Regional cooperation of public health associations

Purpose: Participants attending the session will be able to understand the importance of regional cooperation of PHAs; describe the process needed and the challenges in establishing regional cooperation; and recommend future ways of strengthening regional cooperation of PHAs.

 

Summary: Public health has never been limited by national borders. As the globalization of our world continues and the borders within countries become less and less important there is a huge need in creating cooperation between PHAs. One form of such initiative is the establishment of regional cooperation among National PHAs in working towards a common agenda and action. Considering the need for such regional cooperation few African PHAs have tried to join their efforts in the establishment of regional cooperation. As part of this initiative few regional consultations and meetings were held among national PHAs in forming the regional cooperation.

 

Although there is willingness and commitment from most PHAs to form the regional cooperation, the existence of different challenges is affecting the realization. Among the challenges, the non-existent or weakness of national PHAs, the need for substantial resources, and language barriers/variations across the region (English, French, and Portuguese) are the major ones affecting the cooperation.

 

Using experiences from other regions and support from WFPHA, PHAs from developed countries and the African Union the process will continue to form a strong regional cooperation which will have a considerable contribution to public health in the African Region and global initiatives.