| Whitman,
senior vice president of EDC and director of HHD.
On behalf of WHO, HHD has, with other partners:
- Created a Mega Country School Health Network website to provide
resources and communication opportunities for educators and policy
makers around the world;
- Provided support to WHO to convene four annual meetings of Mega
Country representatives and delegates from UNICEF, UNESCO, the
World Bank, and other international agencies, all partners in
"FRESH" — Focusing Resources on Effective School
Health — a framework that individual countries are using
to develop school health interventions that meet their unique
needs;
- Introduced a tobacco-control policy framework to Mega Country
leaders, and gained feedback on tobacco advocacy curricula and
policies; and
- Assisted UNESCO in designing activities for countries to explore
the development of plans — and to seek World Bank support
— for nutrition and other health interventions to achieve
the goals of Education for All (EFA), which provides primary education
for children with the aim of reducing adult illiteracy worldwide.
HHD staff have served as consultants and advisors to WHO for more
than 10 years. In 1998, HHD was designated the WHO Collaborating
Center to Promote Health Through Schools and Communities. It is
in that role that HHD serves the Mega Country School Health Network,
and assisted in convening delegates from most of the 11 countries
at the International Union on Health Promotion and Education's 17th
World Conference in Paris, July 15-20, 2001. During that meeting,
the fourth annual meeting of the School Health Component of the
Mega Countries was held, and it is where the above developments
were introduced and/or discussed.
The goal of the new
website is to feature countries' accomplishments, improve communication,
and encourage the exchange of information among Mega Country partners.
The site describes the Network's various school health initiatives,
and has discussion groups, news, publications, and resources.
"It's an excellent way for country representatives to stay
current on school health initiatives and share their experiences
and challenges," says Carmen Aldinger, HHD associate project
director, who specializes in global school health issues and oversees
the website. Technology will be an increasingly important way for
the Mega Country partners to exchange information with one another,
and, in the future, HHD will add online learning activities, she
added.
The Mega Countries, which represent 60 percent of the world's population,
include: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Russian Federation, and the United States.
One of the goals of the Paris meeting was to move the agenda of
the FRESH partners forward. The aim of the FRESH framework is to
focus on interventions — in both rural and urban schools —
that promote learning through improved health and nutrition. Four
proven strategies comprise the framework. They are: the creation
of health-related school policies, safe water and sanitation, skills-based
health education, and health and nutrition services. And three proven
supportive strategies of the framework include: partnerships between
teachers and health workers, community partnerships, and pupil participation.
Another important advance that came out of the Paris meeting was
gaining feedback from Mega Country delegates on ways they plan to
implement tobacco control strategies. For example, participants
from Mexico and Brazil discussed ways to protect children from tobacco
addiction by enforcing laws that ban sales to minors and discouraging
advertising targeted to young people.
Chinese delegates suggested that a portion of the money raised
from tobacco taxes be used to finance tobacco control and health
promotion efforts. And representatives from Nigeria and India brainstormed
economic alternatives to tobacco growing, manufacturing, and sales.
By next year's Mega Country meeting, delegates will have pilot
tested guidelines for creating and enforcing tobacco control policies
and a tobacco control advocacy curriculum in two or three countries.
WHO suggested the creation of advisory groups, including representatives
of ministries of health and education, teacher unions, and other
organizations. These groups would select 5-10 schools where staff
and students would be prepared to make a commitment to co-develop
tobacco control interventions with WHO and its partners.
Also at next year's meeting, each country will share a national
plan on how to implement Education for All, the literacy program,
using the FRESH framework as a guide to address school health issues. |
