.
Education is a fundamental right for everyone, yet lack of access to education continues to be a core driver in the global health epidemic. Across the world, 59 million children and 65 million adolescents are out of school and more than 120 million children do not complete primary education.
Education is often referred to as the great equalizer and is critical to improving socio-economic conditions. It opens doors to better employment, access to healthcare and ultimately the ability to support a family. When families are educated, healthy and self-sufficient, they can strengthen their communities.
Increasing access to education and the skills needed to participate fully in society would boost the economy by an average 28% per year in lower-income countries and 16% per year in high-income countries for the next 80 years, further solidifying the direct and indisputable link between access to quality education and economic and social development.
This data has inspired policy makers, public health professionals, educators, and other community stakeholders to develop strategies for mobilizing support that would provide greater access to education, and ultimately improve global health. While strides have been made that show determination and concentrated efforts can deliver results, there is still work to be done.
Create a Shared Understanding
To unlock the barriers to global health, we must understand the connections between social and physical environments and the implications on one’s access to education. Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.
If we understand this, strategic partnerships and policies can be made that address the specific challenges that sustain positive and lasting changes to local, state, national, and global systems and environments.
Working through the Process
Like with any planning effort, thinking through the details of the process before beginning is a vital part of determining a successful outcome. To ensure efforts towards mobilizing education is valued in the community, it’s critical to consider the stakeholders involved.
The most essential stakeholder group to education are government policy-makers (80%). While collaborating with other governments to adopt policies is the easiest way to enable access to education worldwide, the current state of the world economy, budget cuts, and a shift in priorities have governments spending less.
It will become increasingly important for the private sector to step up, get involved, and advocate for improvements to education in the United States and in other countries. Currently the private sector is contributing more than $683 million a year to the United States and developing countries. Looking forward, it is critical that the private sector, which benefits from an educated skilled workforce, look for constructive ways to improve the quality of education worldwide.
Finally, parent and teacher associations, educators, non-profits as well as civil-society organizations have a unique opportunity to convene to address the most challenging global education issues. Together, we need to intensify efforts to bring the poorest and hardest to reach children access to quality education and the opportunity at a better quality-of-life.
Reimagining Global Health through Education
Compared to a decade ago, the challenge to mobilize education for global health is different. We’ve made a lot of progress, successes have been achieved, and many partners have joined the global effort to improve education access. This includes the technology sector.
Through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and access to education, sustainable solutions are empowering communities worldwide to transform their own health.
For example, advances in science, technology, and health care delivery are helping the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals catalyze a new global focus on ending preventable maternal and child deaths. This alone highlights the unprecedented opportunity that exists to transform health through access to education and fostering innovation.
We have the potential to solve the global education crisis and contribute to sustainable economic growth and equity in health, making it more accessible and adaptable to people worldwide. This is a call to action for governments, the private sector, health professionals, educators, and other stakeholders around the world to work together to mobilize education, and ensure we continue to improve global health.
About the author: Constance St. Germain, Ed.D., J.D., is the Executive Dean of Colleges of Humanities and Sciences and Social Sciences at the University of Phoenix.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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Mobilizing Education for Global Health
May 18, 2016
Education is a fundamental right for everyone, yet lack of access to education continues to be a core driver in the global health epidemic. Across the world, 59 million children and 65 million adolescents are out of school and more than 120 million children do not complete primary education.
Education is often referred to as the great equalizer and is critical to improving socio-economic conditions. It opens doors to better employment, access to healthcare and ultimately the ability to support a family. When families are educated, healthy and self-sufficient, they can strengthen their communities.
Increasing access to education and the skills needed to participate fully in society would boost the economy by an average 28% per year in lower-income countries and 16% per year in high-income countries for the next 80 years, further solidifying the direct and indisputable link between access to quality education and economic and social development.
This data has inspired policy makers, public health professionals, educators, and other community stakeholders to develop strategies for mobilizing support that would provide greater access to education, and ultimately improve global health. While strides have been made that show determination and concentrated efforts can deliver results, there is still work to be done.
Create a Shared Understanding
To unlock the barriers to global health, we must understand the connections between social and physical environments and the implications on one’s access to education. Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.
If we understand this, strategic partnerships and policies can be made that address the specific challenges that sustain positive and lasting changes to local, state, national, and global systems and environments.
Working through the Process
Like with any planning effort, thinking through the details of the process before beginning is a vital part of determining a successful outcome. To ensure efforts towards mobilizing education is valued in the community, it’s critical to consider the stakeholders involved.
The most essential stakeholder group to education are government policy-makers (80%). While collaborating with other governments to adopt policies is the easiest way to enable access to education worldwide, the current state of the world economy, budget cuts, and a shift in priorities have governments spending less.
It will become increasingly important for the private sector to step up, get involved, and advocate for improvements to education in the United States and in other countries. Currently the private sector is contributing more than $683 million a year to the United States and developing countries. Looking forward, it is critical that the private sector, which benefits from an educated skilled workforce, look for constructive ways to improve the quality of education worldwide.
Finally, parent and teacher associations, educators, non-profits as well as civil-society organizations have a unique opportunity to convene to address the most challenging global education issues. Together, we need to intensify efforts to bring the poorest and hardest to reach children access to quality education and the opportunity at a better quality-of-life.
Reimagining Global Health through Education
Compared to a decade ago, the challenge to mobilize education for global health is different. We’ve made a lot of progress, successes have been achieved, and many partners have joined the global effort to improve education access. This includes the technology sector.
Through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and access to education, sustainable solutions are empowering communities worldwide to transform their own health.
For example, advances in science, technology, and health care delivery are helping the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals catalyze a new global focus on ending preventable maternal and child deaths. This alone highlights the unprecedented opportunity that exists to transform health through access to education and fostering innovation.
We have the potential to solve the global education crisis and contribute to sustainable economic growth and equity in health, making it more accessible and adaptable to people worldwide. This is a call to action for governments, the private sector, health professionals, educators, and other stakeholders around the world to work together to mobilize education, and ensure we continue to improve global health.
About the author: Constance St. Germain, Ed.D., J.D., is the Executive Dean of Colleges of Humanities and Sciences and Social Sciences at the University of Phoenix.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
