Leveraging on Global Health Promoting Schools: Ending the Triple Threat, Increasing School Retention in Kenya

Margaret Mwaila, demography
Mohamed Sheikh, National Council for Population and Development (NCPD)

Emergence of Covid-19 in the wake of 2020 not only exacerbated the adolescent pregnancy problem in Kenya but also compounded it. Closure of schools greatly exposed learners to domestic and sexual abuse/violence thereby escalating cases of HIV infection, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. Soon, it was clear that Kenyan adolescents were at increased risk of the triple threat – pregnancy, sexual and gender violence and new HIV infection. A partnership of Ministries of Health, Education and National Council for Population and Development and UNESCO engaged other state and non-state actors (core team) to adapt and pilot WHO’s Global Health Promoting Schools standards. The pilot involved three schools with 2,000+ learners. County teams of education and health were sensitized while school teams were sensitized and couched on GHPS culminating in development of short and long term plans. Using the whole school approach, one school managed to achieve water security.