This child well-being mega-map in LMICs shows evidence synthesis studies – systematic reviews and evidence and gap maps (EGMs) – that include studies on the effectiveness of interventions to improve child well-being in LMICs published in English. The mega-map provides a visual and interactive display of completed and on-going studies structured around a framework: a matrix of interventions and outcomes primarily based on the strategic plan of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2018). This includes seven intervention categories; early child development, health and nutrition, education, social work and welfare, social protection, environmental health including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and governance.Of the 333 included studies, there is substantial evidence in traditional areas: health and nutrition (234) is the most commonly studied intervention, followed by early child development (194). Education (83) and social protection (62) are fairly well-represented. However, there is limited evidence synthesis in non-traditional areas: social work & welfare (44), environmental health including WASH (41) and governance (12). The most commonly studied outcomes are health (259) and healthy development (215). Very few studies measured economic impact (42) and risk factor reduction (55) of these interventions.Whilst the evidence base is relatively large, it is unevenly distributed across intervention categories. There is a need for more studies which are explicitly focused on programmes for vulnerable children. There are limited systematic reviews focusing on gender and equity issues in child well-being. Very few studies were identified assessing programme cost of the interventions. It would be useful for global and country partners to work together to achieve consensus on priority areas for evidence synthesis. They should also adopt a coordinated approach to undertaking and updating maps and reviews across priority areas. Read more...
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The Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) thematic funding supports global and regional initiatives that use knowledge exchange, evidence and innovation to help developing countries solve critical educational challenges. A GPE discussion paper,Improving teaching and learning. A knowledge and innovation exchange (KIX) discussion paper was published in July 2019. The purpose of this paper is to describe the current landscape in improving teaching and learning and spark discussion and debate around potential areas for GPE/KIX investment. The "describes the challenges facing developing country to improve learning levels and reviews existing efforts to address those challenges through global goods. It identifies remaining knowledge and innovation gaps and offers a set of areas in which GPE could invest.
"focus on teachers and their work,and on three important sets of challenges that affect them: 1.The quality of support to teacher development. This includes weak content and pedagogical knowledge and classroom skills (including instructional practices) among teachers, often because of low quality of pre-and in-service teacher training. This is related to inadequate standards and accreditation for teachers and a lack of ongoing support and coaching from head teachers and other administrative leaders. 2.Teaching methods and learning materials.This includes a lack of textbooks and other learning materials;language issues, particularly around mother-tongue teaching; and teaching that is not aligned with children’s current level of understanding. 3.Systems for recruiting, managing and engaging teachers.This includes attracting and retaining the most qualified individuals to the teaching profession, deploying teachers to areas of the country with the greatest need, reducing unauthorized teacher absences and maximizing instructional time, and engaging teachers in policy dialogue and reform. The GPE paper reviews several global and regional initiatives currently underway from UNESCO, GPE and other organizations that aim to improve the quality of teaching. A notable item in that list is the Breadth of Learning Opportunities initiative led by the Brookings Institution and Education International that includes physical health and emotional/social well-being. The paper concludes by identifying five areas for investment. These include "sharing what works" to (a) improve data on teachers and teaching, enhance teacher recruitment, selection & retention, (c) improving accountability, incentives & rewards, (d) scaling up high quality teaching in early childhood and primary grades (e) enabling school and system level factors that support teaching (f) aligning budgets, planning and workforce changes to increase the number of teachers and transparency. Read more.... A special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health in July 2019 contains several cost-benefit estimates of investing in health, education, productivity and safety in low & middle income countries. "The papers in this supplement present an important milestone in addressing this challenge, helping the international development field to move forward by focusing on the question of investing at scale for a few key components of the adolescent health agenda that are especially relevant for low- and middle-income contexts. All the empirical papers assess the effectiveness of implementing a specific set of interventions nationally at scale for their prioritized outcome of interest—health, education, productivity, safety—for a sustained period through 2030. The analyses confirm that the resulting benefits in all cases are substantial, both for the adolescents and for the economic and social progress of their nations. Four of the five empirical papers also model the costs of these interventions, and three papers further extend their analysis to calculate benefit-to-cost ratios (BCRs) of such investments. The BCRs range from 5.8 to 12.6, indicating a compelling case for national and global decision-makers to prioritize investing in adolescents." ....
A scoping review of the research on school health and development programs in low resource countries was published in Issue #5, 2016 of Health Education Research. "We included 30 studies meeting specific criteria: (i) studies mainly targeted school going children or adolescents; (ii) admissible designs were randomized controlled trials, controlled before-after studies or interrupted time series; (iii) studies included at least one measure of impact and (iv) were primary studies or systematic reviews. We found that school-based interventions can be classified in two main categories: those targeting individual determinants of health such as knowledge, skills and health behaviors and those targeting environmental determinants such as the social and physical environment at the school, family and community level. Findings suggest that a comprehensive approach addressing both individual and environmental determinants can induce long-term behavior change and significantly improve health and educational outcomes. We highlight the need for further study of the long-term impact of school-based interventions on health outcomes in developing countries." ISHN has been collecting a number of similar reviews that examine different applications of the "School Health & Nutrition" programs/approach to this context. Our recent ISHN report to Members-Subscribers includes similar conclusions to those reached in this review; that there are several "multi-intervention programs" addressing issues such as water-sanitation-hygiene (WASH), school feeding and the prevention of infectious diseases that produce changes both to the conditions in schools as well as student health & behaviours. Read more >> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
Research Priorities for Adolescent Health in Low Resource Countries: A Consultation with Experts8/19/2016 The results of a Delphi consultation with 142 experts (out of 450) is reported in the July 2016 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. " These experts were invited to propose research questions related to descriptive epidemiology, interventions (discovery, development/testing, and delivery/implementation), and health policy/systems; and (3) asked the experts to prioritize the research questions based on five criteria: clarity, answerability, importance or impact, implementation, and equity. Overall, the types of the top 10 research questions in each of the eight health areas included descriptive epidemiology (26%), interventions: discovery (11%), development/testing (25%), delivery (33%), and policy, health and social systems (5%). Across health areas, the top questions highlighted integration of health services, vulnerable populations, and different health platforms (such as primary care, schools, families/parents, and interactive media). The top-ranked question for adolescent health: policy, health and social systems related to platforms to reach the most vulnerable adolescents. Priority topics/questions were identified in these eight areas: Communicable diseases prevention and management, Injuries and violence, Mental health, Noncommunicable diseases management, Nutrition, Physical activity, Substance use, Adolescent health: policy, health and social systems. Read More >>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) A research review in the July 2016 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health reports that "youth lacked knowledge about sexually transmitted infections STIs and services. In addition, youth experienced barriers related to service availability and a lack of integration of services. The most reported barriers were related to acceptability of services. Youth reported avoiding services or having confidentiality concerns based on provider demographics and some behaviors. Finally, experiences of shame and stigma were common barriers to seeking care.Improving uptake may require efforts to address clinic systems and provider attitudes, including confidentiality issues. Moreover, addressing barriers to STI services may require addressing cultural norms related to adolescent sexuality. Read more>>
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) The UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 global development goals that will replace the previous Millennium Development Goals that concluded in 2015 at its meeting in New York. The news clippings this week capture some of that activity. The items we identified this week include the summit web site, several different access points, and more. Education is one of the 17 goals and was highlighted as being central to the success of all of the goals by the UN Secretary General in one news release. Another important news release came from several UN agencies, with a call for better integration between health and education. ISHN and its partners in our global dialogue, ASCD and Education International are very pleased to see this call. There are several other news release, statements and world leaders available from the items we identified this week. Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #7, 2015 of The Lancet Global Health, written by the Assistant Director of PAHO, the regional office for WHO in the Americas agrees witb the assertion made in the May 2015 issue of that Journal. (ISHN highlighted that earlier article in our weekly report for May 25-31, 2015. We have reposted that item into this blog here) The earlier article " reports on an interdisciplinary analytical review of the SDG process, in which experts in different SDG areas identified potential interactions through a series of interdisciplinary workshops. This process generated a framework that reveals potential conflicts and synergies between goals, and how their interactions might be governed. We noted that this call for integrated system-based responses underlines the need for the global dialogue that ASCD, Education International and ISHN have stimulated in regards to integrating health and social programs within the education systems. The PAHO article notes that "Greater synergies between health and other sectors could be achieved by framing the SDGs in such a way that their attainment requires policy coherence and shared solutions across multiple sectors; that is a Health-in-All-Policies approach" In essence, the educator led dialogue on school health promotion might be summarized with this slogan; a Health in All Policies approach will require that Health is in (actively, with personnel and funding) in all sectors (HiAS). Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in May 2015 Issue of The Lancet Global Health underlines the need and huge challenges in aligning the work on the 17 SD Goals recently adopted by the UN. The article also underlines the need for the global dialogue that ASCD, Education International and ISHN have stimulated in regards to integrating health and social programs within the education systems. The article " reports on an interdisciplinary analytical review of the SDG process, in which experts in different SDG areas identified potential interactions through a series of interdisciplinary workshops. This process generated a framework that reveals potential conflicts and synergies between goals, and how their interactions might be governed. The 17 SDGs are represented in three concentric layers. In the inner layer we find the people-centred goals that aim to deliver individual and collective wellbeing. The wellbeing goals are supported by second-level goals that relate to the production, distribution, and delivery of goods and services including food, energy, clean water, and waste and sanitation services in cities and human settlements (ISHN suggests that equitable and inclusive education systems is better placed here). We call these infrastructure goals to deliver the wellbeing goals and provide a platform for delivering the wellbeing goals. The figure's outer layer contains three natural environment goals; natural resources and public goods in land, ocean, and air, including biodiversity and climate change.In our framework, the middle layer, infrastructure goals, represent a domain for global development goal setting with particularly strong effects on inner-level and outer-level goals. A crucial lack of potential synergies at the level of infrastructure goals is compounded by governance issues at this level. Here decisions are typically taken by powerful elites and technical experts. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in July 2015 Issue of Frontiers in Public Health: Child Health & Human Development describes how such school meal programs can positively affect student friendships and reduce bullying. "The aim of the current paper is to investigate whether attendance at BCs and ASCs has an impact on children’s friendship quality and experiences of peer victimization. BC attendees, ASC attendees, and non-attendees completed the Friendship Qualities Scale and the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS) at two time points. Time-1 data were collected 2 months after the introduction of school clubs. Time-2 data were then collected on the same measures again 6 months later. Results of the analyses of Time-1 data showed no significant differences between groups on any of the measures at Time-1. However, at Time-2, BC attendees showed improved levels of friendship quality compared to the other two groups. Moreover, analysis of the MPVS data at Time-2 showed that children who attended BC or ASC experienced a decline in victimization across time. The current findings suggest that BC attendance facilitates the quality of children’s relationships with their best friend over time. Additionally, attendance at a breakfast or ASC was associated with a reduction in victimization over time. Read more>>
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