Minutes

World Federation of Public Health Associations
Annual Meeting August 20, 2006
Intercontinental Hotel
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Welcome

President Cuauhtemoc Ruiz Matus opened the meeting.

The Assembly approved the agenda. Minutes from the past Annual Meeting were not available; therefore, not approved.

Member Association Reports

Representatives from each of the member associations present at the meeting offered a brief verbal report based upon the previously submitted written reports. Please see all submitted member association reports in Annual Meeting binder.

Countries Present
  • Bangladesh
  • Brazil
  • China
  • Japan
  • Germany
  • Ethiopia
  • Turkey
  • Canada
  • Switzerland
  • Cuba
  • Mozambique
  • Haiti
  • United States
  • Russia
  • Malawi
  • Uganda
  • Spain
  • Burkina Faso
  • Congo
  • Chile
  • Costa Rica
  • Finland
  • Hungary
  • New Zealand
  • Mexico

 

Following the member association reports, Turkey gave a brief presentation announcing that the 2009 WFPHA Congress will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. Dates and theme are still to be determined.

 

WHO Liaison Report

Alena Petrakova (AP) highlighted the partnership between WHO and WFPHA. She gave an overview of the Global Database for key networking and invited members to an information session during the Congress.

Peter Orris (PO), USA, thanked AP for her initial efforts with WFPHA. He asked the EB to construct a committee to move forward at the World Health Assembly (WHA) with the briefings on technical topics, similar to the ones that had been prepared and postponed during the WHA 2006.

 

Committee Reports

Awards

Theo Abelin (TA) reported that the Awards committee considered applications for the Leavell Lecture Award and for the Institutional Award. The committee received 12 nominations from 7 countries for the Leavell Award and 5 nominations from 3 countries for the Institutional Award. A question was raised about whether or not both awards could go to the same country. For this round, it was decided that both would be judged on merit and not country of origin. Paulo Buss, President of Fiocruz, was selected as the recipient of the Leavell Lecture Award and his organization, FIOCRUZ, received the Institutional Award.

Membership

Theo Abelin reported on behalf of the committee chair who was unable to attend the meeting. Four applications for membership were received from Algeria, Serbia, Burkina Faso, and Vietnam. Serbia and Burkina Faso were accepted as full members. Vietnam’s application was also supported, but they first need to contact Vietnam’s other member association and are encouraged to form an umbrella organization. Algeria’s application requires further research, as a question exists to whether the membership of the association is truly crosscutting or merely medical. Further research into the matter is being conducted and the decision on membership has been postponed to a later date.

The Assembly approved the recommendations of the Membership Committee by a voice vote.

See written report.

Policy Committee

Ulrich Laaser (UL) reported that the Journal of Public Health Policy has pages allocated to WFPHA. He noted that the policy committee should focus on looking at legislation for public health in order to develop a common strategy. Use of the journal’s pages can be an opportunity for WFPHA to highlight the impact of WFPHA’s activities on public policy.

UL noted that the Policy committee should revisit WFPHA’s resolutions and the process of how resolutions get passed and become official. The Federation needs to monitor its resolutions. Steps concerning what to do after the adoption of a resolution, as well as considering what future steps should be taken towards implementation need to be established. One suggestion was that the association proposing the resolution be charged with coordinating the implementation. Some objections were raised concerning this point and it was agreed that implementation strategies should be explored. Members asked the Secretary General to send out a packet including hardcopies all approved resolutions to member associations for their review. Due to Internet accessibility issues, members require hardcopies of communications. Internet is not always reliable, affordable or convenient for many member associations. CRM highlighted the need to push the resolutions at all levels.

See written report.

Journal of Public Health Policy

Tony Robbins reports that the affiliation between the journal and WFPHA is completing its first year. The goal is to create a mutually beneficial relationship that focuses on getting good manuscripts, a better distribution and better participation from the Federation. A good focus for the Federation is to help provide reviews of legislation and policy that relates to prevention. One idea for the collaboration is that a journal representative could go to all national associations to seek articles on policy and public health that show the importance of issues on a larger, more regional/global scale.

A new program called Author Aid seeks to assist authors from developing countries with the editing and publication process.

Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee seeks new members and asks for an inquiry into the membership of all committees. TA suggested that the Immediate Past President serve as the Chair of the Awards Committee, replacing the previous Past President.

AN, chair of the Nominations Committee put forth a slate concerning the composition of the Executive Board.

AN read his report about the nomination for the Vice-President/President-Elect which ultimately nominated Paulo Buss of Brazil to the position. See written report.

Convention Report

Alvaro Matida gave an overview of the upcoming Congress beginning the following day. He highlighted the importance of putting health on the political and social agenda, noting that Brazilian President Lula agreed to speak at the Opening Ceremony. Approximately 6000 Brazilian and 1800 international participants were expected to attend the Congress.

By-Law Change

Several areas of the by-laws may need revisions. The Assembly decided to continue discussions and to present changes at the next Annual Meeting.

Report of WFPHA Projects

Human Resources for Health

No written report available. Human Resources for Health is an essential part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). PAHO reviewed this goal in its region and discovered that the region is one of the weakest in terms of meeting this MDG. WFPHA can play a large role in reaching this MDG. In Brighton, WFPHA decided to admit Schools of Public Health as members because these are the places where future health workers are being trained. It was decided that a definition of “who is working in public health” should be created and explored.

Salus America

Salus America is a parallel organization to the WFPHA in the Americas that seeks to link associations in the region and to build new associations where none currently exist. Since it is not feasible to bring all parties together, the project currently relies on an email network based in Costa Rica. See written report.


Tobacco Control

TA reports that this project is developed within the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. In 2004, the Federation developed a resolution to initiate joint programming within the international umbrella of healthcare professionals. Ratification of the FCTC moved faster than the Federation’s petition, rendering it unnecessary. In terms of implementation, some countries are experiencing greater success than others. Healthcare professionals have not taken interest in policy level issues related to tobacco control. The Program works with medical associations in different countries to help them understand the policy level issues and to understand the role of the tobacco industry.

International Hand-washing Campaign

The Colgate Palmolive Company is working in collaboration with the Federation to promote and to examine hand-washing practices. Initiatives are taking place in Mozambique and South Africa. These countries are asked to provide the Secretariat with full reports on the status of the project in order to provide more support in the future. Mozambique reports that the project had been initiated and the implementation phase was beginning in schools, but needed more input from the local company.

Human Health Effects of Chemical Projects

See written report.

Elections

The General Assembly approved the Nomination Committees slate by voice vote to confirm the new Executive Board and to elect Paulo Buss as the new Vice President/President-Elect.

New/Other Business

Biothreat Reduction Project

WFPHA, represented by the Japanese association, attended the meeting in Japan as observers.

GEOSS

GEOSS involved technologies that predict environmental and climate changes that have impacts on public health.

The Policy committee reported that the word changes submitted to it regarding the HIV Resolution had been agreed upon and passed by the Assembly with a voice vote.

South Africa asked that Human Resource Migration be put on the agenda with a call to action.

Meeting adjourned with a reception and film screening following.