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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. 

On Tuesday 18 October 2022 a Ministerial Meeting was organised to discuss the progress of the School Meals coalition so far and establish ways to move forward as it enters its second year. The Research Consortium published the Stockholm Statement which informed the ministers of the School Meals Coalition, covering the lessons learned from the pandemic to date, insights gained on the design and benefits of school health and nutrition programmes, examples of best practice in national school meals programming, and how these insights can be translated into policy.

The School Meals Coalition is an emerging initiative of governments and a wide range of partners to drive actions that can urgently re-establish, improve and scale up food and education systems, support pandemic recovery and drive actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) hosted an interdisciplinary summit on 12-14 October 2022, focusing on health issues in children and adolescence in the post-COVID era.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have a long-lasting and negative impact on children’s development and health. Weight gain, increased screen time, less physical activity, and decreased social interactions have all contributed to unhealthier lives. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated and exacerbated many of the pre-existing racial and socioeconomic health disparities.

Health promotion interventions for children and adolescents have the potential to influence health and well-being sustainably in the life-course. The 2nd Interdisciplinary Summit “Future of Health – Child Health and Wellbeing” addressed these challenges and focused on the fundamental changes that are imperative for sustainable child and adolescent health.

This conference was built on the UNICEF report: “Preventing a Lost Decade – Urgent action to reverse the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and young people“.

Didier Jourdan spoke on the theme: “Preventing a lost decade: supporting every community to become a foundation for healthy lives”.

More information

TeEACH (Transforming Early Education and Child Health Research Centre ) is organising an interactive symposium: “Children and their Families Need Social Connection to Thrive” on Wednesday 2 November 2022 from 9.00 – 16.00 AEDT, 23.00 (1 Nov) – 6.00 (2 Nov) CET.

Social (dis)connection is a critical social policy issue, with one in three Australians reporting that they feel extended periods of loneliness. We know from a broad body of research that children are healthier, happier, and learn better when surrounded by community and feel a sense of place, identity and belonging. It has never been more critical to re-energise the notion that it takes a village to raise healthy children.

Community connectedness is the glue that can reintegrate a disparate service system while supporting sustained, meaningful change long after programs end. Researchers at TeEACH are interested in understanding the strengths, resilience, and resources present within every community.

This interactive symposium brings together the voices of children, families, policymakers, service providers, volunteers and researchers to explore new ways of thinking about community connectedness and how to champion it for children and their families.

Register to attend

UNESCO/Global Campus of Human Rights Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Science and Human Rights is out and open for enrolment. The course, which is the first ever educational content on this topic, will be running from 10 October to 13 November 2022. Registration is free and open until 23 October.

Why a MOOC on Science and Human Rights?

Scientific freedom and responsibility have to be enabled and practiced. They benefit both scientists and policymakers; they also benefit all of us. Yet, these benefits will not be achieved if the status of scientific freedom and responsibility as a human right, as well as their linkages with other human rights, are not well understood or are plainly neglected. At present, we have a human rights knowledge-gap that needs to be closed if science is to be objective, evidence-based, free from undue interference and accessible. Closing this gap will enable scientific researchers to claim and exercise their rights relating to the conduct of science and policymakers to meet their human rights obligations and create a healthy environment for rights-driven science, which is a cornerstone for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This MOOC, offered in partnership with UNESCO, is the first dedicated educational engagement on the human rights-based approach (HRBA) to scientific freedom and responsibility, which is also accessible, at scale and cross-disciplinary in its engagement with human rights.

What does the programme look like?

The MOOC runs over 5 weeks and is organised in 2 modules.

Module 1 explains connections and frameworks and tackles two important questions:

• Why connect science and human rights?
• What is a human rights-based approach to scientific freedom and responsibility?

Module 2 is devoted to the HRBA in practice and responds to 3 key questions:

• What is science for human rights?
• What is an enabling environment for scientific freedom?
• How can you use a HRBA to science to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?

Interested in joining?

This MOOC is mainly for scientists, university-level science students and policymakers around the world who want to understand and practise a HRBA to scientific freedom and scientific responsibility.

Promoting diverse participation, including in terms of gender, is a key consideration.

For more information and to enroll, visit www.gchumanrights.org/shr

For further queries, e-learning@gchumanrights.org

Watch the special teaser: MOOC Science and Human Rights – YouTube

The Department of Health Systems and Services of the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO) is organizing the 3^rd webinar in a series called “Policy Options for Strengthening and Transforming Health Systems in the Americas” on 11 October 2022 at 10:00 (EDT) / 16:00 (CET). The aim of the webinar series is to bring together key actors representing all sectors of the health field and facilitating the exchange of experiences, tools and lessons learned that are emerging in the Region for the transformation of health systems.

The topic of the 3^rd webinar is: “As health reform impacts on barriers to access, are our health systems ready to move towards resilience and universal access?”. How to recover the gains made in the region and ensure the resilience of health systems in this context? Register to learn about different country experiences in the region in analysing and addressing access barriers as a starting point for the development of resilient health systems.

You can register for this webinar here.

The webinar will be offered with simultaneous translation in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.

This webinar series is part of the “Strategy for Building Resilient Health Systems and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery to Sustain and Protect Public Health Gains”, adopted by the PAHO Member States in 2021, which entrusted the Organization with the task to provide technical cooperation to Member States to strengthen capacities and promote regional cooperation and dialogue and the sharing of knowledge and experiences.

More information

Registration