The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy has published a report on Health in All Policies Training: Inventory, Analysis, and Avenues for Reflection. The report notes that "Although the HiAP approach is fundamentally rooted in multisectoral work, the training initiatives primarily target professionals and decision makers in the health sector.. For example, when discussing the integration of other sectors within HiAP initiatives, it is common to suggest ways that representatives from the health sector can convince them to take part, including by considering their interests and objectives. Thus, one of the main pitfalls to avoid is that of HiAP being perceived as “health imperialism. To uphold the principle of intersectoral collaboration intrinsic to HiAP, it would be useful for training initiatives to more explicitly target a multitude of sectors. It seems contradictory to stress the need to take into consideration the interests of all sectors, to promote the equality of all actors and to avoid at all costs the perception of “health imperialism,” when the training initiatives themselves do little to involve actors from other sectors.” Read the full report.
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The National Collaborating Centre for Healtyh Public Policy in Canada has published guidance on how policies from other jurisdictions can be adpted for use. "When public health actors propose policy options to policy makers for addressing public health problems, they may include in their proposals policies that have proven effective in other jurisdictions – in other words, they may recommend borrowing these policies. Based on a review of the literature, this document presents a structured list of the factors that facilitate the borrowing of public policies. It also describes how public health actors can use these factors to assess the relevance of proposing the borrowing of policies from elsewhere and, where appropriate, mobilize these factors when presenting these policies to policy makers. Go to the NCHPP brief.
New results from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study’s 2021/22 international survey, reveal a worrying picture for adolescent mental health, with girls reporting worse outcomes than boys across all measures of mental health and well-being.
Adolescent girls have worse mental health and well-being across the board compared to boys, finds the first analysis of HBSC’s mental health and well-being data from the 2021/22 survey, published today, World Mental Health Day, by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. See more information from the HBSC announcement. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), a joint endeavour with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), will be extended to strengthen and expand its support for actionable evidence for education systems up to 2027. As the evidence-building arm of GPE, KIX engages 70 GPE partner countries to identify policy challenges, build evidence from local research and share knowledge within and across regions. Shaped by demand from national education systems, KIX is the largest fund solely dedicated to bridging knowledge gaps, supporting evidence generation and adopting innovative approaches by partner countries. Go to the GPE Announcement for more information.
A blog post from the Centre for Implementation starts a conversation about "de-implementation" by noting that many of us "struggle with implementing and scaling new things globally. Everyone, including staff and professionals, feels overworked, exhausted, burnt out, and not keen on “doing more.”. When people talk about de-implementation, they could be describing 1 of 3 things: (1) Stopping ineffective or harmful practices (or those that are no longer relevant), (2) Modifying some things People may need to stop doing certain things or switch from doing something they once did. and (3) Reflecting on what people could stop doing. The blog post ends with the thought that " We believe there are huge opportunities for the field of implementation science to more deeply unpack de-implementation and for implementation support practitioners to embed de-implementation into existing initiatives in various ways. Read the blog post.
School systems are a big part of the current UNICEF Strategy for 2020-2030. The summary on page5 66-67 describes the role of schools as a " an important platform for improving children’s diets, delivering nutrition services and fostering positive
nutrition practices among children, adolescents and families across a range of contexts, including rural, urban, development and humanitarian settings. The priority areas for engagement include (a) Policies and programs to improve nutrition across several sectors, (b) School curricula to improve nutrition and promote physical activity, (c) Provision of essential nutrition services through a package of interventions in the school system, (d) healthy food environments in and around schools and (e) financial and human resources for nutrition in the education system. Read the UNICEF Strategy. This publication presents some examples in which recommendations from the SMC’s White Paper on Planet Friendly School Meals on transforming food systems by promoting healthy diets, sustainable agriculture, and economic equity are implemented in WFP. Unsustainable agricultural practices have led to environmental degradation and climate change, necessitating a shift towards sustainable food systems. School meals offer a unique opportunity to promote this transformation. By emphasizing planet-friendly menu changes, clean cooking solutions, waste reduction, food system education, and sustainable supply chains, school meals can foster healthier diets, support local agriculture, and enhance economic equity. Policy changes are crucial to drive systemic change and ensure the widespread adoption of these eco-friendly practices. From UNESCO Resource Centre on Health & Education. Go to full report.
Changes in school feeding operations during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from 139 countries12/14/2023 This study draws on the 2021 Global Survey of School Meal Programs to explore changes in school feeding operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify factors that can facilitate program resilience. The survey, inclusive of both closed and open-ended questions, gathered data on 183 programs operating in 139 countries. Findings suggest that, even though school meal programs were negatively affected by the pandemic and associated school closures, they responded with creativity, employing new feeding modalities, venues of distribution, and approaches to targeting. Regression results further show that involvement of nutritionists was associated with continuity (a lack of interruption) of feeding services. Flexibility and preparedness were highlighted as factors that strengthened programs in a time of crisis. At the same time, the experience of emergencies that occur simultaneously or in quick succession (“stacked” emergencies) hampered their ability to operate. Survey results confirm that attention must be given to school meal programs in low-income settings, as school feeding coverage is lowest in such settings, Identified by UNESCO Health & Education Resource Centre. Go to journal article for more information
The CDC school health program has released a school mental health action guide to support schools in their efforts to promote students’ mental health. This action guide is a direct response to recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey findings, which show that adolescent mental health has been worsening for more than a decade and that key indicators of poor mental health have reached alarming levels. For instance, in 2021: More than 4 in 10 high school students experienced depressive symptoms and 1 in 10 students attempted suicide during the previous year . he action guide describes six proven in-school strategies to promote and support mental health and well-being. The guide also describes specific approaches to put each strategy into action and examples of evidence-based policies, programs, and practices. Schools can improve their students’ mental health and well-being by putting any of these strategies in place:
To accelerate the impact of Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) investments in over 40 crisis-affected countries, ECW announced today a US$1 million grant to the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). This 36-month Acceleration Facility grant will bring together diverse stakeholders, know-how and resources to inform public policies and share best practices to scale-up impact across ECW’s broad global portfolio of programmes which have already reached almost 9 million children. More information from the November 9 announcement.
A FRESH webinar on Covid & Schools held on 17 May, 2022 presented a post-mortem analysis of the pandemic & and proposed the development of a framework (Multi-Intervention Program) To Prevent/Manage Infectious Disease Outbreaks. Speakers presented a draft framework and discussed research on the comparative effectiveness of school vaccination campaigns and the need for better health & life skills education. See recording, slides and related materials on the webinars page for details.
A FRESH open web meeting (June 7, 2022) on the UN Transforming Education Summit (TES) reviewed a submission that identified several better practices for building system capacities and sustaining Intersectoral Policy-Program Coordination Frameworks such as health promoting schools, safe schools and many others. Over 40 such frameworks were identified in a list and checklist that emphasized the need for a whole of government, whole child approach. Examples of better practices such as employing inter-ministry coordinators, creating inter-agency mechanisms, using joint sector reviews, inter-ministry committees and others were discussed, with examples taken from the preliminary findings of the UNICEF-UNESCO-ISHN-SFU Fact-Finding Survey and Policy Analysis,
FRESH Partner activities resumed in October 2023 with an open web meeting on October 3, 2023 and letter to UNESCO about monitoring health & well-being curricula as part of the newly adopted UNESCO Recommendation (framework) on education policies and programs. A reply from the UNESCO ADG has been received and related activities will follow in January 2024 through the FRESH Working Group on health and life skills education.
UNESCO has adopted its revised framework for education policies (Recommendation) that will guide countries and monitor their progress. Several core subjects are listed in the curriculum section but health & well-being is not one of them. ISHN led a FRESH webinar on this matter and subsequently wrote to the DG of UNESCO. Here is that letter and the reply which indicates that this concern will be addressed in the preparation of guidance documents.. FRESH Partners will be following up with a webinar on how countries and other agencies have promoted this core subject as well as developing a research agenda on health & life skills education. Go to the FRESH webinars page for a recording of the discussion.
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