sexuality education

Symposium Comprehensive sexuality education: A global learning and sharing symposium on health, well-being, values and equity I 1-3 June 2022

Symposium Comprehensive sexuality education: A global learning and sharing symposium on health, well-being, values and equity I 1-3 June 2022

The Global Partnership Forum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), gathered by UNESCO and UNFPA, aims to consolidate knowledge management and share strategic information, good practice and research to inform stronger programming on CSE. The forum brings together an active and visible community of CSE advocates and stakeholders, advancing policy and social dialogue on CSE.

In order to take this agenda forward, UNESCO and UNFPA, on behalf of the Global Partnership Forum on CSE, will organise a three-day international virtual symposium from 1-3 June 2022.

The symposium will bring together young people, education professionals, academic experts, donors, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) practitioners and advocates, government representatives, religious and traditional leaders, artists and activists, along with other stakeholders, to present the latest evidence, promote dialogue and provide guidance for advancing effective, evidence-based approaches on education for health, wellbeing and positive values on sexuality.

The symposium will cover three overarching themes:

  • Day 1: Social, cultural and political environment of CSE,
  • Day 2: People’s participation and involvement in CSE,
  • Day 3: Processes and methods of teaching CSE

The symposium will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into French and Spanish.

More information on the symposium

Call for abstracts – deadline 6 April 2022

Up to 65 speakers from different regions of the world will be invited to participate, of which approximately 16 will be selected through a call for papers. Young people, i.e. those aged 25 or younger, will be particularly encouraged to participate and will be invited to present their work.

Contributions are expected on research as well as non-research activities, i.e. innovative programmes, conceptual frameworks and advocacy findings related to comprehensive sexuality education. Successful abstracts will be invited to make oral presentations at the symposium, and may be presented in any of the three languages of the symposium, namely English, French or Spanish. Oral presentations will be 10 minutes long, as part of a panel on a similar theme, with additional time for discussion.

More information on the call for abstracts

Deadline for submission: 6 April

Posted by Didier in News
Launch of the Global Partnership Forum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Launch of the Global Partnership Forum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education

29 June 2021 – 15.00 CEST

UNESCO and UNFPA, co-convenors of the Global Partnership Forum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), are organising a virtual launch event. This formal launch event, before the Generation Equality Forum, aims to highlight the importance of CSE to achieving bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Held during the Generation Equality Forum, the event will see a group of more than 50 member organizations stating their commitments and strengthening the global community on CSE.
Members of the Global Partnership Forum on CSE range from UN and funding agencies, civil society and youth-led organizations, academic institutions and professional networks. Together, they work to make evidence-based, age-appropriate CSE a reality for all children and young people across the world.

Register here

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Tools to assess Girl-friendly schools, Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Youth-friendly Health Services

Tools to assess Girl-friendly schools, Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Youth-friendly Health Services

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) in partnership with the Her Choice Programme has developed tools in English and French to assess Girl-friendly Schools (GFS), Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and Youth-Friendly Health Services (YFHS).The development and evaluation of the use of the tools has been funded through two small grants of Share-Net International. The tools have been implemented in the Her Choice programme countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education tool: This tool allows for scoring a CSE intervention along different dimensions with a view to assessing the degree to which an intervention can be considered ‘comprehensive.‘

Girl-friendly school tool: This tool scores different dimensions of schools to assess whether or not they can be considered girl friendly.

Youth-friendly Health Services tool: This tool scores different dimensions of health services to assess whether they can be considered youth friendly.

For more information and to download the tools.

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Save the date: exclusive preview of a new global status report about comprehensive sexuality education

Save the date: exclusive preview of a new global status report about comprehensive sexuality education

The journey towards comprehensive sexuality education: An exclusive preview of a new global status report

Thursday 24th June at 8h Mexico City ‖ 9h New York ‖ 13h Dakar ‖ 15h Paris ‖ 16h Nairobi ‖ 20h Bangkok

UNESCO, together with UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women and WHO, invites you to an exclusive preview of a forthcoming global status report on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), The journey towards comprehensive sexuality education, A global status report.

CSE is widely recognized as a critical intervention in promoting the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. But how far advanced are countries in delivering sexuality education in schools and how comprehensive is it? The upcoming report highlights where progress is being made and where critical gaps remain.

Held in the lead up to the Generation Equality Forum, the virtual event will spotlight the findings from the report, and reveal how countries are progressing in their journeys towards CSE. It will highlight the important contribution CSE makes to gender equality and other diverse outcomes, and advocate for national action to bring CSE to all learners across the world.

The event will be available in English, French and Spanish. Please share widely with your networks. Registration here.

More information

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Soft launch: ‘Using the revised International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education to steer CSE policy and programmes’

Soft launch: ‘Using the revised International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education to steer CSE policy and programmes’

On Wednesday 9 December 2020 at 9.00 am New York time and 3.00 pm Paris time UNESCO and UNFPA will organise the soft launch of the Global Partnership Forum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The dialogue will be held in English.

The webinar will be opened by Vibeke Jensen, UNESCO and Benoit Kalasa, UNFPA. Patricia Machawira, UNESCO East and Southern Africa Regional Office, Maria Bakaroudis, UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office, Maki Akiyama, UNFPA Asia-Pacific Regional Office, Jessie Freeman, Plan International and Jona Turalde, IPPF youth advocate, Philippines will be part of the panel. This soft launch will be the first in a series of online dialogues to launch and establish the Forum and enable participants to interact.

The first dialogue will deepen how the revised International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, and the principles contained therein, have been applied as well as some good practices. It is also an opportunity for participants to exchange views on the expectations and the development of the Forum as a community of practice.

For registration click here

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Video Webinar: School issues in children during COVID-19

Video Webinar: School issues in children during COVID-19

Watch the video of the Webinar on School issues in children during COVID-19 organized by the International Pediatric Association (IPA), UNICEF and WHO.

On 2 November, IPA, UNICEF and WHO organised a webinar in French on “School issues in children during COVID-19”. The invited experts spoke about the difficulties of the child in school during the COVID-19 pandemic. They highlighted the significant impact on schoolchildren in terms of learning, loss of opportunities but also the consequences on dropping out of school. This webinar wished to return to the issues in order to better guide professionals towards a successful return to school by following the recommendations.

Pr. Rachida Boukari from the University of Alger, host and moderator of this webinar, was surrounded by experts:

  • Didier Jourdan, holder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education presented “Data from a study of professionals from 42 countries on the process of reopening schools”
  • Mbola Mbassi, Doctor and public health expert at national and international level spoke of the “WHO School Health Services Guidelines for COVID-19”
  • Joseph Haddad, Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology at Saint George Beirut University Hospital, Lebanon raised “The challenges of Education and Disability in children and COVID-19”.

Pr. Didier Jourdan recalled the interest of this survey which was to collect the points of view of professionals in the field, testimonies from the field on the possible reopening of schools in different countries, and on the successes and difficulties encountered in reopening schools.

In his review of the “WHO School Health Services Guidelines for COVID-19” Dr. Symplice Mbola Mbassi mentioned that schools have been closed in over 190 countries, reaching 90% of the global student population. He added that school closures have exposed children to more anxiety, depression, violence, physical inactivity, poor diet, loss of learning, sedentary lifestyle and increased screen time but also for parents an increase in unmet childcare needs. Dr. Symplice Mbola Mbassi pointed out that schools are places of protection, of learning opportunities. They provide social protection, nutrition, physical activity but also emotional support.

Finally, Pr. Joseph Haddad talked about “The challenges of education and disability in children and COVID-19”. He emphasized the importance of a comprehensive approach to the care of children with disabilities that ensures dignity, based on the rights and needs of these children. The rights of these children are the same as to others, such as the right to education, medical care, rehabilitation, social support and social integration.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJHqv-vlia0

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Sexuality education in the digital space and Health & Wellbeing for young people in times of COVID-19 – UNESCO publications

Sexuality education in the digital space and Health & Wellbeing for young people in times of COVID-19 – UNESCO publications

UNESCO recently published a range of products that have been developed relating to a series of work exploring sexuality education in the digital space. Also a report was published based on a consultation on the health and wellbeing challenges facing young people in the context of school closures and other lockdown measures in the time of COVID-19.

The products related to exploring sexuality education in the digital space:

  • Switched On Symposium Report:A report from a 3-day global symposium held in February (jointly by UNESCO, UNFPA, IPPF European Network and BZgA). The symposium explored the opportunities and challenges for capitalizing on digital spaces to strengthen efforts to deliver comprehensive sexuality education to adolescents and young people.
  • A series of posters showcasing examples of digital spaces delivering sexuality educationto adolescents and young people across the world. This series of posters featured as part of the exhibition at the symposium ‘Switched On. The posters are snapshots of digital sexuality education providers who are doing just that – taking sexuality education to the digital spaces where adolescents and young people can search for and hopefully find, the information they need.
  • Sexuality Education for Young People in Digital Spaces: A review of the evidence, commissioned by UNESCO and written by the Institute of Development Studies. This desk review examines the available evidence on the extent to which digital content can influence knowledge, attitudes and practices of adolescents and young people (aged 10–24 years), and looks at the potential for digital spaces to be used to add value to the delivery of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).
  • Support. Connection: How are young people engaging with digital spaces to learn about bodies, sex and relationships?, commissioned by UNESCO and written by Restless Development. This research aimed to further shed light on young people’s (aged 10-24) engagement with digital spaces for obtaining information and education about bodies, sex and relationships. The report presents the results of a global survey completed by almost 4,000 young people from around the world, as well as a series of focus group discussions carried out in five countries. It provides insight into how young people are using digital spaces to find answers to their questions, and their experiences in doing so.

The report Health and Wellbeing Experiences for Young People in the Times of COVID-19 is based on a consultation in May 2020 with young digital content creators and users. It is the results of a partnership between the YTH (youth tech health) initiative and UNESCO. The researchers wanted to know what challenges youth were facing, what has changed in their lives since the COVID-19 pandemic began and what has stayed the same, and what youth-facing/serving organizations like the YTH initiative could do to support them.

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