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SCN Working Group on Nutrition of School Age Childrenheld during the ACC/SCN's 29th Session in Berlin, Germany, March 2002 Activities and Progress since April 2000The Working Group on Nutrition of School-Age Children has been helping to support intersectoral partnerships that seek to promote a common vision of school nutrition and health activities, which work synergistically to improve the health, nutrition and education of school-age children, particularly girl children and the most disadvantaged. The Working Group also recognizes the increasing importance of HIV/AIDS as one of the key factors affecting the health, nutrition and education of school-age children, and has given high priority to developing a stronger role for the education sector. Task Team: Don Bundy (Chair-World Bank), Lesley Drake (Secretariat-Partnership for Child Development, PCD), Joy Del Rosso (Secretariat-Save the Children), Krishna Belbase (UNICEF), Anna-Maria Hoffmann (UNESCO). 1. School nutrition and health programs:1.1 Focusing Resources on Effective School Health: The FRESH partnership was developed by UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF and World Bank and launched at the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000. Partners also include WFP, The Partnership for Child Development, Education International and Save the Children US. The FRESH framework, an intersectoral initiative to Focus Resources on Effective School Health, provides the context for effective implementation of access to health and nutrition services within school health programmes. School based health and nutrition services, such as food for education, micronutrient supplementation and deworming, are likely to be most effective where they are supported by other strategies such as policies to provide a non-discriminatory safe and secure environment, provision of safe water and sanitation, effective referral to external health service providers and links with the community. The FRESH framework provides this context by positioning access to health and nutrition services among its four core components that should be made available together for all schools:
These core components of the FRESH framework require school-community partnerships as the supporting strategies for the success of school health and nutrition programs. These include effective partnerships between the health and education sectors, teachers and health workers, schools and community groups and between the pupils and those responsible for implementing school health and nutrition programs. FRESH programmes: FRESH school health and nutrition programmes are now being developed in over 20 countries in Africa. Countries currently included: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia. UNICEF currently supports school sanitation programmes in 40 countries. Technical documents have been produced in support of the FRESH framework, including:
These technical documents are based on the current experience of researchers, policy makers and school health programmers and represent the 'best practice' for school health and nutrition programming. 1.2. Food for Education and Deworming: WFP are working with WHO to develop programmes linking school feeding (food for education) with deworming. Following a successful pilot programme in Nepal, including regular fortified midday meals, regular deworming, health education and improvement of health and hygiene facilities, two workshops were undertaken in Africa in 2001, in partnership with CIDA and World Bank, to help the education and health sectors introduce deworming into food for education programs. (In Uganda, with delegates including representatives from Kenya, Gambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Nepal, Eritrea and Zambia. In Cote d'Ivoire, with delegates including representatives from Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, CAR, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Niger, Chad. Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal). The objectives of the programmes being developed are to: improve attendance and reduce absenteeism, increase girls' enrolment and retention, enhance the attention span and learning capacity of students by relieving short-term hunger, reduce the prevalence and intensity of parasitic worm infections in children by deworming, and to enhance parent's participation and awareness. UNICEF's collaboration with WFP is currently being strengthened through inter-agency loan of professional staff to WFP. 2. HIV/AIDS and school-age childrenThe Working Group recognizes that HIV/AIDS poses one of the greatest threats to nutrition and health (often indirectly through orphanhood and impact on the children's families), and education of school-age children. Policy for strategic action has been developed by partnerships of agencies and by individual agencies. UN Interagency Working Group on HIV/AIDS, Schools and Education, has helped the development of strategic plans that support the UNGASS target of achieving a 25% reduction in infection rates among young people in the most affected countries by 2005 and globally by 2010. A major element of the strategic response is effective school nutrition and health programs which support prevention. UNESCO has presented "UNESCO's Strategy for HIV/AIDS Preventive Education" and The World Bank is launching its strategy note "Education and HIV/AIDS: A window of hope" in April 2002. Both strategies employ school nutrition and health programmes. To promote recognition of the importance of HIV/AIDS within the education sector, countries in Africa have been working in partnership with the World Bank, DFID, UNESCO, the International Institute of Educational Planning, and PCD to develop the Ed-AIDS Initiative to assist countries in planning their education sector response. Central to this assistance is the implementation of a country-specific HIV-demographic projection model to provide quantitative input into the planning process by projecting probable impact of HIV/AIDS on education supply and demand. Education planners from 10 countries have been trained in the use of the Ed-AIDS approach through workshops, in Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia. 3. Knowledge management and information sharing3.1 Update on the health and nutritional status of school-age children: A document, 'What's new in the health and nutritional status of school-age children', was presented to the Working Group at the meeting in Washington, DC, in April 2000. The inter agency meeting proposed that this document should be updated and expanded for the meeting 2002. It is being made available as a background document at the SCN meeting in Berlin. 3.2 SchoolHealth Mail List: The purpose of the list is to share information on school health and nutrition, to serve as a forum for debate and to act as point of contact for interested organizations and individuals. Documents relating to school health and nutrition are available to list members and can be shared through the mailing list. SchoolHealth is a component of the World Bank's International School Health Initiative, in partnership with: USAID Bureau for Africa, Office of Sustainable Development, Education Team; USAID Bureau for Latin America and Caribbean, Education Team; The Partnership for Child Development and others. The list currently has over 200 subscribers including members of UN agencies, bilaterals, NGOs, policy planners and implementers in developing countries. It provides a means of accessing important documents relating to school health and nutrition, which are regularly made available through the list. This is particularly important for people in countries in Africa and elsewhere whose information technology facilities do not currently provide access to full Internet and World Wide Web means of accessing information. 3.3 School Health Web Site: The School Health web site (www.schoolsandhealth.org) has been developed and is administered by the Partnership for Child Development as part of the World Bank's International School Health Initiative. The site is also supported by WHO, PAHO, UNICEF, USAID Bureau for Africa, Office of Sustainable Development, Education Team; USAID Bureau for Latin America and Caribbean, Education Team and others. The School Health web site forms part of the World Bank's web site through the thematic group on education - school health. The site is linked to a wider network of sites relating to school health and nutrition, including WHO Global School Health Initiative, UNESCO, UNICEF and others. The School Health web site can also be found on the site that hosts The Encyclopaedia Britannica online, listed under the 'Best Sites on the Web' for school health. A 'Food for Education' section of the web site is currently under construction, and will serve as a source of information, links, documents and focus for discussion. The Partnership for Child Development is working with the World Bank, UNICEF and other FRESH partners (WHO and UNESCO) to develop a new FRESH web site (www.freshschools.org), which will be administered by the SCC of the Partnership. The site will host the main FRESH document and contain sections on each of the core FRESH components. 3.4 Save the Children Workshop on School Health Programming: This workshop was held in Oxford, UK, with the aim of sharing promising practices in school nutrition and health with participants from more than 10 countries. The workshop content included experience from a range of school health services - iron supplementation, treatment for intestinal worms and schistosomiasis - as well as school-based approaches to behaviour-centered communications for health and HIV/AIDS prevention. The workshop proceedings, which focused on practical implementation, are being made available and video training materials also are being produced. |
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