Recent guidance by WHO and other United Nations partners – Global accelerated action for the health of adolescents (AA-HA!): guidance to support country implementation – recommended that “every school should be a health promoting school”. This is in line with the redefinition of school health. A standards-driven approach to the implementation of this recommendation is expected to accelerate global progress by addressing key areas for improvement, as identified at an expert meeting convened by WHO in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2015. One of the priorities identified was to establish systems for collecting better data, monitoring, reporting, providing evidence and utilizing that evidence to make policy and to plan implementation. WHO and UNESCO consequently launched a new initiative – “Making Every School a Health Promoting School” – by developing and promoting global standards for HPS. The initiative will serve over 2.3 billion school-age children and will contribute to one of the targets of WHO's 13th General Programme of Work – i.e. “1 billion lives made healthier” by 2023.