Violence Prevention Alliance First Academic Meeting

CGNK director Joám Evans Pim served as co-organizer of the WHO Violence Prevention Alliance First Annual Academic Meeting. This international gathering of scholars and practitioners under the theme “Merging Evidence and Implementation” occurred at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, as a side meeting to the WHO Global Campaign for Violence Prevention 7th Milestones Meeting, on September 21, 2015.

The meeting was conceived by the academic collaborations project group of the Violence Prevention Alliance, in which CGNK participates. While having an academic framework, the event also gave implementers a chance to learn about evidence, to give guidance, and to form collaborations. This aim was reflected in the format of a series of roundtables and townhall meetings rather than didactic sessions, and presenters were asked to give bursts of ideas to stimulate discussion, while the direction is left to the entire group. The scientific committee received a large number of high quality abstracts, from which eight presentations and six posters were selected.

The event gathered over thirty participants from around the world, including presentations from El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, China, South Africa, United States, Canada and Finland. An article writing collaboration was also organized, setting up teams of junior and senior scholars together with implementers to develop new publications aimed at well-known journals in the fields of violence prevention and public health.