Partnership for Child Development update

The PCD celebrate their 20th anniversary

Guardian’s Global Development Network

The Guardian’s Global Development Network recently published an article written by the Partnership for Child Development for the 1^st ever International School Meals Day.  

The article speaks about the impact of the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) initiative, which sees free school meals provided to children in low and middle income countries, which have been sourced from local smallholder farmers. The initiative encourages children to attend school, ensuring they are well-fed and better able to concentrate whilst there. At the same time, HGSF guarantees a sustainable income for smallholder farmers and others working along the school feeding supply chain.

• Read the blog, School meals – as good for farmers as they are for children?  
• Read more about Home Grown School Feeding.

PCD’s second Southeast Asia School Health and Nutrition Course  

The Partnership for Child Development (PCD) co-organised the 2^nd annual school health and nutrition (SHN) training course in Southeast Asia, hosted by Laos ministries of health and education in Vientiane, Laos. The course trained 40 participants drawn from governments, development partners and SHN organisations from 11 countries in the Southeast Asia region. Covering the key topics of parasite control and human resource development in SHN, the course employed practical workshops to promote the development of cross-sectoral action plans for SHN programmes. Guest presentations were given by the Global Partnership for Education, GIZ and the London Centre for NTD Research. The course ran from 13–20 February and was supported by the Japan Consortium for Global School Health Research and Mahidol University alongside PCD.

• Read more about the Second Annual SHN Southeast Asia Course
• Access Course Information and Presentations

The launch of the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research

On 30 January 200 participants attended the launch of the London Centre for NTD Research and heard from House of Lord’s speaker and member of the Labour Party, Baroness Hayman among others. The launch of the centre marked the first anniversary of the commitments made to the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).  The Centre is a joint initiative of Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) and will utilize and coordinate NTD expertise and research in London. In the first instance, research will focus on soil transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis and trachoma.  From Imperial College London, PCD and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), will play a key role in providing operational and coordinating expertise. 

• Read more about the Launch of the London Centre
• Read more about the London Centre for NTD Research

PCD’s 20^th Anniversary

Former President of Ghana H.E. John Kufuor warmly commended PCD’s work during a video address to an event celebrating PCD’s 20^th Anniversary at the end of 2012. The cocktail and canapés event brought together friends and supporters including UK parliamentarians, CEOs of pharmaceutical companies and school health and nutrition experts to its successes over the past two decades and to take a glimpse at future directions. Speeches looking at PCD’s past, present and future were given by PCD’s Executive Director, Lesley Drake and Chair of PCD’s Board, Nilanthi de Silva.

• Read more about the Anniversary Event
• Read PCD’s Anniversary Document

Also released at the end of last year, download PCD’s Annual Report 2011 - 2012