Comprehensive sexuality education, known by different names across countries, is one of the most effective ways to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need to build respectful relationships, make informed decisions about their health and well-being, and protect their rights. Yet evidence on what learners actually gain from national programmes, and on the conditions that make them work, remains uneven across countries.
To help close this gap, UNESCO’s new report, Learning about healthy relationships: Effects of school-based sexuality education, looked at the outcomes in five settings: Armenia, the Buenos Aires Province in Argentina, Lao PDR, Lagos State in Nigeria and Namibia. Across these settings, learners who received comprehensive, rights-based sexuality education describe more positive relationships, greater self-confidence and a stronger sense of inclusion. The report also highlights the institutional and pedagogical conditions that enable or constrain these outcomes.
This webinar will mark the public release of the report. It will bring together government partners, UN agencies, civil society organisations, youth networks, researchers and donors to discuss what the evidence shows about effective national sexuality education programmes, and how the findings can inform policy and practice at country, regional and global levels.
Interpretation will be available in English, French and Spanish
The sixth edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop will take place online on 9, 10 and 11 June 2026.
The health of Mother Earth is inextricably linked to human health and wellbeing. Climate change impacts vulnerable communities the most. It deepens inequalities and threatens both environmental and human health. These challenges also offer opportunities for collective action on the local level, innovation, and climate justice.
This year’s workshop, ‘Connecting planetary health, climate justice, and community health: from knowledge to impact’, invites participants to explore the links between planetary health and community health and wellbeing. We will look into mobilizing communities, including the involvement of young people, as agents of change, ensuring that climate solutions are just, accessible, and impactful taking into account indigenous perspectives. By bridging knowledge with action, we aim to inspire collaborative strategies that address the root causes of environmental degradation while fostering healthier, more resilient communities.
Audience
The Global Community Health Annual Workshop provides a space where community health practitioners, activists, policy makers, and researchers can learn and improve their skills. In 2025 over 500 participants from all regions of the world participated.
Speakers
We are honoured to have excellent contributors from all over the world. A preview of the contributors:
Eliana MartínezHerrera – Lecturer and researcher at the National School of Public Health, University of Antioquia, Colombia
Mélanie Boivin – Executive Director Centres Mamik, Québec, Canada
Prof. Richard Osborne – Distinguished Professor of Global Health and Equity, Global Health and Equity Development Hub, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Australia
Dr. Rudolf Abugnaba-Abanga – Research Fellow in Planetary Health, WAC-SRT, University of Business and Integrated Studies, Ghana, and University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands
Sarah Michaud – Promote Health Now Association, Morocco
Adil Mansouri – Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Morocco
Mary Ann Manahan – PhD Fellow, Conflict Research Group, Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Ghent University, Belgium
Christelle Eugénie Gnimassou – Founding president of the NGO Triomphe de l’Intérieur, Benin
Mafoko Phomane – Environmental Health Campaigner, groundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa
Format of the workshop
The online workshop will take place on 3 consecutive days, 3½ contact hours per day. To accommodate participants from all different time zones, 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
The workshop uses an interactive format ensuring active participation through a series of online lectures, combined with community heath hubs.
Community health hubs
The community health hubs (working groups) are offered in different languages including English, French, Spanish and possibly other languages. During the community health hubs participants can share experiences, build their regional and global networks and work on their individual assignments.
We encourage participants to gather locally and organise their own local community health hubs. They can follow the central lectures online together and then continue their discussions live in the local community health hubs.
Assignment
Participants can submit an individual assignment on their learnings of the workshop. Each assignment will be assessed and can be published on the Chair website, for future reference. After approval of the assignment participants will receive a certificate of attendance.
Language
The online lectures are held in English, French or Spanish. For translation into 50+ languages, including English, French, Spanish, Persian, Arabic and Chinese, we use an AI based translation app.
Registration free of charge
The Community Health Workshop will take place online and is free of charge. Practitioners, students, activists, policy makers and researchers from different backgrounds from all over the world are welcome to join. Participants need to register using the online registration form. Registration will close on Thursday 4 June 2026, 16.00 CEST.
The rapid advance of digital technologies and the acceleration of artificial intelligence is reshaping societies in profound ways, with far-reaching implications for health and wellbeing. This digital transformation is a key determinant of health, as it interacts with the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.
This raises a critical question: how can we ensure that the digital and AI transformation advances health equity and wellbeing, rather than amplifying existing gaps and barriers or even becoming a threat to health?
Marking the 40th anniversary of the WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, EuroHealthNet’s Annual Seminar 2026 on ‘Health promotion in the digital era’ will explore this question by examining strategic considerations and promising initiatives to strengthening health promotion and prevention in the digital era.
Speakers include:
Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Poland
Kremlin Wickramasinghe, Regional Advisor, ‘Prevention and Health Promotion Division’ at WHO/Europe
Michele Cecchini, Responsible for the programme of work on Public Health at OECD
Marta Puciłowska-Schielmann, Vice-President of the Instytut Cyfrowego Obywatelstwa (Institute of Digital Citizenship)
Kerian Berose-Perez, Responsible for ‘Mental health and protection against the harmful effects of exposure to screens’ at the French Ministry of Health
…and many more leading experts in public health, research, and policy.
A seminar series titled “Brazil as a reference? School health promotion in Brazil in a global perspective” will take place during Didier Jourdan’s stay as a visiting professor at the School of Public Health at the University of São Paulo (USP). The series will highlight Brazil’s expertise in school health promotion. Drawing on diverse initiatives implemented across the country, Didier Jourdan will examine how these experiences contribute to global discussions on policies, practices, and frameworks for promoting health in schools.
The seminars will address, in particular, forms of governance, student participation, intersectoral work and links with primary health care. They will also focus on implementation strategies across different territories, taking into account regional diversity, social vulnerabilities and contexts marked by high levels of inequality. Particular attention will be paid to political, institutional and pedagogical barriers, as well as to the levers that can help make schools spaces of rights, well-being and equity. Finally, the seminar series will examine the potential of the Brazilian experience to inform global research agendas, public policy-making and international standards for health-promoting schools.
This programme forms part of a broader initiative in international academic cooperation, with a view to collaborative research and publication within the framework of the UNESCO Chair and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health & Education.
The seminars are intended for academics, students, researchers and professionals in the fields of health, education and public policy.
Dates: 20 May, 27 May, 3 June, 10 June and 24 June 2026 Time: 11:00–12:30, São Paulo time (GMT-3) Format: hybrid — on-site at the School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, and online Language: Portuguese, with simultaneous interpretation into English and French
From 7 to 9 April 2026, Lyon hosted the first Global Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres, with the theme ‘Collaborating for a Healthier Future’, alongside the One Health Summit 2026 and bringing together global experts from hundreds of institutions designated as WHO Collaborating Centres across more than 80 countries. This Forum aims to strengthen the scientific and technical contribution of these centres to the WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14) and the “Health for All” agenda.
During a session dedicated to the role of Collaborating Centres, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, and Didier Jourdan, Head of the FR-135 Collaborating Centre and holder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, spoke jointly. Hans Kluge set out the strategic framework for the European Region, emphasising the need for strong networks of Collaborating Centres to support countries in the context of multiple crises.
Didier Jourdan illustrated this framework based on the experience of WHO Collaborating Centres, highlighting three key developments for the network:
moving from scattered initiatives to genuine work programmes aligned with EPW2 and GPW 14;
strengthening links with the WHO Academy to roll out evidence-based training on a large scale; and
using health education and literacy as a structural response to the crisis of mistrust in science and institutions.
Together, they championed the idea of Collaborating Centres conceived not only as ‘centres of excellence’, but as interconnected ‘centres of capacity’, serving education systems, health professionals and communities.
The sixth edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop will take place online on 9, 10 and 11 June 2026.
The health of Mother Earth is inextricably linked to human health and wellbeing. Climate change impacts vulnerable communities the most. It deepens inequalities and threatens both environmental and human health. These challenges also offer opportunities for collective action on the local level, innovation, and climate justice.
This year’s workshop, ‘Connecting planetary health, climate justice, and community health: from knowledge to impact’, invites participants to explore the links between planetary health and community health and wellbeing. We will look into mobilizing communities,including the involvement of young people,as agents of change, ensuring that climate solutions are just, accessible, and impactful taking into account indigenous perspectives. By bridging knowledge with action, we aim to inspire collaborative strategies that address the root causes of environmental degradation while fostering healthier, more resilient communities.
Audience
The Global Community Health Annual Workshop provides a space where community health practitioners, activists, policy makers, and researchers can learn and improve their skills. In 2025 over 500 participants from all regions of the world participated.
Format of the workshop
The online workshop will take place on 3 consecutive days, 3½ contact hours per day. To accommodate participants from all different time zones, 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
The workshop uses an interactive format ensuring active participation through a series of online lectures, combined with community heath hubs.
Community health hubs
The community health hubs (working groups) are offered in different languages including English, French, Spanish and possibly other languages. During the community health hubs participants can share experiences, build their regional and global networks and work on their individual assignments.
Assignment
Participants can submit an individual assignment on their learnings of the workshop. Each assignment will be assessed and can be published on the Chair website, for future reference. After approval of the assignment participants will receive a certificate of attendance.
Language
The online lectures are held in English, French or Spanish. For translation into 50+ languages, including English, French, Spanish, Persian, Arabic and Chinese, we use an AI based translation app.
Registration free of charge
The Community Health Workshop will take place online and is free of charge. Practitioners, students, activists, policy makers and researchers from different backgrounds from all over the world are welcome to join. Participants need to register using the online registration form. Registration will close on Thursday 4 June 2026, 16.00 CEST.
The WHO has published a global reference guide for the training of community health workers. This competency-based curriculum provides a comprehensive framework for designing or adapting training programmes, incorporating core modules (home visits, community mobilisation, data collection, ethics) and specific modules (maternal and child health, chronic diseases, mental health, WASH, emergencies), with a view to strengthening the quality of primary care and universal health coverage.
This guide, designed for government departments, training institutions and frontline teams, helps to clarify the roles of community health professionals, to integrate scientific knowledge, professional expertise and the experiential knowledge of communities, and to address the social and economic determinants of health with a view to promoting health and reducing inequalities.
In July 2026, Utrecht University is organising two complementary summer schools dedicated to planetary health, bringing together academics, professionals, and change-makers, fostering a sense of responsibility and agency to address the pressing challenges posed by the planetary health crisis. In the face of accelerating climate crises and environmental degradation, understanding the deep interconnections between human health and planetary well-being is more critical than ever.
Foundations of Planetary Health
The first course “Foundations of Planetary Health” (13-17 July 2026) highlights how the Planetary Health crisis extends far beyond climate change alone: it represents a broader environmental and systems-level challenge that intensifies ongoing public health issues and is driven by social inequities, unequal access to resources, and disparities in political power. In this course, participants will build a foundational understanding of the key concepts, frameworks, and justice-oriented perspectives that shape the field of planetary health.
The course combines theoretical input, case studies and practical workshops, including discussions on climate disinformation, mental health and local responses to environmental challenges. A field trip will also provide a practical illustration of the challenges involved in ecological restoration and regional adaptation.
Transforming Systems for Planetary Health
This advanced course “Transforming Systems for Planetary Health” (20-24 July 2026) dives deep into the structural forces shaping our planet’s health – power dynamics, decoloniality, the exposome, and the economic and governance structures driving the planetary crisis. Participants will develop perspectives on how to contribute to equitable and sustainable systems transformation. It’s designed for individuals with a background in planetary health, sustainability, or systems thinking who are ready to explore these topics more critically.
Practical information
The summer schools are organized by Utrecht University, supported by the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, and UU Planetary Health Education Hub.
Dates: 13–17 July and 20–24 July 2026
Venue: Utrecht University, Netherlands
Contact: juliusglobalhealth@umcutrecht.nl or c.a.llamas@uu.nl
The Joint International Paediatric, School and Adolescent Medicine and Health Congress “STRONGER TOGETHER – For Better Health among Children, Adolescents and Young Adults” will be held from 24 – 26 September 2026 in Portorož, Slovenia. This event will bring together experts from across Europe who are dedicated to supporting young people in their transition from childhood to adulthood.
This congress is being organized collaboratively by four leading associations in the fields of pediatric, school, and adolescent health:
ZZP (Slovenian Paediatric Association of the Slovenian Medical Association)
EUSUHM (European Union for School and University Health and Medicine)
IAAH (International Association for Adolescent Health)
SSSAM (Slovenian Association for School, Student and Adolescent Medicine of the Slovenian Medical Association)
Scientific program
The scientific program will address current issues in physical and mental health, prevention, health promotion, and the social determinants affecting youth development.
The congress will also provide an excellent opportunity for networking, sharing experiences, and strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration among professionals from diverse backgrounds.
Topics related to pediatrics, school, adolescent and student medicine and health
Preventive Medicine: screening programs, health education, public health campaigns, preventive health examinations, health promotion, vaccination, risk factors, environmental impacts on health
Sports Medicine: healthy athletic development, health risks for athletes, injury prevention, monitoring of physical performance, sports nutrition, rest and recovery
Chronic Diseases: challenges and support programs in the management of chronic patients, transition of care, modern approaches and therapies, monitoring of chronic patients
Sexual Health: education for healthy sexuality, contraception, sexual identity, sexually transmitted diseases
Emergency Medicine: 2025 resuscitation guidelines
Mental Health: mental health care, recognition of mental health problems, support services, sources of help
Open Topics: development of school, student, and adolescent health care, health system policies, health-related behaviors in adolescents, other relevant topics
La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, has become the newest member of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education community following the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Clermont Auvergne Foundation, host institution of the UNESCO Chair. The agreement was signed on 22 January 2026 at La Trobe’s Bundoora campus by Professor Coral Warr, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation, and witnessed by Professor Didier Jourdan, chair holder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education.
Through this partnership, La Trobe joins a global network of universities, institutions and practitioners committed to promoting health, equity and quality education for children and young people in their everyday environments. La Trobe’s contribution will be led by Distinguished Professor Richard Osborne and the Global Health and Equity Development Hub, internationally recognised for its pioneering work in health literacy, including the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process and tools to identify and respond to diverse health literacy needs.
The new collaboration will focus on co-producing knowledge, building capacities of education and health professionals, and sharing evidence-informed practices that reduce health and social inequities, particularly in rural and Indigenous communities. Planned activities include joint workshops, case studies, and the co-design of locally relevant interventions and policies at the intersection of health literacy, education and equity.
By joining the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, La Trobe University strengthens the Chair’s multidisciplinary and international community and reinforces its ambition to support institutions and professionals in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related to health, education and the reduction of inequalities.
There has been a lot of talk about priorities, and even priorities of priorities. In terms of priorities, I know of only two: public education and public health.
About Didier Jourdan
