shall carry out regular voluntary reviews of the 2030 Agenda which will include developed and developing countries as well as relevant UN entities and other stakeholders. The reviews are state-led, involving ministerial and other relevant high-level participants, and provide a platform for partnerships, including through the participation of major groups and other relevant stakeholders.In 2019, 47 countries (7 for the second time) have volunteered to present their national voluntary reviews to the HLPF. For more details, please click here.
General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/299 decided to review the format and organizational aspects of the high-level political forum at its seventy-fourth session, in order to benefit from lessons learned in the first cycle of the forum as well as from other processes under the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council related to the follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this context, an Expert Group Meeting was held from 6 to 7 May 2019 in UNHQ in New York with the aim to bring Member States, the UN system, experts, academia and other stakeholders together to prepare the discussions of the 74th session. The Summary of the meeting can be found here.