Didier

European Public Health Conference – submit your abstract

European Public Health Conference – submit your abstract

The 17th EPH Conference will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 12 – 15 November 2024. Theme of the EPH conference 2024 is: Sailing the waves of European public health: exploring a sea of innovation. The main conference is from 13 – 15 November. Pre-conferences will be held on 11 and 12 November.

This year’s conference theme, Sailing the waves of European public health: exploring a sea of innovationencapsulates our collective mission. Just as explorers once set sail to discover new worlds, we, as public health professionals, embark on a journey of innovation and discovery in our field. We seek to push the boundaries, discover new approaches, and chart the course for the future of public health in Europe.

Subthemes of the EPH Conference 2024

  • Artificial Intelligence in Public Health
  • One Health – Animal Approach
  • Social Marketing in Public Health
  • Health Inequalities
  • Global Health

Abstract submission is open

Abstract submission for the 17th EPH Conference 2024 is open from 1 February until 1 May 2024, 18:00 CET. Abstracts are invited for workshops, oral presentations, pitch presentations and ePosters. All sessions will be 60 minutes. Do not miss the opportunity to be recognized for your hard work. Learn from each other and share your knowledge with others. More information here

Abstract Tutoring Programme

EPH Conference offers an Abstract Tutoring Programme providing an opportunity for young and/or less experienced abstract submitters to receive feedback from experienced reviewers. The programme is targeted at researchers who have limited access to colleagues to ask for guidance and comments on their proposed abstracts. More information here.

Registration

Registration for the 17th EPH Conference opens 1 April 2024. Registration fees will be announced on our website.

Posted by Didier in News
UNESCO Event on Freedom and Safety of Scientists – 19 March 2024

UNESCO Event on Freedom and Safety of Scientists – 19 March 2024

UNESCO and the Kingdom of the Netherlands organise an event on its new Programme on the promotion of scientific freedom and the safety of scientists on 19 March 2024 (13.30-14.30 CET) in Room IV in Paris. To attend in person, please register here. In case you are participating in person, please make sure to use the main entrance of UNESCO at 7 Place de Fontenoy. The event can also be followed online.

The event will be opened by Ms Monique van Daalen, Ambassador/Permanent Delegate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Ms Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, accompanied by brief messages from Ministers supporting this initiative. A group of Ambassadors/Permanent Delegates will then present a Call to Action on the Freedom and Safety of Scientists and will highlight the key concerns, needs and priorities of their respective countries. The event will also feature key findings of the upcoming publication, entitled The Safety of Scientific Researchers: Data, trends and a typology of threats

There will be simultaneous interpretation in English and French. 

Flyer UNESCO Event on freedom and safety of scientists

Posted by Didier in News
Demo session Global Platform to Monitor School Health – 27 March 2024

Demo session Global Platform to Monitor School Health – 27 March 2024

The Global platform to monitor school health aims to support countries to obtain standardized metrics to monitor their school health programmes.  Aligned with the Global Standards for Health Promoting Schools, the platform was developed by WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF and the WFP to help countries:

  • Generate standardized data to inform priorities for school health;
  • Inform actions for improvements by linking results with recommendations;
  • Establish trends in school health policies and practices;
  • Facilitate dialogue between countries, international agencies, and others by exchanging information on school health policies and practices.

National school health coordinators, UN staff and development partners are invited to join.

Registration

For the ENGLISH version 13:00-14:00 CET March 27th 2024  https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sOgEGY32T9yGrINip_kO1Q

For the FRENCH version 13:00-14:00 CET April 3d 2024 https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XxO_QwVRS2CQIgM6fTAzkQ

More information

Flyer webinar Global Platform School Health in English

Flyer webinar Global Platform School Health in French

Visit the web page to learn more about the WHATs, WHYs and HOWs of the platform

Posted by Didier in News
Global Community Health Annual Workshop 4th edition – register now

Global Community Health Annual Workshop 4th edition – register now

The fourth edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop will take place from 4 till 6 June 2024 as an online event.

The main theme of this year’s workshop is ‘How can community health contribute to fighting poverty?’ The workshop will explore the root causes of poverty, and how poverty impacts community health. The value of community-based interventions – as a research method and also as a key health promotion strategy – should be recognised in this work. The workshop will be solution oriented. This year’s focus of capacity-building for the participants will be on ‘advocacy and activism’.

The workshop provides a space where community health and health promotion practitioners and policy makers can improve their skills and where researchers can gain in capacities to conduct community-based participatory research.

Format of the workshop

The global workshop will run during 3 consecutive days. To accommodate participants from all different time zones around the world, the workshop will be offered twice a day.

  • Block 1 will run from 10.00 – 13.30 Paris; 16.00 – 19.30 Beijing; 18.00 – 21.30 Melbourne.
  • Block 2 will run from 16.00 – 19.30 Paris; 7.00 – 10.30 Los Angeles; 11.00 – 14.30 Buenos Aires

It uses an interactive format ensuring active participation through a series of online lectures, combined with community heath hubs.

These community health hubs (smaller working groups) acknowledge our diversity and cultural dimensions and are offered in different languages including English, French, Spanish and other languages depending on the availability of facilitators. During the community health hubs participants have the opportunity to share experiences and build their regional and global networks.

The online lectures are held in the English language. We do not want language to be a barrier for participation. Therefore we are trying to organise simultaneous translation.

Registration

This interactive workshop will take place online and is free of charge. Practitioners, students, policy makers and researcher from different backgrounds from all over the world are welcome to join. You can register by completing the online registration form. Registration will close on Tuesday 28 May 2024, 16.00 CEST.

Organisers are the UNESCO Chair Global Health & EducationEHESP School of Public HealthInternational Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE)Réseau Francophone International Pour la Promotion de la Sante (RÉFIPS)University of Clermont Auvergne and University of Huddersfield.

For more information about the workshop, please visit the dedicated webpage.

Posted by Didier in News
A call for a renewed focus on wellbeing in schools 

A call for a renewed focus on wellbeing in schools 

Source: EuroHealthNet, published 5 February 2024

Test scores make it very clear: education systems in Europe are in crisis.1 The physical and mental health of children and youth is in decline in many parts of Europe, and high levels of social and health inequalities persist.2 Meanwhile, low pay, stress and administrative burdens are leading to teacher shortages and burn-out. All of these factors are diminishing the potential and life opportunities of children and youth across the continent. 

The Schools4Health Policy Seminar, organised under the auspices of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, discussed new approaches to put health and wellbeing at the centre of school policies and structures.

“Children and youth who are in good physical, social and mental health generally have fewer problems at school and are more likely to do well as adults. It is crucial that we create the right conditions for all young people to be healthy and to feel good. Schools are ideal places to work on this, since that is where we can reach all children and youth.”

Hon. Minister Hilde Crevits – Vice-Minister-President of the Government of Flanders, Flemish Minister for Welfare, Public Health and Family. Watch video address

Health promoting school approaches not only include health in school curricula, but also ensure that the overall culture, and the structures in schools contribute to the health and wellbeing of everyone in the school community. Evidence reflects that such approaches improve not only the physical and mental health of students and teachers, they also lead to better educational outcomes.3  

“A core obstacle to the implementation of the approach is the pressure on teachers and schools to deliver on core curricular subjects. Focusing on health is regarded as an additional task, rather than a solution. Investing in the health and wellbeing of teachers and young people will also contribute to their achievement and performance as educators and students.” 

Dr Kevin Dadaczynski, keynote speaker, Professor of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences Germany and Co-Chair of SHE Network research group

The Seminar showed that, when it comes to successfully implementing health promoting school approaches, there is plenty of work ahead. National policies lead only 29% of schools in Europe to work with such approaches.4 School systems, structures and policies often do not allow for innovation for health and wellbeing due to existing high level of demands on schools.

“Recent policy initiatives at EU level, such as Pathways to School Success emphasise the inseparability of school success and wellbeing, both of learners and their teachers. Addressing this link requires a whole-school approach and close cooperation.

Schools4Health and the Seminar pave the way for a stronger cooperation between education and health policy makers and practitioners to address wellbeing at school, ensuring that learners are given all chances to achieve their full potential and be better prepared for the future.”


Oana Felecan, Policy Officer on school education, equity and wellbeing, DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission

Another central theme of the Seminar was that implementing health promoting school approaches to health is not a responsibility of schools alone. Policy makers, public authorities, practitioners and the broader community around schools have a shared responsibility. They must ensure that measures and tools embed the key considerations of a health promoting school approach and are drivers of positive change and healthier school environments. 

“There is an urgency to improve education settings for the wellbeing of children, adolescence and teachers alike. A renewed focus on school conditions and environments that improve mental health, nutrition and physical activity is crucial. This requires close coordination between sectors, from municipal to European Union policy levels. EuroHealthNet is proud to lead the Schools4Health efforts in this area.”

Caroline Costongs, Director of EuroHealthNet

More about the Schools4Health event

The Seminar took place on 31 January 2024 in Brussels, in the context of Schools4Health Initiative, which is coordinated by EuroHealthNet and involves 13 organisations from 10 countries across the EU. It was organised under the auspices of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and welcomed over 75 experts and policymakers in the field of health and education, in addition to more than 150 participants who joined online. 

For more information on Schools4Health watch our new video and visit www.schools4health.eu.

1 PISA – PISA (oecd.org)
HBSC study | Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study
Jourdan D, Gray N, Barry M, Caffe S, Cornu C, Diagne F, El Hage F, Farmer M, Slade S, Marmot M & Sawyer S (2021). Supporting every school to become a foundation for healthy lives. Lancet Child and Adolescent Health
4 Vilaça, T., Darlington, E., Rosário, R., Bessems, K., Velasco, & Velasco, V. (2019). SHE mapping report: Lessons learnt from policies andpractices of SHE member countries. Haderslev, Denmark: Schools for Health in Europe Network Foundation (SHE)

Posted by Didier in News
Save the date – Global Community Health Annual Workshop 4th edition

Save the date – Global Community Health Annual Workshop 4th edition

The fourth edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop will take place from 4 till 6 June 2024.

The main theme of this year’s workshop is ‘How can community health contribute to fighting poverty?’ The workshop will explore the root causes of poverty, and how poverty impacts community health. The value of community-based interventions – as a research method and also as a key health promotion strategy – should be recognised in this work. The workshop will be solution oriented. This year’s focus of capacity-building for the participants will be on ‘advocacy and activism’.

The interactive workshop will take place online and is free of charge. Practitioners, students, policy makers and researchers from all over the world are welcome to join. Registration will open on 15 February 2024.

Organisers are the UNESCO Chair Global Health & EducationEHESP School of Public HealthInternational Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE)Réseau Francophone International Pour la Promotion de la Sante (RÉFIPS)University of Clermont Auvergne and University of Huddersfield.

For more information about the workshop, please visit the dedicated webpage.

Posted by Didier in News
Schools4Health – Innovating health and education “Because children and youth who feel better, do better.”

Schools4Health – Innovating health and education “Because children and youth who feel better, do better.”

Join the Schools4Health seminar “Innovating health and education: Because children and youth who feel better, do better” on 31 January 2024. The seminar will be organised under the auspices of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of European Union, and will take place in Brussels.

Background

Schools play an important role in shaping children and youth’s academic, physical, mental, and social development, with lasting impacts across their life course. Investments in state-of-the-art Health Promoting School approaches are a key entry point to cultivating healthier educational and social environments. The WHO defines a health promoting school as one which “is constantly strengthening its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working”. Such approaches not only enable students to develop good habits around nutrition, physical activity, and mental health, but are also part of the solution to interrelated societal challenges such as social inequity and climate change.

This is the ethos of the Schools4Health initiative (2023-2025), led by EuroHealthNet and funded under the EU4Health programme. Against this background, the seminar will explore how different stakeholders in policy and practice, across levels of governance and sectors, can work better together to optimise the contribution that schools can make to the health and wellbeing of students, the school community as well as the wider communities that they are in. The UNESCO Chair is one of the partners in this project.

The purpose of the seminar is to:

  • Gather experts, policy makers and other key stakeholders to convey the critical need to invest in health promoting school approaches and create enabling policy conditions for health promoting schools;
  • Spotlight country-level policies on health promotion in schools, presenting key policy insights from Schools4Health partners in Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Spain;
  • Make links to the broader EU policy context and identify key tools which can be applied to mobilise health promoting approaches in and around schools;
  • Explore the state of the art in multistakeholder involvement and identify opportunities for collaboration to create healthier schools.

Seminar programme and registration

More information about the School4Health project.

More information about the seminar programme and registration.

Posted by Didier in News
Webinar Digital Technologies for Disability Inclusion: All Learners on Equal Terms – 4 December 2023

Webinar Digital Technologies for Disability Inclusion: All Learners on Equal Terms – 4 December 2023

UNESCO IITE, in cooperation with the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), hosts a webinar ‘Digital Technologies for Disability Inclusion: All Learners on Equal Terms’ on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December).

This event is part of the UNESCO IITE flagship webinar series “Harnessing Technology to Transform Education”.

Background and Rationale

An ‘inclusive and equitable’ education lies at the core of the holistic SDG4. While the latter envisions inclusive education as encompassing all children, youth and adults, such education has historically been associated with, and often conceptualized as, education for persons with disabilities. The struggle of people with disabilities has therefore shaped the understanding of inclusion (2020 GEM Report, UNESCO, 2020).

UNESCO is convinced that ICTs can help mitigate the digital divide and foster the inclusion of persons with disabilities within an educational context as well as within society as a whole. Inclusive and accessible ICTs can be used to address the needs of persons with a variety of disabilities, to the extent that they encourage personalized lifelong learning, employment and social participation (From Exclusion to Empowerment: Role of ICTs for Persons with Disabilities, UNESCO, 2014/22).

Purpose of the webinar

The webinar will provide a platform for concerned stakeholders: professional individuals and expert organizations, to highlight and discuss disability-inclusive and accessibility-driven technological improvements in education. During the online session the participants will:

  • introduce innovative and discuss existing (working) means to enhance and support inclusion through viable and sustainable use of digital technologies and pedagogical practices in education;
  • Identify the urgent needs and both existing and untapped opportunities, and present well-informed, high-impact proposals related to the use of disability-sensitive technological solutions across diverse educational settings;
  • share organizational best practices and personal professional contributions towards boosting inclusivity and quality of regional/national/local education through the meaningful use of available digital technology and application of innovative teaching practices;
  • discuss the benefits and pitfalls of rapid technology integration in the education and socialization of persons with disabilities and special learning needs across various contexts.

Concept Note and Agenda

Target Audience

Practicing educators and academia; line government officials (e.g. MoE experts), representatives of key development partners, international and local NGOs whose professional and personal concerns embrace issues of accessibility and equitable learning opportunities, inclusive and special needs education, teacher training and curriculum design, technological social responsibility, experts from associated government institutions, representatives of welfare/charity organizations.

Date and time

Monday, December 4, 2023, 16:00 – 17:30 (GMT+3/UTC +3) / 14:00 – 15:30 (CET/UTC +1).

Platform

Webinar will take place on Zoom platform and will be available in English.

Register here

Posted by Didier in News
Intersectoral working among education and health: from words into actions – workshop during the 13th European Congress on Global Health

Intersectoral working among education and health: from words into actions – workshop during the 13th European Congress on Global Health

On 22 November 2023 the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education in collaboration with Maastricht UniversityVrije Universiteit AmsterdamJOGG and EuroHealthNet organized a workshop on “Intersectoral working among education and health: from words into actions”. It was one of the sessions during the 13th European Congress on Global Health, ECTMIH2023, in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Intersectoral working

The COVID pandemic has highlighted the importance of intersectoral working between health and education sectors. Yet they still have their own objectives and speak their own language. During the workshop the importance of intersectoral working between health and education and especially how this can be put into practice, was highlighted.

Three presenters shared their experiences with intersectoral working in school and community settings and on implementation. Bonnie van Dongen (Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) presented the outcomes of her PhD study on ‘building community capacity as a strategy for sustainable implementation of Health Promoting Schools in the Netherlands. In the talk of Patty Scholten (manager Healthy Communities, JOGG, Netherlands) she presented the holistic approach based on health in and for all policies in local communities. Local JOGG coordinators build a network, with a focus on shared ownership. Finally Ingrid Stegeman (programme manager EuroHealthNet) highlighted some of the EuroHealthNet projects on linking health and education, for example the recently started ‘Schools4Health’ project.

Health and education seem so aligned, yet they operate so separately. It requires leadership from governments and organisations and well-informed, committed people. One of the conclusions after the lively discussion with participants, led by Prof Stef Kremers (professor of Health promotion, vice-dean Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University), was that effective cooperation between the two sectors all relies on good communication and using the right terminology. As one of the presenters said: ‘ don’t be afraid to try, embrace complexity and uncertainty’. The vision and work of the UNESCO Chair on Global Health & Education which focuses on bringing the health and education sectors together on a global level, was briefly highlighted by Goof Buijs (manager UNESCO Chair).

You can download the presentations here:

Bonnie van Dongen

Patty Scholten

Ingrid Stegeman

Goof Buijs

Posted by Didier in News
Webinar “Decent Work for Early Childhood Education Workers: Ten years after the adoption of the ILO Guidelines, where do we stand?” – 30 November 2023

Webinar “Decent Work for Early Childhood Education Workers: Ten years after the adoption of the ILO Guidelines, where do we stand?” – 30 November 2023

Education International (EI) and Education and Solidarity Network (ESN) invite you to participate in the webinar “Decent Work for Early Childhood Education Workers: Ten years after the adoption of the ILO Guidelines, where do we stand?” on 30 November at 15:00 CET until 16:30 CET (Brussels time).

A recent EI study revealed that Early Childhood Education (ECE) staff were among the education workers whose employment conditions had suffered most from the pandemic. Now it is underfunding and teacher shortages that are severely affecting staff in the sector.

During this webinar, a panel of experts from academia and organizations such as the ILO, UNESCO, the OECD and the Danish Union of Early Childhood and Youth Educators (BUPL) will look at the latest developments in the sector – particularly in terms of the status and working conditions of ECE staff – and examine the implementation of ILO guidelines and the ways in which they can help to address new trends.

The webinar will also provide an opportunity to discuss the results of the study analyzing the progress made in implementing the ILO Guidelines on the Promotion of Decent Work for Early Childhood Education Personnel and what they can contribute, as well as to exchange views on the data from the recently published International Barometer of the Health and Well-being of Education Personnel (I-BEST). This barometer provides important insights into the health and well-being of ECE staff in many countries including Argentina, Cameroon, Canada and France, among others.

You can register for the webinar by clicking here. Once you have registered, you will receive a link to the webinar. Interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish.

Posted by Didier in News