Approved by the National Health Commission, Liang Xiaofeng, the Vice President of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, attended the General Assembly and General Congress of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) on May 17 and 20, 2021.More than 60 representatives from the member associations of the WFPHA participated through ZOOM video conferencing system.
Liang Xiaofeng, the representative of CPMA attended the General Congress of WFPHA
Walter Ricciardi, the president of WFPHA published the report
The meeting began with a moment of silence for those who died of COVID-19.Walter Ricciardi, the President of WFPHA, chaired the meeting and fully summarized the achievements of the WFPHA in the past year, highlighting the major activities in the context of COVID-19: promote the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, join the WHO's campaign on vaccine equity, send a letter to the G7 and G20 - calling for a common fight against the pandemic, issue a statement of initiatives on COVID-19 immunization and reducing vaccine hesitancy, and call on countries to support a moratorium on intellectual property rights for products needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, etc. The report also identifies the future priorities, including continuing to promote vaccine equity around the world, holding regular World Public Health Congresses, multi-topic webinars and lectures, strengthening the WFPHA’s basic public health service functions, expanding theWFPHA's visibility through social media and strengthening cooperation and partnership with the World Health Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme and other organizations.
In addition, the WFPHA's financial report for 2020 and the financial budget for 2021 were reported to all representatives during the GC meeting. Several work proposals submitted by the Public Health Leadership Coalition, Global Movement for Sustainable Health and other coalitions were approved. Reports on the work of internal organizations were also shown on the meeting such as the International Immunization Policy Taskforce and the International Office.Dr. Deogratias Sekimpi from Uganda was elected as the Executive Committee member for Africa region and Dr. Georgios Benjamin from the United States as the Executive Committee for the American region after online answers and votes.
During the meeting, CPMA representative Liang Xiaofeng actively interacted with WFPHA’s leaders and other members to contribute ideas to improve the global health environment.CPMA offered to translate the WFPHA's latest Casebook on Advocacy in Public Health into Chinese to promote the spread of public health knowledge around the world.
In addition, in order to further enhance the international discourse power, CPMA plans to apply to the president of the WFPHA to join the Public Health Leadership Coalition and the Tobacco Control Working group, strengthen cooperation with WFPHA in an all-round way, and strive to influence the decision-making of WFPHA from the professional and technical level.
The World Federation of Public Health Associations is an important international organization in the field of public health and an important official partner of the World Health Organization. Up to now, 130 public health associations or preventive medicine associations have joined the organization.The General Assembly and the General Congress of the World Federation for Public Health Associations are the important meetings held regularly every year. At present, Liang Xiaofeng, the Vice President of CPMA, serves as the executive committee member of WFPHA for three years (2020-2023).