Public Health Association of South Africa

CHAIRPERSONS REPORT 2006

Introduction
The executive of the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) has worked extremely hard in the past two years to ensure the association's financial sustainability and to consolidate its activities. There are eight members of the original ten members of the PHASA executive that have worked consistently over the past two years that I need to thank up front for their tireless commitment viz. Ms Hazel Bradley, Professor Debbie Bradshaw, Dr Lilian Dudley, Dr Stephen Knight, Dr Costa Gazi, Dr David Buso, Professor Noddy Jinnabhai and Dr Roxy Jinna. I could not ask for a better team. They represent various health disciplines and geographic regions of South Africa . They are drawn from Schools of Public Health, research institutions, health services, Non-Governmental Organisations and postgraduate training. They truly represented the interests of the public health community of South Africa . The other member that deserves mention i.e. Mr David Mametja resigned because of work commitments quite early in the life our team and I wish to thank him for his contribution. The executive committee met via teleconference nearly every 6weeks for the duration of the term and this ensured momentum and to me contributed to PHASA's significant progress. I will in this chairperson's report describe as brief as possible the activities, successes and possible challenges that we faced so that the incoming PHASA Executive Committee have a basis for the future planning of the organisation:

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA)
PHASA became a member of the WFPHA in 2003. We were invited to attend the 39 th Annual Meeting of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) and to the WFPHA delegation to the 58 th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva , Switzerland in May 2005. A letter was sent by the WFPHA to our Minister of Health to include one of us as a member of the South African delegation to attend both meetings. Unfortunately the letter went amiss at the department and we could not send anyone. However there may be future possibilities. A further request from the WFPHA for a proposal to launch an effective health education initiative focussing on hand washing and hygiene in a member association of the WFPHA that will serve as model for further initiatives in other member countries. We presented a proposal and PHASA as well as the Costa Rican Public Health Association were chosen as launch countries. Guided by the WFPHA who have an international agreement with Colgate-Palmolive in support of this campaign we approached the local Colgate-Palmolive(C-P) division. Together with C-P we launched the programme successfully last year. We embarked on a nation-wide campaign to educate learners at schools and the wider public on the importance of hand-washing. This huge multi-media programme is ongoing.

Newsletters and Website
During the past year PHASA has published four Newsletters, albeit dated late, and these contained items on the Hand-washing Campaign and some Schools of Public Health in South Africa amongst other locally appropriate topics. Copies of each Newsletter are sent to all PHASA members and extra copies are used to promote PHASA to colleagues and contacts working in the fields of public health. The Newsletter is also posted on the PHASA website (phasa.za.org). Our website continues to be a useful way to communicate information about PHASA to our membership and other interested individuals and we have established a link to the new WFPHA website.

Special Interest Groups
A Registrars Special Interest Group for medical registrars in public health medicine was established in 2003 and has assisted registrars in public health medicine with their training and education. A number of other SIG's groups will have been launched at the PHASA Conference 2006 and we hope that this will provide our members with the opportunity to communicate with other PHASA member with similar interests around the country.

Sponsorship and Accreditation
PHASA has worked closely with Colgate-Palmolive in establishing an accreditation process for public health products and programmes. This was to ensure other possible avenues of income and also to market the public health activities of PHASA. A specific logo was developed to indicate PHASA approval. An antibacterial soap has been the first item to receive PHASA accreditation in 2005. We have also sought possible sponsorship from Atlantic Philanthropies and other donor agencies and we wish to continue pursuing these avenues.

American Public Health Association
Our PHASA secretary attended the APHA annual meeting in Philadelphia in December 2005. This was a wonderful opportunity to attend the largest Public Health Association annual meeting in the world with over 900 scientific sessions, 625 exhibits and 11,000 delegates attending this year. Many aspects of the meeting provided useful input and ideas for PHASA and we plan to utilise some of these in future planning of the association and our conferences. Attending the WFPHA breakfast and meeting the Secretariat and representatives from a number of Public Health Associations including Brazil , Kenya , Canada , Switzerland and the UK was a highlight of the conference and PHASA plans to follow up the contacts made in other African countries.

The Southern African Journal of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases (SAJEI)
Based upon the previous relationship between ESSA and the journal we consolidated our relationship with the editorial committee by offering to review public health related articles while in the meantime searching for possible funding for our own journal. The latter proved too expensive and ambitious and what we have agreed to do through this AGM is to have membership's approval for continued presence on the SAJEI. All paid up members should in any event receive copies of the journal in the mail. I have had meetings with the Editor Professor Chares Feldman and the President of the Federation of Infectious Diseases Society of Southern Africa and they are keen that we have a substantial presence on the journal. The journal is DNE accredited and I propose that we remain with the journal for the time being.

PHASA 2006 Conference
One of the key activities of the latter part of 2005 was planning this 2006 PHASA conference. The theme of the conference is: “Making Health Systems Work” and was deliberately chosen by the scientific committee to highlight the greatest challenge facing us in this country and indeed the continent.

The conference was be co-hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand, the Gauteng Province's Department of Health, the Health Systems Trust, The International Epidemiology Association and the International Clinical Epidemiology Network.

Future activities
We would like to consolidate and grow PHASA membership, and particularly engage with a wider cross-section of public health practitioners, especially amongst those employed in the public health services.

We would also like to work closer with government and in this regard I have been invited as chairperson of PHASA to the Inaugural meeting of the National Health Consultative Forum on the 18 th and 19 th May 2006 in Johannesburg .

We would like to strengthen our international links and plan to explore PHASA's role in collaborating with Public Health Associations in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa .

We plan to develop closer links with the WFPHA and hope that our members will be able to attend the WFPHA conference in Brazil in August 2006. There is also the possibility of hosting the WFPHA's International Conference in 2009.

Finally, I want us to reflect on the last PHASA Conference's resolution where we committed ourselves to actively building PHASA as a forum to promote equity in health in South Africa and furthermore to play an influential role in “strengthening the government's ability to achieve its mandate of not only treating the large and increasing disease burden of South Africa's population, but also in protecting and promoting its health.” Based on that resolution and the deliberations of this conference I am sure we can create a clearer vision of where we would like PHASA to go. The future does indeed look bright for PHASA.

Prof Shan Naidoo
Chairperson
Public Health Association of South Africa
May 2006