National School Health and Nutrition Strategy.

The National School Health and Nutrition Strategy (SHN) is a sectoral national strategy of Ethiopia. Its main goal is to improve access and educational achievement of schoolchildren through health and nutrition interventions in educational establishments in Ethiopia.
Its main objectives are, to promote joint planning, designing and implementation of sustainable and quality health and nutrition interventions across the education sector and, to strengthen coordination, linkage and partnership of SHN interventions by relevant ministries, communities and other stakeholders.
Its specific objectives are: (1) to improve the quality of education by ensuring the development of child-friendly school environments; (2) to promote the provision of safe and sanitary school environments which includes clean and potable water that is well maintained and with gender-segregated hygiene and sanitation facilities; (3) to promote the provision of health and nutrition services that can be readily delivered through schools and close to the children’s locality; (4) to complement policies and strategies which define how health and nutrition is to be addressed in schools; (5) to promote skills-based health and nutrition education that is delivered by trained teachers and health personnel at all levels; (6) to ensure mechanisms are put in place for ownership and sustainability of SHN programmes (such as school feeding programmes and other promotive nutrition interventions, cooking demonstrations and school gardens) thereby, increasing access and completion rates by reducing dropout and absenteeism prevalent in chronically food insecure areas of the country.
An institutional framework will be established at all administrative levels to enable coordination of SHN at federal, regional, Woreda, Kebele and school levels. The establishment of the institutional framework will result in the establishment of coordination which will bring together members of government sectors (education, health, water, agriculture, and women’s affairs) and other stakeholders; development partners and humanitarian agencies; communities (including members of NGOs, and community-based/faith-based organizations); and parents, teachers and students.
A monitoring and evaluation system will be developed, specifying mechanisms, tools and indicators helpful for monitoring the effectiveness of SHN programmes in achieving health and educational outcomes.
The National SHN Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee will be an inter-sectoral committee comprising mainly of the key government line ministries, but not limited to the Ministries of Education, Health, Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Water and Energy Resources and other relevant ministries and stakeholders. The Ministry of Education will serve as a permanent secretary to the Coordinating Body responsible for coordination, resource mobilization and advocacy.