Health Promoting Schools 2, Africa

Africa faces significant challenges educating the next generation in the context of health. Strong political action, broad participation and sustained advocacy are required to capitalize on the proven potential of novel initiatives now available to disseminate knowledge and healthy practices . These include the WHO Health Promoting School (HPS) model, however no literature reporting evaluations of HPS from Africa existed as recently as 10 years ago. In 2011 40 people from 5 continents...
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Africa faces significant challenges educating the next generation in the context of health. Strong political action, broad participation and sustained advocacy are required to capitalize on the proven potential of novel initiatives now available to disseminate knowledge and healthy practices . These include the WHO Health Promoting School (HPS) model, however no literature reporting evaluations of HPS from Africa existed as recently as 10 years ago. In 2011 40 people from 5 continents came together to share their global and regional experience surrounding the WHO HPS model at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa. This special edition follows up the previous special edition which looked at the general rationale, key concepts and perceived benefits of HPS, this time the focus is on issues and initiatives relevant in the particular context of Africa. It provides an overview of the related literature and finds that schools provide the most efficient and effective way to reach large portions of the population in the context of health promotion. WHO now supports HPS strategies in 32 African countries, recognizing that the burden of disease, disability and premature death is disproportionately high in the region, and that many of the causes are preventable. Novel applications of the WHO model are increasing; those applicable to Africa and discussed in this edition include: measures to address the widespread problem of poor oral health, hygiene and nutrition among children; a range of entry point activities to initiate HPS with validated evaluation methodology; initiatives centred on gardening relevant for sub-Saharan Africa; opportunities for cross disciplinary learning opportunities generated by inter-sectoral collaborative HPS programs; and the use of social media and cell phone messaging to deliver health promotion to at risk teen populations on the continent. Challenges discussed include the need for multi-sectoral collaboration and Ministry leadership, the current paucity of human resources and stable funding, and limited research and evaluation of best practices. It concludes that HPS offers a flexible and inexpensive avenue of relevance where guidelines and process exist, and evidence of efficacy in Africa is accumulating."