The global community of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education expresses its solidarity with those affected and displaced by conflicts and wars that are being fought in many parts of the world. We call for solidarity in education and health -through more coordinated, integrated, and intersectoral global action- to ensure wellbeing for every child and young person.

The UNESCO Chair recently launched a call for participation to submit case studies of successful projects and initiatives on how to involve children and young people in improving their health and wellbeing. We are preparing the second edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop “How to build resilient communities for times of crisis” which will take place from 28 till 30 June 2022. In this news update you can read how to be kept informed about the workshop.

The UNESCO Chair will be active in several sessions at the online 24th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion. We invite you to join any of these.

Follow our activities through Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, our website and regular news updates.  

Call for participation: Collection of case studies on genuine participation of children and young people

The UNESCO Chair recently launched a call for participation to submit case studies of successful projects and initiatives on how to involve children and young people in improving their health and wellbeing. The collection and analysis of case studies is part of a global initiative on genuine participation of children and young people in health promotion. The case studies will help to improve, test and implement models and approaches for children’s and young people’s genuine participation in the future. They will be included in a publication, edited by Professor Didier Jourdan, chair holder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, and colleagues. Everyone who is involved in or has experience with initiatives and projects that actively involve children and young people in promoting their health and well-being is invited to contribute.

The Call for participation and the case study template are available in English, French and Arabic. For more information download the Call for participation or visit the dedicated webpage. For the French version see the webpage on our French website.

We encourage you to share this call for participation with your relevant contacts and networks.

Save the date – Global Community Health Annual Workshop 2nd edition

The second edition of the Global Community Health Annual Workshop will take place from 28 till 30 June 2022. The main topic of this year’s workshop is: How to build resilient communities for times of crisis. 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. More information about this second workshop will follow soon.

Would you like to stay informed about the workshop? Please send an email to info@unescochair-ghe.org. 
 
The second edition of the Global Community health Annual Workshop is organised by the UNESCO Chair on Global Health & Education, EHESP School of Public Health and the International Union for Health Promotion and Education IUHPE.

Meet the UNESCO Chair at the 24^th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion

The full programme of the 24^th IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion is now available. The conference theme is ‘ Promoting policies for health, well-being and equity’. The programme features Plenaries, Sub-Plenaries, Symposia, Parallel sessions, Workshops, Roundtables and Alternative showings in art and technology – that will explore the conference theme from multiple angles with various sessions offered in English, French, and Spanish.

The UNESCO Chair will be active in several sessions. We invite you to join any of these (please see the conference website for registration). The Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research will be launched during the conference as well.

UNESCO Chair and JOGG: joining forces for a lifestyle transition

Press release, 22 March 2022 – The UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education and JOGG, a national expertise organisation on lifestyle transition in the Netherlands, are combining forces to put  lifestyle transition on the agenda of national and international policymakers. A lifestyle transition for and together with today’s young people. A healthy future demands cross-domain cooperation focused on creating a healthy environment and a healthy lifestyle. Something which does not end at national borders.

“The present lifestyle crisis demands action. Action to narrow the health gap and improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people,” says JOGG director, Marjon Bachra. “We need to move towards a society where being able to have a healthy lifestyle is the norm. But we can only achieve that by taking a holistic approach. One which embraces all domains and sectors. Something on which both JOGG and the UNESCO Global Health & Education Chair agree. It is high time for a Lifestyle Transition.”

From today JOGG and the UNESCO Chair will support one another on the road to creating a healthier society, both nationally and internationally. The active involvement of children and young people themselves plays an important part in this. For example, the JOGG Youth Health Community is supporting the UNESCO Chair with an international project aimed at actively involving young people in creating a world which is healthy and pleasant to live in. Not just because participation is their fundamental right, but because it is also vital if the interventions to improve health are to be effective.

Read the whole press release

UNICEF report: Preventing a lost decade

Two years into the pandemic, the widespread effects of COVID-19 continue to worsen, increasing poverty and deepening inequalities. While some countries are recovering and rebuilding a ‘new normal’, for many, COVID-19 remains a crisis. The human rights of children around the world have not been so threatened for more than a generation.

The global response so far has been very uneven and inadequate. The world now stands at a crossroads. The actions taken today will determine the well-being and rights of children for years to come.

As UNICEF celebrates its 75th anniversary, the report “Preventing a lost decade. Urgent action to reverse the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and young people” takes stock of the effects of the ongoing impact of  COVID-19 on children and outlines the road to respond and recover to reimagine the future for every child.

For more information and to download the report (available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic)

Non-communicable diseases in 53 countries: WHO/Europe presents new visual data tool

WHO/Europe has introduced a new data visualization tool that makes it easy to see key data on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Europe, the policies in place to address them and progress towards the NCD targets.

The data are presented interactively in easy-to-understand graphs that provide an overview and trends in each of the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region. Highlighting the complex and changing nature of NCDs, this new data visualization dashboard is a useful tool for policy-makers, researchers and the general public.

The dashboard consists of seven graphics which include the latest WHO data available from each of the 53 countries of the WHO European Region. The graphics show four major groups of indicators

• premature mortality (due to the four major NCDs and the main group of NCDs in a given country);
• biological risk factors (prevalence of overweight/obesity and raised blood pressure);
• behavioural risk factors (smoking and alcohol consumption levels);
• progress monitoring indicators (implementation of WHO-recommended measures to tackle NCDs).

For more information
WHO/Europe NCD dashboard

Online course on Rights, Sex & Education available in in June

The UNESCO Chair Sexual Health & Human Rights is offering the English version of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Rights, Sex & Education” as well as its original French version in June 2022. They have created new mini-MOOCs on human rights and sexual health with new content, new experts, new formats, which will all be available on a new platform in mid-June! From comics to animated videos, Q&A’s with experts and detailed infographics, they have worked on a dynamic concept that lasts less than 1 hour per mini-MOOC.

Follow them on Instagram @mysexmyrights and check out their website to be updated on the launch of the new “Rights, Sex & Education” mini-MOOCs!

EuroHealthNet Annual Seminar: Growing strong in times of crisis, 31 May 2022

Investing in wellbeing and health equity for young and old

Our societies are currently at a crossroads. Demographic change, growing inequalities, the climate crisis, COVID-19, and the impacts of the war in Ukraine are all having a negative impact on the health and well-being of our societies. These challenges are straining public resources and the social fabric of our communities. How can we overcome these issues and grow stronger in times of crisis?  

This in-person seminar will gather experts and policy makers to explore the necessary conditions in which all members of society, including young and older people, feel like capable and valued members of their immediate and wider communities. New and innovative approaches and investments will be presented, in the context of current European policy developments, and with a critical focus on their impacts on health equity. Discussions will be centred around the following themes:

• Securing conditions for health equity and wellbeing in childhood and adolescence in times of uncertainty    
• Prioritising public investments for healthy and active ageing in the wake of multiple crises
• Exploring how we can turn our current uncertainties into opportunities for strength, through concepts like the Economy of Wellbeing

More information

Symposium Comprehensive sexuality education, 1-3 June 2022

A global learning and sharing symposium on health, well-being, values and equity

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. 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 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

UN Transforming Education Summit, September 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented educational crisis, interrupting the schooling of 1.6 billion students at the height of the crisis. Even today, the schooling of nearly 31 million students remains disrupted by school closures.

Beyond the issues of access and inequality, education faces major challenges: technical innovation, dramatic changes in the world of work, the reality of the climate emergency and a general loss of trust between people and institutions. There is a need to place education at the heart of efforts to transform the economy and society towards sustainable development. This also means launching a reflection on how education systems can evolve to accompany and support this transformation of societies by 2030. 

This is the objective of the Education Transformation Summit to be held in New York in September 2022 during the 77th Assembly of the United Nations. Recognising that education is a foundation for peace, tolerance, human rights and sustainable development, this Summit aims to mobilise and converge actions, ambitions, solidarity and solutions to transform education by 2030. A pre-Summit conference will take place in Paris in June 2022.

The UNESCO Chair is a partner in this event and is involved in its preparation, particularly in the area of “inclusive, equitable, healthy and safe schools”.

More information