A suggested theme for WEHD is “Building for the future”.
This is a deliberately broad suggestion as it should enable participants anywhere in the world to use their imagination to address local issues.
Building on the successful events of last year in which students showed such enthusiasm and innovation this theme can be seen as addressing the need to build sister organisations by supporting students, graduates and new entrants to the profession.
Equally, the theme could be used very specifically for those IFEH member organisations having a direct involvement with Housing.
Building could also refer to the Public / environmental health infrastructure, extending to specific projects water, sanitation or waste management projects or to wider campaigns such as immunisation in building a healthy population.
There is also an opportunity in using key events such as the Olympics to get over the message, perhaps engaging with athletes to act as ambassadors for public health in their own countries.
Commonwealth countries may wish to use the Queen’s Jubilee as a focus, perhaps comparing how public / environmental; health has changed over the last 60 years and how they wish to see it develop in the future.
The adoption of the theme is a useful tag for a huge range of local events and I would recommend that “Building for the future” is endorsed by IFEH.
Les Milne CIEH