Commentary: improving the quality and effectiveness of IUHPE communications: work plan 2007--2010.

The article presents the work plan of the IUHPE Communications portfolio during the present term of the Vice-President for communications in the IUHPE Board of Trustees (2007-10). The plan has been put together after a comprehensive review of the existing IUHPE communications areas. The result is a plan that aims to provide overarching support for the development of the organisation. In the plan, existing IUHPE communication tools are strengthened to respond better to today's communications' aims and objectives; while new tools are designed to make an impact through all communications' channels. The quality and effectiveness of these tools will contribute to shape a sustainable communications strategy and priorities.

Enhancing the effectiveness of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education to move health promotion forward.

The success in recent years of many IUHPE initiatives provides cause for celebration, but also reminds us of the challenges that lie ahead. The Global Programme for Health Promotion Effectiveness provides a blueprint for how the IUHPE can effectively participate in, and lead, global networks for health. Health promotion research is well organized and productive in most of the Northern hemisphere, but important wells of health promotion knowledge in the Southern hemisphere are not widely-enough disseminated. The IUHPE needs to help liberate knowledge producers everywhere from unnecessary structures, and find innovative ways to illuminate knowledge for all to see. We have developed and proven the effectiveness of a range of technologies such as settings-based health promotion. However, the vast majority of communities are untouched, and the IUHPE needs to be a leader in finding ways to better disseminate effective health promotion practice. The IUHPE is a vigorous and effective advocate for health promotion training, practice and research. Now we need to expand our advocacy for equity in health, building on our effective work on social clauses in trade agreements and on tobacco control.

The use of emerging technology to build health promotion capacity in regions with diversity in language and culture.

Today in the human development arena, three actors play complementary, sometimes competing, and even conflicting roles on the world stage: governments, commercial enterprises and non-governmental organisations. Given their mission and available resources, each of these interact in different ways between each other, but have the same basis and needs for communication among each other. Two of the factors that come into play in these actors' operations are technology and internationalisation. We currently live the digital era brought on by the technological revolution. This has provided international actors with speed and flexibility over traditional communication formats to disseminate their work and collaborate more closely in real time and across geographical, cultural and language barriers. In order to be efficient and effective, these actors have begun and must continue to engage in this global transformation. All this is relevant to the IUHPE as a global organisation with members in over 90 countries. The hundreds of cultures and languages of our members enrich our ability to advocate for health in every corner of the world. However, our diversity can hinder our effectiveness. Language barriers separating even neighbours can make collaborative work difficult. There are several solutions that the IUHPE is adopting to bridge this divide, among them, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Within this context, this paper examines the different multi-dimensional dialogue and information platforms offered by ICTs today and its future developments. This will include advantages and limitations with regard to both technological and financial nuances. The use of technology will be defined in relation to the implications for knowledge acquisition, conversation and action. The scenarios include the web as a global resource database and ICTs, including machine translation, for one-on-one and multi-party communication. In a world that is increasingly entwined across borders, technology provides organisations with the opportunity to communicate more efficiently and effectively than at any time in history. By adopting new ICTs the IUHPE places itself on the avantguard of internal and external communications and in comparative advantage to influence the other two major global actors.

Enhancing the effectiveness of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education to move health promotion forward

El éxito de muchas iniciativas llevadas a cabo por la UIPES en los últimos años nos brinda un motivo de celabración, pero nos recuerda asimismo los retos que quedan por delante. El Programa Mundial para la Efectividad de la Promoción de la Salud ofrece un ejemplo de cómo puede la UIPES participar activamente en las redes mundiales en favor de la salud y liderarlas. La investigación en materia de promoción de la salud está bien organizada y es productiva en casi todos los paises del hemisferio Norte, pero existen importantes depósitos de conocimiento en el Sur que apenas se han divulgado. La UIPES necesita ayudar a liberar de estructuras innecesarias a todos aquellos que generan conocimientos y hallar nuevas formas de iluminar dichos conocimientos para que todos puedan verlos. Hemos desarrollado y demostrado la efectividad de un conjunto de técnicas, de las cuales un buen exponente es la promoción de la salud basada en los entornos. No obstante, no han llegado a la gran mayoria de las comunidades y la UIPES tiene que ser pionera en encontrar formas de divulgar mejor las prácticas efectivas de la promoción de la salud. La UIPEs es un firme y eficaz defensor de la formación, de las prácticas y de la investigación en el ámbito de la promoción de la salud. Ahora tenemos que ampliar nuestra labor de defensa a la equidad en el ámbito de la salud apoyándonos en nuestro trabajo efectivo sobre las cláusulas sociales de los acuerdos comerciales y en el control del tabaco.(AU)