1

Violence Prevention Alliance Participant Meeting: Meeting Report Brussels, : 19-20 June 2006

Introduction

The Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) is a network of WHO Member State governments, nongovernmental and community-based organizations, and private, international and intergovernmental agencies working to prevent violence. VPA activities aim to facilitate the development of policies, programmes and tools to implement the recommendations of the World report on violence and health in communities, countries, and regions around the world, and attempt to strengthen sustained, multi-sectoral cooperation around this shared vision for violence prevention.

This was the first meeting for the VPA where the content was dedicated exclusively to Alliance topics. Its purpose was to convene VPA participants in order to brainstorm and plan for the future strategic direction of the VPA. The meeting objectives were to:

ñ Get to know participants better ñ Develop a strategy to increase VPA impact ñ Plan upcoming VPA activities ñ Discuss the resources and commitment for concrete action

Review of m eeting discussions Day One

The meeting was opened by Monsieur Christiaan Decoster, Director-General of FPS Health, Belgium Ministry of Health. Dr Etienne Krug followed with a brief description of the VPA. Dr Alex Butchart presented the meeting aims and provided a overview of VPA aims, objectives, working methods, and achievements to date. The remainder of the morning session was dedicated to VPA participant introductions where participants detailed what their respective agency does, why they are interested in participating in the VPA, and what they believe they can contribute to the Alliance.

The afternoon session started with an overview of the VPA survey findings. This led to a discussion on the strategy for increasing VPA impact. Discussion revolved around two questions:

1. How should the VPA operate? 2. What concrete products should the VPA produce?

How should the VPA operate? Regarding how the VPA should operate, it was felt that there need to be a specific set of rules that will guide the Alliance. However, these rules must not be too strict at this early stage of VPA development to avoid being destructive and inhibiting creativity at a later stage. It was proposed that the Secretariat draft operating rules for the VPA and submit them to participants for approval. 2

What concrete products should the VPA produce? A number of VPA participants attended the 2nd Milestones meeting held in San Francisco in October 2005. One of the key recommendations from this meeting was that the VPA should form permanent Working Groups on various violence prevention topics. A key reason for creating these Working Groups is that they will give VPA participants more opportunity and flexibility to actively contribute with colleagues in a violence prevention area of their interest.

There will be an approval process from the VPA Secretariat on starting a working group. Proposed draft guidelines have been distributed to every participant and will be finalized shortly.

Regarding working group topics, there will be a ”Red Box Working Group‘ which will work to access high level government officials to place violence prevention very clearly on the international development agenda as quickly as possible. Participants for this Working Group will come from only those who can access high levels of government. September was suggested as the date by which this group should have discussed the topic (via email and telephone) and decided upon a strategy.

”Green Box Working Groups‘ will be developed as well. These Working Groups will be more operational and will provide more opportunities for everyone else to participate. ”Green box Working Groups‘ should be structured around the following operational areas which come from the recommendations of the World report on violence and health: ñ policy, ñ data, ñ research, ñ prevention, ñ and services

Day Two

The morning session of the second day began with discussion on the recommendation for the VPA to form permanent working groups on various violence prevention topics. Discussion focused on the types of working groups and who should participate in them. Two participants briefly presented their working groups which are in their early stages:

ñ Mark Bellis‘ Working group on Club Health: Youth violence, Alcohol, Recreational drugs, and Nightlife. This group is for those interested in the prevention of violence associated with youth in nightlife settings. ñ Jonathan Shepherd‘s Emergency Physicians and Trauma Surgeons Action Group for physicians committed to preventing violence as well as treating those injured in violence.

Discussion turned to who should be allowed to participate in VPA Working Groups. Participation should be open to all VPA participants but also to violence prevention colleagues who are not participating in the Alliance. In addition, Working Group participation should include the consumers of the information that will result from the work of these groups.

Working groups on the following topics were proposed during the meeting:

ñ School-based violence prevention 3

ñ Family violence (so that it links subtypes of interpersonal violence together œ child abuse, intimate partner violence, elder abuse) ñ Engaging men and boys in violence prevention ñ Partnership development strategies to collaboratively address violence prevention issues ñ Armed violence prevention ñ The prevention of torture and rehabilitation of torture victims

After the coffee break, the discussion of resources and participant commitment for future action continued with discussion starting about where the 3rd Milestones meeting will be. The Milestones meetings are policy oriented meetings that take place every 18 months. The next meeting should be in 2007 and a number of participants indicated that their agency would consider offering to host it.

Participant Recruitment The general feeling was that the VPA has just enough participants to still be manageable and that future participant recruitment should be extremely selective and focused on getting a few more government representatives from low- and middle- income and high income countries. The costs of organizing meetings such as this one goes up as the size of the group increases. However, there are existing gaps in VPA participants as the majority of participants come from high-income countries and more LMICs should be included, particularly from South America and Asia. Another recommendation included having more foundations and perhaps corporations and multi-national companies as VPA participants to provide funding.

Exchange visits Every participant indicated their willingness to host other participants in exchange visits.

Recom m endations from the m eeting

1. The VPA Secretariat will draft VPA operating rules which will be submitted to and approved by participants. 2. The Secretariat will develop a more systematic way to welcome new participants to make them feel more connected. Perhaps by setting up a teleconference between new participants and a few older participants who share violence prevention interests. 3. The Secretariat will draft a 2 page description on a working group on the prevention of family violence 4. We will ask Michael Green of the Youth Consultation Service to draft a 2- page description of a Working group on school-based violence prevention 5. Participants need to indicate to the Secretariat if they are willing and interested in participating in the ”Red Box Working Group‘

Next steps

It was agreed that the next steps for the VPA would include the following. 1. Complete and share this meeting report 2. Secretariat to build and circulate draft of VPA guidelines for participant approval 3. Recruit a few more country-level participants from Asia and South America 4. Start formal, moderated VPA listserv 5. Finalize guidelines for starting a working group 6. Participants will prepare 2-page proposals for working groups 4

7. Secretariat to initiate discussion among the ”Red Box Working Group‘ participants

List of participants

Ms Eleni Andrikopoulou GTZ Dag-Hammarsköld Weg 1-5 65760 Eschborn GERMANY eleni.andrikopoulou@ gtz.de

Mr Jam es Arana Men's Resources International 1695 Main Street, 2nd Floor Springfield, MA 01103 USA jarana@ mensresourcesinternational.org

Prof John Ashton Centre for Liverpool John Moores University 8 Marybone Liverpool L3 2AP UK John.R.Ashton@ dh.gsi.gov.uk

Dr Jo Asvall Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT) Borgegarde 13, P.O. Box 2107 1014 Copenhagen K DENMARK jas@ rct.dk

Dr Mark Bellis Centre for Public Health 8 Marybone, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 2AP UK m.a.bellis@ livjm.ac.uk

Dr Steven Botkin Men's Resources International 1695 Main Street Springfield, MA 01103 USA USA sdbotkin@ comcast.net

5

Mr John Carnochan Strathclyde Police Pegasus House 375 West George Street G2 4LW UK John.carnochan@ strathclyde.pnn.police.uk

Mr Keith Cernak Partners & Health Protec LLC. 4433 246th Ave SE Issaquah, WA 98029 USA partnerskeith@ comcast.net

Prof Peter Donnelly Deputy Chief Medical Officer Scottish Executive Health Department Room 1E.19 St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG UK Peter.Donnelly@ scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Dr Yusoff Fadhli Ministry of Health Malaysia Violence and Injury Prevention Unit Disease Control Division Level 6, E 10, Parcel E 62590 Putrajaya MALAYSIA fadhli@ dph.gov.my

Ms Nancy Gage-Lindner Equal Rights Section Hessiches Sozialministerium Wissenschaft und Recht Dostojewskistrasse 4 65187 Wiesbaden GERMANY N.Gage-Lindner@ hsm.hessen.de

Dr Rodney Ham m ond Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 4770 Buford Highway NE Atlanta, GA 30341 USA rih2@ cdc.gov

Dr Christiane Hauzeur Ministry of Health FPS Health, Food chain and Environment Directorate-General Organisation of Health Care Establishments 6

Eurostation, Bloc 2, Room 1D38 Place Victore Horta 40 1060 Brussels BELGIUM christiane.hauzeur@ health.fgov.be

Dr Im e John Karolinska Institutet Dept of Public Health Division of Social Medeicine Norrbacka Stockholm SE 171 76 SWEDEN imejohn@ yahoo.com

Ms Karyn McCluskey Strathclyde Police Pegasus House-375 W. George Street Glasgow G24LW UK Karyn.McCluskey@ strathclyde.pnn.police.uk

Ms Leen Meulenbergs Ministry of Health Service of International Relations FPS Health, Food chain safety and Environment Eurostation, Bloc 2, room 9D36 Place Victor Horta 40, box 10 1060 Brussels BELGIUM leen.meulenbergs@ health.fgov.be

Mr Milton Mutto Injury Control Centre - Uganda Makerere Medical School P.O.B. 7072 Kampala UGANDA ymutto@ yahoo.com

Dr Jan Ole Haagenson Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims Borgegarde 13-PO Box 2107 1014 Copenhagen DENMARK joh@ rct.dk

Dr Qutub Syed Health Protection Agency 7th Floor, Holborn Gate, 330 High Holborn, London WC1V 7PP UK Qutub.syed@ hpa.org.uk

7

Ms Lainie Reism an World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Americas, Pan American Sanitary Bureau 525, 23rd Street N.W. Washington D.C. 20037 USA Reismanl@ paho.org

Dr Dragana Seifert Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf Butenfeld 34, 22529 Hamburg GERMANY d.seifert@ uke.uni-hamburg.de

Dr Jonathan Shepherd Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Violence Crime Task Group, Cardiff Community Safety Partnership Heath Park Cardiff, Wales CF14 4XY UK ShepherdJP@ Cardiff.ac.uk

Ms Judy Stafford Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention 801 River Drive, PO Box 1397 North Sioux City, SD 57049 USA judy@ waittinstitute.org

Ms Cecilia Van Egm ond Government of Canada Family Violence Initiative Centre for Health Promotion Public Health Agency of Canada Jeanne Mance Building Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa CANADA cecilia_van_egmond@ phac-aspc.gc.ca

Ms Carla Vicary Murray Mallee, Community Health Service PO Box 346 Murray Bridge S. Australia 5253 AUSTRALIA Vicary.carla@ saugov.sa.gov.au

Dr Elizabeth W ard Ministry of Health 8

2-4 King Street Kingston JAMAICA warde@ moh.gov.jm

Ms Irene Zeilinger Garance Boite postale 40 Bruxelles 3 1030 Bruxelles BELGIUM info@ garance.be

W orld Health Organization Headquarters

Ms Melania Poonacha Technical Officer poonacham@ who.int

Mr Filip W aghem ans Intern waghemansf@ who.int

Dr Robert Alexander Butchart Coordinator butcharta@ who.int

Dr Etienne Krug Director kruge@ who.int