Photo: © Tigran Yepoyan, UNESCO
On 16-18 February, 2015 UNESCO Moscow Office in collaboration with UNFPA Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, WHO Regional Office for Europe, the German Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) European Network organized a technical consultation for 18 European and Central Asian countries to review the progress made in providing adolescents and youth with access to health education, including comprehensive education on sexual and reproductive health, and identify opportunities to improve the quality and effectiveness of such education at national scale.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) the education sector is mandated to equip children and young people with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to live safe and healthy lives. Various subjects and optional courses have been developed in the countries to provide learners with life skills and health education. Elements of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education have been included into curricula across the region. However "sensitive" topics are often excluded from classroom discussion and student miss important information about sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights. Lack of political will and societal support prevent comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education to be fully integrated into broader life skills-based health education. Teachers' abilities to discuss SRH issues, including those related to HIV prevention, and apply participatory approaches are generally weak as they do not receive proper preparation. Parents’ objections exacerbate the situation.
These and other challenges were the focus of discussions organized by UNESCO, UNFPA, WHO, IPPF and BZgA for experts from 18 countries including Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The participants from national ministries of education, health, youth affairs, national and international civil society organizations and UN agencies reviewed the situation in the countries related to healthy lifestyle education and identified the gaps and opportunities for improving the quality and effectiveness of this education.
Dr. Evert Ketting, an international consultant and researcher in area of sexual and reproductive health and rights, set the grounds for the discussions by presenting the changing context of young people’s live in the 21st century which affects their growth, development, behavior and health. Tamar Khomasuridze of UNFPA EECA Regional Office, Gunta Lazdane of WHO Regional Office for Europe and Lena Luyckfasseel of IPPF Europe drew participants’ attention to the importance of protection of sexual and reproductive health of young people for their successful transition to adulthood and lifelong flourishing and provided key facts about young people health in EECA countries, patterns and trends in their sexual behavior and health outcomes. Tigran Yepoyan of UNESCO and Marija Vasileva-Blazev of UNFPA EECARO presented the results of the joint UNESCO-UNFPA assessment of the situation related to health and SRH education in the regional countries. This presentation was followed by intensive and exciting discussion which aimed to identify the key challenges, promising approaches and good practice in gaining political and societal support to SRH education, engaging parents into school-based health and life skills education programmes, improving the curricula, content, delivery modes and learning materials for SRH education, enhancing teacher preparation and support, strengthening monitoring and evaluation of health education, boosting peer education and using ICT-based solutions for non-formal SRH education.
Following the discussions, country representatives shared good practice in all the areas discussed. Irina Scorbun of the Ukrainian charity fund “Women Health and Family Planning” told about UNESCO and IPPF supported parent education project which reached more than 10,000 parents in Ukraine. Kai Part of the University of Tarty (Estonia) presented the case of two-prong approach which combined the delivery of comprehensive sexuality education in schools with availability of youth-friendly SRH services. This approached proved its effectiveness as it contributed to prevention on STI/HIV/unintended pregnancy prevention among young people in Estonia and was documented in UNESCO’s publication “School-based sexuality education programmes. A cost and cost-effectiveness analysis in six countries” (2011). Jamilya Usupova of the National Health Promotion Centre shared the new optional course on health education for grades 6-11 which was introduced in Kyrgyz schools in 2014. Fedja Mehmedovic of the Association XY told about implementation of the new comprehensive healthy lifestyle education curriculum in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Anina Chileva of the National Centre for Public Health and Analysis told about the role of peer education in the promotion of healthy lifestyle education in Bulgaria. Vladimir Ponomarenko of the Ukrainian Association of Teachers and Trainers shared the lessons learnt from teaching “Basics of Health” obligatory subject in Ukrainian schools. Madina Ibragimova of UNFPA office in Kazakhstan told about the pilot project implemented in Eastern Kazakhstan where in three colleges SRH issues had been integrated into existing valeology course following the recommendations of the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Tatyana Raifshnaider of the Children Development Research Centre presented the model of psychological counseling and support to health education in Russian schools. Cases of good practice in healthy lifestyle promotion from Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania were also presented and discussed. Olaf Kapella of the Austrian Institute for Family Studies, University of Vienna, shared examples of holistic SRH education in European countries and Dr. Evert Ketting spoke about the importance of and approaches to evaluation of holistic health education. At the end of the consultation, UNESCO, UNFPA, WHO, BZgA and IPPF presented internationally agreed tools for development, implementation and evaluation of health education programmes with focus on SRH issues: International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, It is All One Curriculum. Guidelines and Activities for a Unified Approach to Sexuality, Gender, HIV, and Human Rights Education, Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe and Implementation Guidance, and many other. Based on the identified challenges, presented cases of good practice, available tools and proven strategies participants defined strategies, key action points and capacity-building needs that would be considered by UN agencies and other organisations and partners for further cooperation to strengthen SRH education in the region.
Participants say about the meeting:
"It was a good opportunity to build up our country intersectoral teams and develop country specific action plan, as a starting point for our future activities." (Nadica Kostoska, Velimir Saveski, Brankica Mladenovic, (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
"It was a good opportunity for sharing ideas and experiences." (Berna Dilbaz, Turkey)
"It was a pleasure to meet you all, have the discussions and get to know the situation of sexuality education in all the participating countries." (Kai Part, Estonia)
"I learned a lot and I’m really impressed what you all have set up already in all of these countries. Congratulations!" (Olaf Kapella, Austria)
"Experience sharing and lessons learnt gave all of us an opportunity to critically evaluate performed activities and develop country-specific actions plan in the filed of Healthy Lifestyle, Sexual and Reproductive Health Education." (Marina Melkumova, Armenia)
"It was a great pleasure and professional benefit to be a part of such an outstanding meeting. I hope that this would make an input for changes on national level regarding the policy on health education." (Biljana Begovic-Vuksanovic and Katarina Sedlecky, Serbia)
"Such very meetings are very useful as they allow networking, experience exchange and collaborative learning." (Galina Lesco and Galina Gavrilitsa, Republic of Moldova)
The report on the meeting is available on the website of Children Development Research Centre
Programme of the meeting is available here
Source: UNESCO Office in Moscow