Cuauhtémoc Ruiz Matus
President’s Report 2004-2006

In 2004 I was honored to take the Presidency of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the largest NGO in the public heath field around the world.

When I became President I considered that the permanent challenge of an international non governmental organization like WFPHA is the institution of democracy at all levels of decision-making of its structure; it has been the rule and should always be the main rule. Cohesion, legitimacy and transcendence relies on this capacity.

A global commitment like this can be faced only by the leadership of a team, not of a single person. The role that all the members of the Executive Board have been playing during these years is strategic for the future of our WFPHA, but the role that the members play day by day in their own countries and regions is essential for building a better future for the world.

In 2004 the consensus of the Executive Board was to work in two dimensions of public health. The first was to work on our mission as professionals of public health and build new opportunities for equity in health. The second was to carry out our responsibilities as leaders of the largest organization in public health around the globe.

This proposal involved both internal and external work:

• Internal: Consolidation and leadership as a condition for our mission

Public health workers around the world are strategic leaders for the social and economic development of nations; we build opportunities and safeguard health conditions and security for the people. We need to make this true for every public health worker in the world – that is the way to consolidation. But this purpose requires many processes along the way, which in turn depend on having a sustainable organization.

The commitment of our members to the WFPHA and the WFPHA’s commitment to its members are both essential. I can say without any doubt that this is one of our most precious values.

It would be unfair of me not to recognize the support that the American and Canadian Public Health Associations have provided in this field. The continuity of our organization has been possible thanks to these two members and to the commitment of our well organized Secretariat that is led by a great team: Barbara Hatcher and Chris Rosene.

Like any other organization, WFPHA is in the process of redefinition. For this Annual Meeting we have planned to conclude a long procedure in this matter. We now have the opportunity to reorganize the role of our Board to face the challenges of a changing world.

I want to thank, Margaret Hilson, Elinor Wilson, Illona Kickbusch, Allen Jones, Assib Nasim, Georges Benjamin, Gerald Dafoe, Russell Morgan, Theodor Abelin, and many others who have worked on this planning procedure.

• External: Promote effective public health policies and practices as our mission.

Public health is more than good programs, cross-cutting policies and effective actions; public health is a social movement that involved us all at many specific and simultaneous times.

Again, the strategic actions taken for this purpose rely on the efficiency of our technical committees. But our force is in our members that fight day by day in the detection of local, regional and global challenges for public health.

I have witnessed the construction of joint initiatives among our members and among national, regional and international organizations. The European Public Health Association and its members in the Persistent Organic Pollution and Human Health action program is a good example of this, and it is a great opportunity for me to thank Ulrich Laaser for his dedication.

The work that Costa Rican Public Health Association (ACOSAP), the Caribbean Public Health Association, and Mexican Society of Public Health are developing in the Americas region for the Characterization of the Public Health Work Force is an example of building specific benefits for public health workers in the future.

The Brazilian Association of Collective Health (ABRASCO) assumed the enormous challenge to lead this “collective and global health agreement” symbolized in this World Congress, and the Public Health Association of Turkey will face it in 2009.

The Tobacco Control Program has become a common interest for most of our membership. The Tanzanian Public Health Association played a key role in its adoption and Theo Abelin took it on as a professional cause and spread it throughout our membership.

The incorporation of Schools of Public Health into the WFPHA, an initiative led by Margaret and Theo in 2004, gave a new dimension to our work; the Program for Advancing the Millennium Development Goals, developed by associations and schools of public health at the regional level, became a real alliance for public health. The participation of the Association for Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) and the Latin American and Caribbean Association of Education in Public Health (ALAESP) in this initiative is an opportunity for the analysis of new possibilities .

The potential of our actions around the world is, in most of the cases, related directly to the World Health Organization and its regional offices, which have taken an active role in our programs. It is fair to recognize the commitment that WHO has had to our shared public health goals. Special thanks to Mario Dal Poz, our past liaison officer, and to Alena Petrakova, who is our new liaison officer at WHO but who is also an old friend of WFPHA. Special thanks also to Charles Godue for working hand-in-hand with us on some of our programs.

I want to thank especially all the presidents of our Public Health Associations and the deans of Schools of Public Health around the world, as well as all the executive directors or secretariats of our membership, for your hospitality to me as President of this enormous and significant organization.

I am sorry that I am unable to mention all the actors in our organizations around the world, and I apologize for that, but I am afraid that I would have to write 500 more pages.

It has been an honor for me to share this space with the most important leaders of public health around the world.

Sincerely,

Cuauhtémoc Ruiz Matus

President

World Federation of Public Health Association