Understanding the links between health and peace

12 October 2022
News release
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The world has recently seen an increasing number of conflicts and wars in different parts of the globe. These tragic events adversely impact on the health of the populations affected by them. Yet, health can be a means of bringing calm and peace to those areas stricken by conflict.

A new special issue in the BMJ Global Health was published online on 9 October 2022, through a partnership between the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office and the Pan American Health Organization.

The issue features an editorial by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, where he notes, “Peace and health are inextricably connected, and the two must go hand in hand if we are to offer people basic protections and build secure and healthy societies”.

The special issue was formally launched during the 69th meeting of the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo on 10 October 2022. The meeting was attended in person by Dr Tedros and Dr Abdul Ghaffar, Executive Director of the Alliance, as well as by the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, and health ministers and representatives from the EMRO members states. The PAHO/WHO Director, Dr Carissa Etienne, also joined the launch virtually.

In his remarks, Dr Ghaffar stressed the need for more robust scholarship and empirical evidence on the links between peace and health, “we hope this special issue will serve as a foundation towards catalyzing more research and policy action recognizing and realizing the importance of the connection between peace and health. […] We recognize that public health professionals, policy-makers and researchers still do not fully recognize or appreciate the linkages between health and peace. Evidence to support, implement, and evaluate ‘Health for Peace’ programmes remains limited and requires much greater political attention and commitment.”

The issue features pieces from countries including the Syrian Arab RepublicLibyaMyanmar. There are also broader perspectives from Africa and the Americas. These pieces aim to provide empirical evidence on the impact of conflict on health as well as examples of how health initiatives and interventions had helped in achieving peace. Furthermore, the issue features two cross-cutting pieces. The first calls for gender diversity in health leadership and governance, while the second one advocates for the need to standardize data collection methods and data sharing among different health actors during conflict.

The following articles are included in the supplement: