News
Quality care for every child everywhere
UNESCO participated in 30th International Paediatric Association (IPA) Congress 2023 and 60th Annual Conference of The Indian Academy of Paediatrics held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India from 19 - 23 February 2023. The theme for the 2023 Congress was 鈥溾. With this in mind, workshops, panel discussions and guest lectures on challenges pertaining to paediatric and neonatal health were held. Around ten thousand delegates from over a hundred countries attended the congress.
Ms Sarita Jadav, National Programme Officer from UNESCO New Delhi participated in a plenary session titled 鈥Redesigning school-aged child and adolescent health鈥 on 23 February. The Session was Chaired by Mr. Manoj Aggarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat and Dr Pulungan, President of Indonesian Pediatric Society and co-panelists included Dr Thacker, President Elect IPA; Dr Kinjawadekar, President IAP; and Mr Solomon, Global Programme Lead, Healthy Environments for Healthy Children, UNICEF. The panel highlighted the need to invest in the health and nutrition of school-age children and adolescents, which would enable immediate and lifelong benefits for individuals, as well as significant development gains for the nation.
Ms Jadav highlighted the School health and Wellness programme (SHWP) under Ayushman Bharat, Government of India. She also presented the implementation status of SHWP in states and UTs as well as the . This activity is aligned to the UNESCO Strategy on Education for Health and Well-Being, which emphasizes the need to support national education sectors to promoting better health and well-being for all children and young people.
Mr Solomon presented a brief summary on global report titled 鈥樷 developed by UNESCO, Food and Agriculture Organization, Global Partnership for Education, UNICEF, World Bank, World Food Programme and WHO. The report provides an overview of the extent to which countries have school health and nutrition (SHN) policies and programmes in place and aims to encourage efforts to improve, scale up and sustain SHN policies and programmes to improve overall well-being of learners. This report would serve as a useful reference while designing the SHWP curriculum for learners in primary levels in India.
Good health and nutrition are foundations for learning and a crucial investment for more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful futures as they can improve education outcomes, empower learners to thrive and promote inclusion and equity in education and health. UNESCO recognizes health and nutrition as a core part of its education mandate as children and youth learn better when they are happy, healthy and thriving in school.
For further information, contact:
Joyce Poan, Chief of Section and Programme Specialist in Education: j.poan@unesco.org
Sarita Jadav, National Programme Officer: s.jadav@unesco.org
