Reducing interpersonal violence in middle and low income countries: The Scottish Government/World health Organisation initiative

Purpose. To describe a five year international initiative (2009-2013) funded by the Scottish Government through which the WHO will transfer learning from Scotland's established Violence reduction programme to five geographically dispersed and culturally disparate middle or low income countries. Methods. After a period of literature review, intelligence gathering and consultation a short list of candidate countries will be drawn up. To this will be applied criteria such as; the extent of the problem, evidence of a clear commitment to violence prevention, applicability of existing experience, likely receptiveness to international partnering, staff safety, issues of practical access and availability of data systems for evaluation. A series of site visits will follow and field work will have begun before the date of the APHA meeting. Outcomes. This talk will focus upon the challenges resulting from the initiative and the appropriateness of the methodology. Progress made within Scotland in recent years will be described and likely difficulties in translating Scottish experiences elsewhere will be discussed. The motivations of each partner involved will be explored. Evaluation challenges will be discussed. The contribution of this programme to the development of an evidence base for the impact of national violence prevention policies and programmes within low-and middle-income countries will be explored. Conclusions The Scottish Government and the World Health Organisation are embarking on a worthwhile but highly challenging initiative to seek to reduce interpersonal violence in five middle and low income countries. This session allows APHA participants to discuss and shape the emerging methodology.