Zimbabwe’s Harare – In order to address the rising prevalence of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) in Zimbabwe and throughout the continent, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently held a five-day national coordination team training in Harare.
The training was primarily focused on equipping representatives from Cabo Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe with the necessary skills in order to coordinate and implement the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) and the Global School Health Policies and Practises Survey (G-SHPPS) in their respective countries.
The workshop’s objectives were to improve NCD monitoring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) connected to young people’s health behaviours and to advance adolescents’ health and wellbeing.
The course covered all essential and pertinent issues in-depth, including survey techniques, data management, data analysis, and reporting. Also, participants had the chance to impart their wisdom and best practices from their home nations.
The nations are expected to leave the programme well-versed in the GSHS protocols and procedures. As a result, each of the eight nations will be required to create its own GSHS procedure, tools, and funds in order to be completely ready to undertake the survey.
Since 2001, just 19 countries in the WHO’s African area have performed GSHS surveys, and they have yet to do so in the previous five. The most current polls were conducted in 2017 in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Mauritius. Several GSHS surveys need to be updated and cannot be utilised to formulate African policies. In order to offer useful information for planning and policy on NCD and other health risk factors among adolescents, it is imperative to conduct both the GSHS and G-SHPPS.
The WHO Regional Office for Africa’s Technical Officer for Strategic Information, Dr. Diallo Cheick Bady, asserts that the GSHS is essential for influencing policies and initiatives meant to promote students’ health and wellbeing. For these polls to truly influence policy, he suggested that they be carried out every five years.
Dr. Rudo Chikodzero, Director of Epidemiology and Diseases Control for the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), presided over the session and stressed the noncommunicable diseases preventability (NCDs). She stated that the rising trend of NCDs may be stopped with the appropriate policies for their prevention and treatment. The majority of early deaths from NCDs may be avoided by addressing four (modifiable) risk factors, such as cigarette use, hazardous alcohol consumption, poor diets, and physical inactivity, she claimed.
At the workshop’s opening ceremony, Professor Jean-Marie Dangou, WHO Representative in Zimbabwe, emphasised the value of the GSHS in improving health and tackling NCDs risk factors. “Adolescence is a crucial stage of human development, and it’s essential to lay healthy foundations during this period,” he said. “Adolescents accounted for 23% of the total population in 2020. It’s crucial to promote good health practises during this period of rapid physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth.”
Since 2001, WHO has worked with nations in Africa and other areas to improve their capacity to carry out the survey and utilise the results to guide policies and initiatives. In order to guarantee the calibre and comparability of the data gathered, WHO has also been offering technical support and training to country coordinating teams.
The Global School Health Survey (GSHS) is a thorough study that collects information on protective factors and health behaviours among students between the ages of 13 and 17. The survey covers a wide variety of issues, including violence and accidental injury, use of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, dietary habits, physical activity, cleanliness, and mental health. The G-SHPPSS produces data at the school level that is reliable from a scientific standpoint and sheds light on the features of school health policies and practices across the country.
