How health can make a contribution to peace in Africa: WHO’s Global Health for Peace Initiative (GHPI)

The health programmes in the African region have proven to be able to make a contribution to peace and will continue to contribute more by integrating the three asks into its programmes: making a conflict analysis, being conflict sensitive and being peace responsive. In doing so, health programmes work across the humanitarian–development–peace nexus and contribute to achieving the sustainable peace goals set by the UN General Assembly. As part of the UN system, WHO is keen to attain further successes by working along the following workstreams of its Global Health for Peace Initiative: generating additional evidence on the impact of health for peace projects via the development of strong monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks for such projects; developing awareness and capacities to implement the health for peace approach through the delivery of training and technical support across the three levels of the organisation (headquarters, regional offices and country offices); engaging with Member States on the Global Health for Peace Initiative through high-level advocacy work, in order to facilitate the mainstreaming of the health for peace approach by WHO and Member States into public health policies or programmes; working alongside other stakeholders, in partnership, so as to increase capacities and support for the Global Health for Peace Initiative; and updating WHO’s global strategy in respect of the health for peace approach, in a consultation with all relevant stakeholders. In this way, health programmes will be in a position to achieve WHO’s triple billion targets set by its Thirteenth General Programme of Work as well as the Secretary-General’s agenda for sustaining peace, which in turn leads not only to people’s healthier life and improved well-being but also to stability and peace.

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Coninx, R., K. Ousman, B. Mathilde, HT Kim (2022) How health can make a contribution to peace in Africa: WHO’s Global Health for Peace Initiative (GHPI). BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e009342. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009342