Partnership for Child Development

The Partnership for Child Development (PCD) seeks to improve health and nutrition in school-age children and youth in low-income countries, and thereby improve their education. It was formed in 1992 to bridge gaps between academia, funding bodies and the education and health sectors in low-income countries. It utilises the academic expertise of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, in St Mary's Hospital, London at Imperial College London where it is based, and is funded by international development organisations. The organization's activities are demand-led: PCD helps low-income countries meet their school-health needs using the findings of evidence based research and international funds.

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PCD is a knowledge institution which creates and shares information. It conducts operational research showing how interventions can be implemented and evaluated at the country level, for example enabling mass treatment of children for common infections such as hookworms and bilharzia (described in chapter 58 of Jamison et al, 2006). PCD also facilitates the sharing of knowledge between academia, governments and agencies at both national and international level, through web sites, mail lists and a global network of partners. In recent years, a major focus of this work has been assisting educators and health professionals to work together to help schools respond to the threat that HIV&AIDS poses to education, health and poverty alleviation.

A major function of PCD is capacity-building, by means of courses and workshops. These include:

• An annual short course in school-based health, nutrition and HIV prevention
• Working with ministries of education to run regular workshops in "Accelerating the education-sector response to HIV and AIDS"
• Estimating the impact of HIV on education using the Ed-SIDA model

FRESH (Focusing Resources on Effective School Health) is an inter agency initiative developed by WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank, incorporating the experience and expertise of numerous other agencies and organisations, including PCD.

References

Jamison, D. T., J. G. Breman, A. R. Measham, G. Alleyne, M. Claeson, D. B. Evans, P. Jha, A. Mills, and P. Musgrove, ed. 2006. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. URL: http://www.dcp2.org/pubs/DCP