This report card, the fifth in a UNICEF series that monitors progress for children towards the MDGs, measures the world’s performance in water and sanitation.

HIV and AIDS are among the key factors exerting pressure on education systems and students in the regions with the greatest EFA challenges. Halting the spread of HIV is not only a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in itself (Goal 6), but is a prerequisite for reaching the others including Goal 2 (achieving universal primary education) and Goal 3 (promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women).

This study explored the psychosocial benefits of an emergency education intervention serving adolescents displaced by the war in Chechnya. It set out to describe key stressors and sources of social support available to youth served by the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) emergency education program.

This information makes a strong case that an effective school health programme responds to a new need, increases the efficacy of other investments in child development, ensures better educational outcomes, achieves greater social equity, is a highly cost effective strategy.

This review documents the critical relationship between nutritional status and psychological development, and demonstrates the potential of combining interventions that enhance early childhood development and those that improve child health and nutrition into an integrated model of care.