Plenary Session I
Making the World a Smaller Place: International Implementation of Large-Scale Prevention Practices, Policies, and Programs
Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 8:30 am – 10:00 am
Roundtable Follows: 10:15 am – 11:45 am
Chair: Eve Reider, PhD, Prevention Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Presenters: Yvonne Thunell, Mentor Foundation, Ken Winters, PhD, Mentor Scientific Advisory Network, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Geoffrey Fong, PhD, Psychology and Health Studies, University of Waterloo, Marion Forgatch, PhD, Oregon Social Learning Center, Terje Ogden, PhD, Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development, and Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo,
Making the World a Smaller Place: International Implementation of Large-Scale Prevention Practices, Policies, and Programs
The 2011 Society for Prevention Research conference theme is “Prevention Scientists Promoting Global Health: Emerging Visions for Today and Tomorrow.” Global health and the science of prevention dedicated to promoting global health are increasingly recognized as important to both individual nations and to the health of people worldwide. This plenary showcases, exemplifies, and pays tribute to the notion that it is possible to make a significant difference in global health through the implementation of large-scale prevention policies, programs and practices.
The first set of presenters will be Yvonne Thunell, Chairman of the Mentor Foundation Board of Trustees, and Ken Winters, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota and Chairman of the Mentor Scientific Advisory Network. Mentor is an international, not for profit organization with a focus on the prevention of substance abuse and the promotion of the health and well-being of children and young people. Mentor was established in 1994 in Geneva for the purpose of identifying, supporting, undertaking and disseminating the best drug abuse prevention practices globally. Mentor collaborates with a number of major national and international organizations. It supported the World Health Organization’s work in substance abuse prevention and it now has formal relationships with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Council of Europe. Mentor has worked to support developments in prevention for a number of governments and with other agencies including UNESCO, FIFA, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the European Drug Monitoring Centre (EMCDDA). It plays a lead role in the work and development of the European Drug Abuse Training Faculty (EUDAP) and the Vienna Committee for Non Government Organizations (VCNGO). Ms. Thunell and Dr. Winters will discuss the role of Mentor in organizing prevention research and practice internationally.
The second presenter, Dr. Geoffrey Fong, Professor of Psychology and Health Studies at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada, will discuss the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project. The FCTC, the first treaty ever negotiated under the auspices of WHO, was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic. The treaty was adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003, entered into force on February 27, 2005, and has since become one of the most widely embraced treaties in United Nations history. As of November 2010, 171 countries are Parties to the treaty; Parties are required to enact strong, evidence-based tobacco control strategies, such as prominent health warning labels, bans or restrictions on tobacco advertising, and measures to decrease exposure to secondhand (tobacco) smoke. The ITC project, a transdisciplinary collaboration of more than 70 researchers in 20 countries, is the first-ever international cohort survey of tobacco use. The ITC is designed to assist policymakers in the implementation of the strong evidence-based tobacco control policies. Currently working in 20 countries, the ITC is evaluating the psychosocial and behavioral effects of national-level tobacco control policies by following thousands of adult smokers throughout the world over five or more years. Dr. Fong will describe how the ITC Project uses rigorous survey research methods and policy evaluation designs to evaluate the impact of FCTC policies as they are being implemented in countries throughout the world, including key low- and middle-income countries where the tobacco epidemic is expected to exact its greatest toll in the future.
The third set of presenters will be Marion Forgatch, Research Scientist Emeritus, Oregon Social Learning Center, and Terje Ogden, Research Director and Senior Scientist, Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development, and Professor, Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo. Drs. Forgatch and Ogden will talk about the experience of taking the efficacious and effective Oregon Model of Parent Management Training (PMTO) to scale throughout Norway. The translation of an efficacious intervention from a controlled environment to ‘real-world’ community settings is a delicate operation under any circumstances however, new challenges are introduced when transferring an intervention between countries separated by an ocean, with different languages, different prevention service organizations and practices, and so forth The presentation will focus on the development of this cross national research collaborative and on lessons learned for developing new collaborations and on strategies related to the successful implementation of the research and practice models.
Plenary Session I Presentation Slides
Making the World a Smaller Place: International Implementation of Large-scale Prevention Practices, Policies, and Programs
- Mentor’s Role in International Prevention (PDF)
- The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project): Evaluating the Impact of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (PDF)
- Taking the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO™) to scale throughout Norway (PDF)
- Prevention, Opportunity and Protection (PDF) (Also visit http://www.mentorfoundation.org/)
Plenary Session II
Preventing Violence against Children Globally: Establishing Prevalence, Partnerships, and Policy
Thursday, June 2, 2011, 8:30 am – 10:00 am
Roundtable Follows: 10:15 am – 11:45 am
Chair: Andra Tharp, PhD, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Presenters: Jim Mercy, PhD, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alex Butchart, PhD, Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, Jama Gulaid, UNICEF Country Representative, Swaziland
Preventing Violence against Children Globally: Establishing Prevalence, Partnerships, and Policy
Jim Mercy, PhD, Acting Associate Director for Science, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Mercy would discuss, a unique partnership, called Together for Girls that was launched in response to the global health and social burden of sexual violence against girls at the Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009. The partnership aims to bring together governments, civil society, international organizations and other actors around a collaborative framework to take more effective actions to prevent and respond to end sexual violence against girls. The partnership will do this by undertaking a three-step model that includes: (1) Data Collection (2) National and International Mobilization and Programming to Prevent and Respond, and a (3) Communications Campaigns to Motivate Social and Behavioral Change. Adjusted to the realities of each country and context, the initiative will provide the elements to plan, execute and evaluate multi-sectoral prevention and response strategies to end sexual violence against girls-all under the leadership of national governments. Dr. Mercy will describe the origins of the initiative, data and plans for data collection from three national surveys (Swaziland, Tanzania, and Kenya) as well as the partnerships that have been critical to the initial successes of this initiative.
Alex Butchart, Violence Prevention, World Health Organization. Dr. Butchart will discuss the country-level partnerships established in Tanzania for the Together for Girls initiative. His presentation will emphasize the process of using the data for action in country, including how the challenges and opportunities Tanzania faces in the establishment of response systems for victims of sexual violence, improving child protection legislation and developing and implementing prevention strategies.
Jama Gulaid, UNICEF Country Representative, Swaziland. Dr. Gulaid will discuss the country-level partnerships for the Swaziland component of the initiative, including policy and program impacts that have taken place since the national survey. These policy and prevention strategies include national education campaign, child friendly police and courts, child protection legislation, and legislation related to sexual offenses. He will also discuss future plans for enhancing country-level efforts to prevent and better respond to sexual violence involving the health sector and community outreach workers.
Plenary Session III
How Should Prevention Science Contribute to the Global Plan to Eliminate Severe Poverty?
Friday, June 3, 2011, 10:15 am – 11:45 am
Roundtable Follows: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Chair: John Toumbourou, PhD, School of Psychology, Deakin University
Presenters: Selim Jahan, PhD, Director Poverty Practice, Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Program, Hugh Evans, CEO of the Global Poverty Project, James Jackson, PhD, Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, and Director of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
Poverty is defined here as an environmental context lacking the basic resources for human survival and growth. Poverty is a major problem for humanity globally and a direct and indirect contributor to preventable health and social problems. This plenary examines strategic efforts currently being made to reduce the most extreme forms of poverty internationally and will also explore poverty in the USA. The plenary was developed by the Society for Prevention Research International Task Force and aims to introduce participants to research being undertaken to achieve global human development and poverty reduction goals. The plenary will showcase the UN Millennium Development Goals that aim to end extreme poverty by 2015 (www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). The three plenary speakers each cover important areas relevant to poverty. The first presenter Dr Selim Jahan (PhD) will provide a global overview of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The second presenter Hugh Evans, (B.Sci/Law) will overview his organizational and philanthropic work advocating for and supporting the MDGs. The third presenter Professor James Jackson (PhD) will discuss his research investigating minority black populations in the USA.
An Overview of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals – Achievements and Challenges
The first presenter is Dr. Selim Jahan. In 2000, the world committed itself to the MDGs – a set of time-bound quantitative goals to reduce human poverty. The MDGs are remarkable for establishing and reviewing progress indicators in cooperating nations across the world to monitor the achievement of eight anti-poverty goals by the target date of 2015. The MDGs are designed to address areas that influence poverty including women’s health and rights, children’s health and education and food security. Today, we have covered two-thirds of the timeline for the MDGs, with one-third to go. In that context, Dr. Jahan will provide an assessment of the MDG progress made so far, what worked and what did not in achieving the goals, what it would take to accelerate and sustain the MDG progress and what we should think beyond 2015. In his presentation, he will also highlight the role of the UN in supporting countries in achieving the MDGs. Dr. Selim Jahan is an economist who has worked with the United Nations Development program (UNDP) since 1992. He has been the Deputy Director and one of the Core Authors of UNDP’s nine Human Development Reports from1993 to 2001. He currently serves as the Director of UNDP’s Poverty Division, leading the organization’s work on poverty and inequality, inclusive growth, inclusive globalization and the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Jahan also oversees the work of the International Policy Centre on Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) in Brasilia.
Getting Organized and Activated to Reduce Extreme Poverty Globally
The second presenter Mr. Hugh Evans, (B.Sci/Law) is a well-respected Australian anti-poverty campaigner who has advocated in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals. He is the co-Founder and CEO of the Global Poverty Project – an educational and campaigning organization that activates citizens to be a part of the global movement to end extreme poverty. Hugh has been notable for the early age emergence of his humanitarian work – he was Young Australian of the Year in 2004. From 2006 Hugh has been a key leader behind the successful Make Poverty History campaign and led a team around Australia to advocate boosting the country’s foreign aid commitment to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income – in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals. Hugh will discuss his motivations, actions and progress in setting up a range of successful international organizations that continue to provide opportunities for people (inclusive of a wide range of youth) to work together to support global human development goals (including the Oaktree Foundation http://theoaktree.org and the Global Poverty Project www.globalpovertyproject.com).
An Overview of Survey Research Studies Investigating Minority Black Populations in the USA
Professor Jackson will present findings on poverty in the USA based on extensive survey research with African American and Black Caribbean populations that he is currently directing. Professor Jackson is a distinguished research leader. He is the Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan. He is also the Director of the University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research. He is the past Director of the Center for Afro American and African Studies and past national president of the Black Students Psychological Association and Association of Black Psychologists. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Contributions to Research Award, Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, American Psychological Association, and recently received the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for Distinguished Career Contributions in Applied Psychology from the Association for Psychological Sciences. He is an elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.