Didier

The year 2023 marks the mid-point since the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for people, planet and prosperity, with a set of 17 interlocked goals that will come up for review at the SDG Summit in September on the theme of investing in people.

Education must be prioritized to accelerate progress towards all the SDGs against the backdrop of a global recession, growing inequalities and the climate crisis. Building on the global momentum generated by the UN Transforming Education Summit (TES) in September 2022, today, the International Day of Education (IDE) will call for maintaining strong political mobilization around education and chart the way to translate commitments and global initiatives into action.

Please see the message from Director-General of UNESCO here.

You are invited to follow the full programme of the celebration or one or more of the following sessions:

• 16:30 – 17:15 CET) – Spotlight session: The right to education for Afghan girls and women (watch live)
• 17:15 – 18:45 CET – Interactive Panel discussion (watch live)

More information:

Programme International Day of Education

Background document International Day of Education

European public health and consumer organisations[1] wrote a letter on December 19^th, 2022 to Frans Timmermans (Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal), and EC Commissioners Kyriakides (DG Health) and Wojciechowski (DG Agri) to express their concern about the revision of EU consumer information regulation.

They highlight their concerns regarding a potential delay for this important legislation and regret that the debate around front-of-pack nutritional labelling is becoming increasingly polarised and less grounded in scientific evidence or public health concerns

They recall the key criteria for the future EU nutrition logo to meet consumers’ needs and guide them towards healthier choices, namely it should:

• be mandatory;
• be based on sound scientific evidence from independent research;
• provide simplified nutrition information using interpretive colour-codes;
• be based on uniform references amounts (100g or 100ml);
• allow comparison of products according to their amounts of critical nutrients (saturated fat, sugars and salt);
• be seen as a complementary tool to consumer education and dietary recommendations.

Wherever possible, it should be tested in real-life supermarket conditions, and especially for consumers from lower socio-economic groups, who are most at risk of overweight and obesity.

The signatories of the letter highlight that there is a significant body of independent scientific evidence to show that interpretative colour-codes are most effective in helping consumers to understand and easily compare the nutritional value of food products, especially for consumers from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

All these criteria are combined in the Nutri-Score, a color-coded interpretative front-of-pack nutrition label.

Download the letter here

Read the Nutri-Score blog

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[1] The European Heart Network “EHN”, the European Public Health Alliance “EPHA”) and consumers associations (the European Bureau of Consumer Unions “BEUC”). EPHA brings together 89 public health organizations in 21 European countries; EHN, 28 national associations and foundations dedicated to cardiovascular diseases; and BEUC, 46 independent consumer associations.

In 2014 the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model (WSCC) – a collaboration between the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ASCD – was launched. It was a response to the “call for greater alignment, integration, and collaboration between education and health to improve each child’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development.” (ASCD, 2014, p. 6).

In the following years the model has become the preeminent school health framework in the U.S. and is used by the vast majority of states, districts, and schools. And while the use and expansion of this model has grown over the years there was still something missing.

School’s culture

A school’s culture – resulting from the school’s climate, the actions, interactions of everyone in that environment – plays a very large role in the success or failure of any new initiative. Culture is influenced by everyone inside the school but if there is one role or one group that has a huge influence it’s the principal, the school leader.

By focusing attention towards the school leader we prepare them with the skills and mindsets to implement change and to enhance their influence across the school community. We engage these key drivers of change in the process of change, and help ensure that the policies, processes, and practices across the school align, blend, and compliment.

A focus on the transformative skills of our school leaders is necessary and when adjusting or building a whole school initiative, the role of this type of leader is imperative.

Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whole-school-community-child-culture-sean-slade/

The world’s 1.2 billion adolescents (young people aged 10-19 years) now represent almost 16% of the world’s population; yet this group has received limited attention from global agenda-setting initiatives, such as universal health coverage and sustainable development. This needs to be addressed, given that adolescence represents a critical period of the life course during which many factors contributing to lifelong well-being are set.

The BMJ, in collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), launched the first tranche of a special collection on adolescent well-being, arguing for greater priority to be placed on the needs and well-being of adolescents globally. This BMJ collection examines how the domains of adolescent well-being impact on future outcomes, and how these can be supported and promoted by evidence-based policymaking and programming. Within the collection, the argument is put forward that the world’s adolescents cannot be supported to reach their full potential without addressing the multidimensional nature of well-being in this group, and by working across sectors such as health and education.

Read the full collection here:
https://www.bmj.com/adolescent-wellbeing

Breaking down silos between health and education to improve adolescent well-being

In the article “Breaking down silos between health and education to improve adolescent well-being” Nicola Gray (co-Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education) and colleagues examine the mutual reinforcement of adolescent health and education, the challenges of intersectoral working, and the joint investment needed to secure well-being during adolescence, into adult life, and for the next generation.

On 17 November 2022, 10.00 – 11.00 AST, 15.00 – 16.00 CET, the UNESCO Chair and WHO Collaborating Center Global Health & Education and the University of Puerto Rico, will organise the webinar: Towards a regional agenda for School Health Promotion in Latin America. The webinar will be held in Spanish.

Speakers are Dr Pilar Campos Estéban, Regional Health Promotion Advisor at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Dr Hiram V. Arroyo, Professor at the University of Puerto Rico. They will reflect on the significant progress and great experience in the development of new initiatives for School Health Promotion in Latin America. At this time we wish to take stock of the achievements and outline plans and actions for the future. Some of the questions and reflections of this webinar are:

1. How relevant is it to outline the regional agenda in School Health Promotion (PSE) at the regional level?
2. What affirmative steps are being taken at this time to strengthen PSE at the regional level?
3. What should be the political, structural and programmatic priorities to configure the regional PES agenda?

Register here. Registration is free. After registering, you will receive a login link for the webinar.

More information

Webinar series

This webinar is the first of a series of five webinars around the theme “Towards a new agenda for School Health Promotion in Latin America and Spain”. The following webinars are planned:

Date	Topic off the webinar
17 November 2022	Towards a regional agenda for School Health Promotion in Latin America.
19 January 2023	Assessment and opportunities to strengthen research in Health Promotion on children and adolescents in Latin America.
16 March 2023	The curricular experience in School Health Promotion.
11 May 2023	The Promotion and Education of Comprehensive Sexual Health in educational systems.
28 September 2023	The importance of inserting the gender perspective in educational systems and school curricula.

On the 10th of November 2022 JOGG (Healthy Youngsters with a Healthy Future) will launch their new free E-learning: Challenging the obesogenic environment – Towards a Community-Based Approach.

Sharing knowledge, skills and good examples forms the basis of the Dutch JOGG-approach. They believe that learning from each other’s experiences, successes and mistakes is the best way to move forward together. Tackling excess weight and obesity is a major and complex issue facing governments, organisations and programmes worldwide. Despite cultural and local differences, the challenges we face are surprisingly similar. That’s why JOGG joined forces with Maastricht University to create the free E-learning: Challenging the obesogenic environment – Towards a Community-Based Approach.

In this E-learning professionals and others who are interested will learn how to set up and facilitate a community-based approach (CBA) focused on creating healthy environments that will enable children and young people to have a healthy future.

The E-learning can provide extra support in setting up a community based approach. Professor in Health Promotion, Stef Kremers of Maastricht University, will introduce the E-learning in 45 minutes.  

Location: Online via Zoom. Link will follow after registration.
When: November 10^th, 14.00 – 14.45 (CET, GMT +1) 
Register: here, before November 4^th 

‘It takes a village to raise a child’

More specifically, the following thematic focuses will be on the agenda: 

• Thematic Focus 1: Involving stakeholders within and outside of the health sector and coordinating their efforts during LLLH policy implementation;  
• Thematic Focus 2: Ensuring the local community’s participation in LLLH policy implementation, with a focus on vulnerable groups; 
• Thematic Focus 3: Strengthening the monitoring and evaluation of LLLH and enhancing policy visibility. 

The webinar will be held in English, French, and Spanish.

For more information and registration.

About the webinar series 

This three-part webinar series will result in a final co-created roadmap for the enactment of the Yeonsu Declaration for Learning Cities. UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC) members will work towards the development of LLLH policies, inventories of initiatives and step-by-step action plans to build a health learning pathway for all. For cities and partners beyond the UNESCO GNLC, the webinars are an opportunity to join a rich exchange on LLLH policy development and initiatives and explore the diverse learning city development processes of UNESCO GNLC members. This could serve as a starting point for further involvement and, in some cases, future membership in the network.