2010 IANPHI Annual Meeting: Linking Science and Action

November 3, 2010

More than 100 IANPHI members and invited guests representing over 50 countries had a common goal when they met in the fall 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia: strengthening individual public health institutes and establishing partnerships to significantly reduce death and disease globally.

Hosted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2010 IANPHI Annual Meeting was attended by directors of national public health institutes and representatives from partner organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

During the IANPHI General Assembly meeting held on November 2, members approved a membership fee proposal, as well as the applications of 11 countries seeking institutional or associate membership of IANPHI, and elected new members to the IANPHI Executive Board.

New Membership Fees, Donations Will Help Sustain IANPHI's Future

To promote sustainability and strengthen the finances of IANPHI, members approved the introduction of fees for membership to the association and created the IANPHI Foundation to manage those fees as well as funds from other sources. The fees will partially cover the cost of the annual meeting beginning in 2012, including scholarships to members from low-resource countries for attendance. They will also help for communication and collaboration between members (including web and web-based tools), training activities, and Secretariat costs.

Since its founding in 2006, IANPHI has received generous funding of almost $20 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been the major source of support for the association’s meetings and capacity building projects. The current agreement with the Gates Foundation for support of IANPHI activities expires in October 2012.

The three-tiered membership fee plan will be based on several criteria: the country's economic status (World Bank classification), the institute's status as a full member or associate member, and whether there are other institutes in the country.

Beginning in 2011, membership will cost $500, $1,500, or $3,000 USD per year for low-, middle- and high-income countries, respectively. Associate members will pay half the fee of an institutional member. If the country has more than one member institute, the fee will be lower (2/3 of the ordinary fee).

Contributions above the fees are also welcome, said IANPHI President Jeff Koplan in presenting the fee proposal to the IANPHI General Assembly. Institutes in Finland, Norway, and the United States have already pledged generous donations to help sustain IANPHI’s future.

In special circumstances, the Executive Board can reduce or waive the fee or allow it to be paid through an in-kind contribution. Members can request a reduction or waiver of the fee, or an in-kind contribution, in writing to the Secretary General.

The IANPHI Executive Board selected a Board of Trustees to oversee the new IANPHI Foundation including IANPHI President Koplan and Vice President Pekka Puska (Finland), along with IANPHI Executive Board members Geir Stene-Larsen (Norway), Jane Wilde (Ireland), and Mohammed Hassar (Morocco).

IANPHI welcomes 11 new members

IANPHI's members voted in 11 new institutions as members. The addition of five new institutional members and six associate members raises total IANPHI membership to 76 institutes from 72 countries.

IANPHI has been steadily increasing its membership since its founding in 2006, adding 38 institutes in four years including institutes from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Together, the 76 IANPHI institutes represent more than 60% of the world’s population. The 11 new members are from Central America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They include:

New Institutional Members

Guinea - National Institute of Public Health Guinea
Guinea Bissau - National Institute of Public Health
Israel - The Israel Center for Disease Control
Sudan - National Public Health Institute
Togo - National Institute of Hygiene

New Associate Members

El Salvador - Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance
Ghana - Ghana Health Service
Malawi - Community Health Sciences Unit/MOH
Nepal - School of Public Health and Community Medicine B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
Papua New Guinea - National Department of Health
Saudi Arabia - Ministry of Health

IANPHI Executive Board Adds New Directors

IANPHI members elected five members to the Executive Board. The Executive Board comprises directors of 11 IANPHI member institutes, each representing a different region of the world. The board provides policy oversight from respected leaders of NPHIs from all over the world.

The new members of the IANPHI Executive Board include the following:

Professor Mahmudur Rahman is the director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research and National Influenza Center in Bangladesh. He served as the professor and head of the Department of Epidemiology of National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) from 2002 to 2004, following six years as associate professor of epidemiology in NIPSOM. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of epidemiology and public health. His past research has focused on disease surveillance, communicable and noncommunicable disease epidemiology, and public health policy issues.

Amabelia Rodrigues is president of the new National Institute of Public Health in Guinea-Bissau. She received her PhD at the University of Copenhagen in 2001, concentrating on the epidemiology of cholera. She has done research on cholera, rotavirus, malaria, and vaccines.

Mario Henry Rodriguez is the general director of the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in Mexico. He did a medical residency at the National Institute of Nutrition from 1975 to 1978; from 1983-1986 he was research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health. From 1987 to 1995 he headed the Malaria Research Center in Tapachula, Chiapas. He later served as Director of the Center for Research on Infectious Diseases. In 2007 he was appointed director General of the National Institute of Public Health.

Yu Wang, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministry of Health of China, was elected for a second term on the IANPHI Executive Board. He earned his doctorate degree in medicine from Peking Medical University and PhD from Jichi Medical School of Japan. His research field was molecular virology and immunology of hepatitis virus.

Jane Wilde is chief executive of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland. She is a doctor and consultant in public health with more than 30 years experience across different domains of public health. Her experience has focused on public health policy, particularly the prevention of noncommunicable diseases, social determinants of health, and action to tackle health inequalities. She has contributed to government committees on housing, poverty, food policy, agriculture, consumer affairs, and chronic diseases where she has been a passionate advocate for public health.