Southwest Pacific

IUHPE / SWP

 

Vice-President for SWP

Donald Stewart


Regional Director

Neil Harris


Contact SWP

 


 

 

 

Who are we?

 

The South Western Pacific Region (SWP) includes countries around the south western rim of the Pacific and the many small island nations within the South Pacific. Currently most members in the region are residents of Australia (Aust) and New Zealand (NZ).


SWP came into existence in the mid 1990s due to the enthusiastic efforts of Professor Don Nutbeam. Don assumed the inaugural role of Regional Vice-President, and Associate Professor Rosmarie Erben that of inaugural Regional Director.


Currently, the Regional Vice-President is Professor Don Stewart (Aust) and the Regional Director is Dr Neil Harris (Aust). The School of Public Health at Griffith University has agreed to be the base for the Regional Office from 2010 to 2013.

 

The Regional Committee plans relevant actions and oversees activities. The elected Committee Members for 2010-2013 include Rosmarie Erben, Jan Ritchie, Peter Howat, David MacLaren, Louise Rowling and Trevor Shilton (all from Aust). The Committee meets on average five times a year, four of these by teleconference and when possible one additional meeting face-to-face.

 

Due to the strong links that have been developed between IUHPE and the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA), the annual face-to-face meeting with a topic-based seminar or workshop is organised to take place as part of each AHPA National Conference where all regional members and interested others are invited to participate. IUHPE members are eligible for discounted subscription rates if they choose to join AHPA, and vice versa.

 

Joining Committee Members in debating ideas and making regional decisions are regionally based Global Officers:

Trevor Shilton, who is Global Vice President for Advocacy

Vivian Lin, who is Global Vice-President for Scientific Affairs

Michael Sparks, who is Global President, and

Lawry St Leger, Anne Bunde-Birouste and Marilyn Wise, who are both globally elected Board of Trustee Members from this region.

 

Activities

 

What are we focusing on in 2010-2013?


1. Indigenous health

 

Following the IUHPE's 2004 World Conference in Melbourne, the SWPR established a Working Group on Action on Indigenous Resolutions to take forward the resolutions related to Indigenous health arising at the Melbourne General Assembly. Rosmarie Erben is continuing to chair this Working Group and the group are now endeavouring to ensure that Aboriginal health will be a key part of the 20th World Conference in Geneva.

 

Download the report of the Indigenous Health Workshop: Success Stories- Environmental, Social, Emotional and Spiritual Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

 

For more information contact Rosmarie Erben

 

2. IUHPE Student and Early Career Network

 

The ISECN was established at the IUHPE Vancouver Conference in June 2007 and SWPR has been deeply involved from the start. Recently Jeanette Pastor has taken on the role of SWP Regional Coordinator for the International Student and Early Career Network (ISECN) and will be involved in organising meetings of interested people, to encourage membership and to strengthen the network and recently made connections with the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific Regional Office.

 

Goals of the ISECN are:

 

The aim is to revitalise the student and early career work at a regional level including: revision of regional action plan and developing greater contact with regional ISECN members.

 

For more information contact Jeanette Pastor

 

3. WWW Virtual Library: Public Health

 

The University of New South Wales (UNSW), the previous home to the SWP Office is the current host of the WWW Virtual Library: Public Health. UNSW was priviledged to take over the hosting after the untimely death of its originator and valued IUHPE member, Eberhard Wenzel, in 2001. Jan Ritchie in her Regional Director role led a working group to successfully re-establish the Virtual Libary: Public Health on the site of the University of New South Wales's School of Public Health and Community Medicine. IUHPE members are invited to make use of this excellent data base of public health sites and resources and, where possible, to contribute details of useful public health/health promotion sites globally.

 

WWW Virtual Library: Public Health

 

For more information contact Jan Ritchie

 

4. Membership Development

 

In support of the borader membership development plan that was endorsed by the Board of Trustees in June 2009 and the IUHPE Membership Deveelopment Advisory Committee (MDAC), the SWP Region aims to:

 

For more information contact Jan Ritchie

 

 

5. Promoting local and international partneships

 

The SWP Region is willing to strengthen ties with national health promotion bodies across the region including AHPHA and PHAA to identify opporunities for joint collaboration in promoting health within the region, and strengthen the HP workforce. It is also keen on building partnerships with health promotion foundations within the region.

 

For more information contact Neil Harris