273137 Pitfalls and Progress in promoting Health and Humanitarian Aid work for Peace

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 3:00 PM - 3:15 PM

Neil Arya, MD , Director-Office of Global Health, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University- formerly The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
     
Peace through Health is a field of study of how health workers and methods can contribute to peace. The topic has been developed as an academic discipline and is now taught in universities in several countries. Examples of successful interventions may include humanitarian ceasefires in El Salvador, the formation of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Landmines convention and the development of the Red Cross. Yet health work can also lead to harm in terms of Peace. A "Conflict analysis tool" can help reduce the chances of negative outcomes. This session is meant to explore such methods, including examples of health work which did not consider conflict analysis, which actually led to worsening of conflict.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe some of the benefits and potential harm of humanitarian work o   Explain some benefits and shortfalls of the role of health workers in promoting peace o   Appreciate how choices humanitarian aid workers make can exacerbate conflict, and how these negative outcomes can be avoided Appreciate why conflict analysis is important and how to do it o   Employ the knowledge from lecture to a conflict analysis exercise

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have written and co-authored papers and co-edited a book, presentated around the world, and taught courses at two universities on the topic of Peace through Health. The specific topic is one for which I am preparing an article and also co-authored a web presentation for an on-line course.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4318.1: A toolkit for global health professionals to promote peace