Roundtable

The goal of this roundtable is to advance the uptake of APHA’s 2009 policy “The Role of Public Health Practitioners, Academics, and Advocates in Relation to Armed Conflict and War” among public health practitioners, academics and advocates. This year’s roundtable is a follow-up to the Peace Caucus’ inaugural roundtable at last year’s annual meeting that initiated an organization-wide discussion of implementation of the goals advanced in the 2009 APHA policy. Last year's roundtable provided an opportunity to learn the views of a wide range of APHA's constituents about how war and the prevention of war does or could impact their work. Five overarching themes arose from the 2010 roundtables, including: (1) identifying and implementing mechanisms for data collection, synthesis and communication; (2) ensuring training, curricula and competency development among health workers; (3) fostering international partnerships among key allies; (4) developing and sustaining a virtual gathering place; and (5) increasing capacity among APHA staff for implementation of the policy. This year’s roundtables will follow-up on these themes including specific topics such as advancing a proposed policy statement for APHA to encourage the cessation of military recruiting in public high schools. Session leaders will facilitate conversations with the goal of exploring opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration to broadly leverage the benefits of war prevention across a wide range of public health issues and priorities.