The International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) have released special, complementary peer-reviewed journals containing ten articles on strengthening standards and quality assurance systems of global capacity in health promotion and health education.
SOPHE's journal, Health Education & Behavior (Vol. 36, No. 3, June 2009), and IUHPE's journal, Global Health Promotion (Vol. 16, No. 2, June 2009), feature the results of a transatlantic meeting held in Galway, Ireland, in June 2008 on the status of, and needed improvements in, developing competency-based standards throughout the world to strengthen workforce capacity in health promotion. Conference deliberations resulted in the first articulation of eight domains of core competency that are required to engage in effective global health promotion practice, as well as recommendations for a baseline acceptable standard of quality and performance to strengthen academic preparation through systems of peer review.
Conference co-chairs, Prof. John Allegrante of Columbia University, and Prof. Margaret Barry of the National University of Ireland, who serves as the IUHPE Global Vice-President for Capacity-building, Education and Training, served as guest co-editors for the special journals. To promote the widest dissemination possible, both issues are available via online open access.
In addition to the background leading up to the Galway Conference, articles explore similarities and differences in terminology and definitions related to global credentialing systems for health promotion; development and current status of credentialing systems in the US and in Europe; efforts to strengthen workforce capacity and continuing education; and the Galway Consensus statement enumerating the eight domains of core competency. Invited commentaries are also included from experts in Africa, Australia, Latin America and Canada, as well as those who reviewed the draft consensus statement during a six-month public comment period following the June 2008 conference.
