In 2007, the World Health Organization, together with United Nations and international organization as well as experts, met to draw upon existing evidence and practical experience from regions, countries and individual schools in promoting health through schools. The goal of the meeting was to identify current and emerging global factors affecting schools, and to help them respond more effectively to health, education and development opportunities. At the meeting, a Statement was developed describing effective approaches and strategies that can be adopted by schools to promote health, education and development. Five key challenges were identified. These described the need to continue building evidence and capturing practical experience in school health; the importance of improving implementation processes to ensure optimal transfer of evidence into practice; the need to alleviating social and economic disadvantage in access to and successful completion of school education; the opportunity to harness media influences for positive benefit, and the continuing challenge to improve partnerships among different sectors and organizations. The participants also identified a range of actions needed to respond to these challenges, highlighting the need for action by local school communities, governments and international organizations to invest in quality education, and to increase participation of children and young people in school education. This paper describes the rationale for and process of the meeting and the development of the Statement and outlines some of the most immediate efforts made to implement the actions identified in the Statement. It also suggests further joint actions required for the implementation of the Statement.

Latino adolescent reproductive health has become an increasingly important topic because of the growth in the numbers of Latino youth and because Latino youth are at high risk for negative reproductive health outcomes. Latinas now have the highest teen birth rates, and Latinos have disproportionately high rates of HIV/AIDS. These trends highlight the need for greater understanding of the sexual and reproductive health and behavior of Latino youth. This overview provides an introduction to key aspects of the Latino population. It then examines and synthesizes the existing literature by domains useful to the study of Latinos. Areas that receive in-depth coverage are socioeconomic status, family, national origin, peers and partners, and acculturation. Based on the current state of knowledge and the issues facing young Latinos, suggestions for future research and uses for existing data and past research are included.

For 20 years, "life skills" education has been advocated as a key component of HIV and AIDS education for young people. But what do terms such as life skills imply, and what evidence is there that a life skills-based approach really works? This article reviews the literature on the effects and effectiveness of life skills-based education for HIV prevention. Evaluated interventions were identified by using three search strategies. The review identified a surprising number of rigorously designed and evaluated interventions from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Most interventions used life skills training as a component of the overall education strategy. Programs worked best to positively influence knowledge, attitudes, intentions, skills, and abilities. Programs rarely produced consistent effects on sexual behavior. Also, life skills, training had little effect on biological outcomes. The narrow focus on achieving behavioral outcomes may be at the loss of documenting other positive impacts.

Education has long been identified as having a key role to play in reducing HIV-related risk and vulnerability, and in mitigating the impact of the epidemic on affected individuals and communities. This article reflects on progress over a 30-year period with respect to older and more emergent forms of education concerning HIV and AIDS: treatment education, education for HIV prevention, and education to encourage a positive and supportive community response. It points to a number of priorities for the future. These include analyzing more carefully different forms of HIV-related education, their consequences and effects, and identifying the specific effectivity of education in general and HIV-related education in particular in achieving positive outcomes. The potential of education to enable new ways of seeing, understanding, and hoping is stressed, as is the need to support education processes and systems that "think" faster than the epidemic.As we approach the 30th anniversary of the date on which AIDS was first identified, it is salutary to reflect on progress made in tackling the epidemic. This is especially so in relation to education and HIV, a field that is laden with possibilities but one that has in many ways eluded its potential. From the start of the epidemic, educationin school and beyond-has been highlighted as having an important role to play in preventing HIV infection and in fostering a supportive individual, community and social response. But all too often AIDS is not taught about in schools for fear of "sensitivity" to the subject, and its potential to trigger a negative community response. When HIV is engaged with, all too often issues such as sexuality, sexual diversity, personhood and rights are eschewed in favor of abstinence, partner reduction, "Just say no," and other limiting options.In the preamble to a UNESCO policy brief entitled HIV and AIDS; Challenges and Approaches Within the Education Sector, Caillods, Kelly, and Tournier (2008) highlighted a number of challenges to making HIV and AIDS more central to work by teachers, educators, and education systems globally. These include the absence or uneven distribution of clear policy frameworks and guidelines, the absence of HIV from most school and education sector plans, yearly action plans and education budgets, lack of training for teachers in teaching about HIV and AIDS, and the absence of good-quality curricular materials. To these may be added a number of other "contextual factors" that make effective teaching about HIV difficult. These include

BackgroundThere is limited evidence regarding the ways in which displacement disrupts social norms, expectations and trajectories for adolescent girls and young women and the resulting impacts on their risks of violence. This knowledge gap is especially marked with regards to Syrian adolescent girls and young women seeking refuge in Turkey. We explored risks of gender-based violence against Syrian adolescent girls and young women in Turkey and examined how these risks were shaped by their displacement.MethodsData were collected in August 2016 in Izmir, Turkey through five sex-specific focus group discussions with Syrian adolescents and young people (aged 15–25 years) and two mixed gender focus group discussions with Syrian adults (18 years and older). Group discussions covered the issues facing Syrian adolescents and young women in Turkey, and how these were influenced by their displacement. Discussions in Arabic were audio-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. Data were coded inductively, and analysed thematically.ResultsSyrian adolescent girls and young women expressed an increased sense of vulnerability to violence since their displacement. Due to financial strains and limited educational opportunities, they were often encouraged by parents to work or marry, both of which they perceived to increase the risks of violence. In contrast, some adults suggested that marriage could protect adolescent girls and young women from risks of violence associated with working. Being alone outside the home was viewed as risky by all participants due to pervasive sexual, verbal and physical harassment, aggression, and even kidnapping attempts. To limit these risks, many parents reported keeping adolescent girls and young women at home, or ensuring that they were accompanied by male relatives when in public.ConclusionsSyrian adolescent girls and young women face multiple risks of violence following displacement related to altered social trajectories. Some family-based strategies to protect young women from violence could reinforce restrictive gender norms and increase risks of violence. Interventions to address violence should include providing safe spaces, access to education and safe transport for young women, and financial support for families as well as community-based interventions to address the daily risks of sexual harassment in public spaces.