European Vice-President of IUHPE/EURO 2000-2006 Professor John Kenneth Davies

A changing of the guard at the IUHPE
A changing of the guard at the IUHPE
President of IUHPE 2007-2010
Doctor David McQueen
President of IUHPE 2000-2006
Professor Maurice Mittelmark
European Vice-President of IUHPE/EURO 2007–2010:
Executive Director Mika Pyykkö

1. You were the Regional Vice-President of IUHPE/EURO for six years. Did it change your opinions about health promotion and if so, how?


It did not change my opinions but in fact strengthened them and made me more motivated to advocate further investment in health promotion as the comprehensive way to maintain and improve the health of the European population; I learned a lot about the common health and inequality challenges we face across the European region and the similarities and differences in the way health promotion is perceived and practiced in the many countries of the region – what I would call the ‘European Dimension of Health Promotion’, which underpins all our work.

2. How did IUHPE/EURO develop during your Vice-Presidency and what things became of great importance? Which things you tried to influence the most? Do you think you had the opportunity to influence the development enough?

The IUHPE European Region and in particular the European Regional Committee became far more active during these six years. It moved from a very occasional meeting of a few members at Paris Headquarters to regular and very well attended meetings being held in different countries in different parts of the European Region – the most recent meetings of over 20 members being held in Riga, Budapest and Vienna for example.

There were many important trends during these six years- such as the ever growing power and expansion of the European Union, which although a governmental institution only affecting directly less than half of the countries of our European Region it has had a major impact and offered great opportunities to engage with civil society; we took this up actively for example in IUHPE’s membership of the European Health Policy Forum.

One of my priorities was to diversify and try to expand the active membership of IUHPE to all the countries of the Region; at the last count we had members in 35 of the 53 European countries – a good achievement but also a major challenge for the future. In addition I attempted to engage with members more directly through many conferences and also by elaborating the use of IT and various communication media. We managed to build a substantive working budget but we still faced the issue of insufficient financial resources to achieve all that we would wish.

From my own personal situation, I am a full time academic with many responsibilities in my university and although I was allowed some time to actively spend on IUHPE business this was never enough to achieve all that I would like and in sufficient depth. I did manage though to link core parts of my academic work into my Vice-President role with the IUHPE and strengthen its role as the principle international professional association for health promotion and health education.

I also suffered some serious health problems part way through my Vice-Presidency, these prevented me from travelling to several important meetings, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many IUHPE friends and colleagues who not only represented me and our European interests but also actively led our work on a number of fronts.

3. What do you think is your most important accomplishment in IUHPE?

I am not sure that there is one most important accomplishment but several – one in particular to mention is that I was proud to facilitate the expansion the formal European Committee membership in two ways – by proposing that a significant number of individual European members to be elected to the Committee, alongside their Trustee and National Constituent colleagues, and proposing a cadre of young health promotion professionals to join the Committee – which I am pleased to say happened following their election from countries in the north, east and south of our European Region. I also tried to promote the diversification of IUHPE into different parts of Europe and am proud to highlight my close involvement in facilitating the launch of the IUHPE-CIPES European Centre in Turin to focus on expanding health promotion development, particularly in Southern Europe and the countries of the Mediterranean rim.

4. What did the Vice-Presidency of IUHPE/EURO mean to you?

It gave me a unique chance to influence the expansion of health promotion as an international endeavour at a crucial time in its history, particularly with the rapid expansion of globalisation, and it allowed me to have the great pleasure of meeting and working with many interesting, enthusiastic and well-motivated health promoters from all corners of Europe.

5. What kind of advice would you like to give to your follower Mr Mika Pyykkö?

Mika is a staunch and active member of the European Committee and knows well our strengths and weaknesses. I would advise him to continue our priority work areas of building organizational capacity, effective networking with other European partner organizations, expanding communication and active membership within the Region, encouraging project development, establishing the evidence base and facilitating effective education and training in health promotion. Of course to lead on all these fronts is a challenge so Mika must be constructive and flexible and establish good working relations with those many key members who can help him to progress these key goals.

6. How do you use the "extra" time you have now after leaving the Vice-Presidency?

Such "extra" time is a fallacy as many of my other responsibilities and new projects have already taken over.

7. How do you see the position and the possibilities of NGO's in health promotion? In which things would you recommend them to concentrate on in the future?

The most productive ways forward for NGO’s in the health arena are to expand their active membership, work together to build strong and effective partnerships at European, sub-regional, country, regional and local levels and to facilitate capacity-building and infra-structure development.

Although I have referred almost entirely to the European Region, IUHPE is a global family and its future progress will depend on building the above capacity and partnerships at inter-Regional and global levels as well. In achieving this though the Union must not be seen to be too insular and cliquish; it must move outside of ‘the family’ and ensure active participation within its governance structures of new colleagues from those less well resourced parts of the world in order to maintain its democratic principles. Building a resource base and budget within IUHPE to bring this about will be a continuing challenge for the future.

8. Could you please tell us, how do you promote your own health and of those near you?

As any good health promoter I know in great detail what I should do to improve my physical, mental and social health - swimming, cycling and walking; making a clear balance between my work and leisure/family time and maintain good social and cultural links - I can only say that I try to practice these when I can.