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Creating a safe, healthy, and inclusive campus: everyone is involved
UNESCO’s Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future (O3) PLUS project has been intensifying its efforts to support and ensure that young people in higher and tertiary education institutions in Tanzania realize positive health education and gender equality outcomes through sustained reductions in new HIV infections, unintended pregnancy, and sexual and gender-based violence.
Working closely with ILO, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology the project brought together 13 higher learning institutions' health and well-being policy committees and implementers to a 3day training session on how to effectively implement and monitor students’ health and wellbeing policies in higher and tertiary education institutions.
Throughout this platform, there was a strong emphasis on fostering collaboration on policy implementation reinforcing mechanisms. The central idea conveyed was that for a policy to be successfully implemented and yield positive outcomes, it is important for everyone to be engaged, from the highest levels of management within the institutions (duty bearers) down to the service beneficiaries (right holders), one of the participants remarked:
In policy implementation, collaboration is key; health and well-being policies for students are not solely for their benefit but are designed to promote the overall wellness of the entire campus community
Effective implementation and monitoring of these policies will promote institutional commitment to address issues affecting health and wellbeing of students and staff within and around campuses hence leading to a safer, healthy and inclusive learning environment. This activity is benefiting 15 institutions with over 140,000 population including the University of Dar es Salaam (Mlimani campus),Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), Mkwawa University College of Education (MUCE), University of Dar es Salaam Mbeya College of Health and Allied Sciences (MCHAS), Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) in Zanzibar, Mineral Resource Institute (MRI), University of Dodoma (UDOM) , Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy (MNMA), Institute of Rural Development (IRDP) Mwanza, St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) Mwanza, University of Iringa (UoI), Ruaha Catholic University (RUCU), St John’s University of Tanzania (SJUT), Tanzania Institute of Accounts (TIA), and Kampala International University Tanzania (KIUT).
For education journey to be successful, learners, tutors, and service providers at campus must have good relationships, which in turn relies on having effective health and wellbeing policies in place and making sure they're implemented. Recognizing this, UNESCO is actively working to enhance the skills and capabilities of the committees responsible for implementing and monitoring of these policies
Higher learning institutions health and well-being policy committees and implementers
