The role of health professionals in preventing and mediating conflict

Abstract

Since the early 1980s academics, governmental and non-governmental organisations have undertaken field projects inspired by the Peace through Health and similar concepts formulated by the World Health Organisation and the Department of Peace Studies at McMaster University, Canada. These have been criticised for lack of proper evaluation, the appropriateness of the skills of health workers involved, and the overall usefulness of the approach. This article, based on a literature review, compares existing evidence with the theoretical framework. There is still a lack of systematic evaluation, but no direct disproof of Peace through Health theory. It is concluded that the Peace through Health approach can have a positive impact on healing and reconciliation on a community scale, but there is no evidence of a peace impact on a larger scale.

Keywords:

• Conflict prevention
• Conflict resolution
• Health professionals
• Mediation
• Peace through Health
• World Health Organization

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a BSc dissertation undertaken at the International Health Medical Education Centre, University College London. I would like to thank Mike Rowson and Maria Kett for supervising the project, and I am grateful to Dr Joanna Santa Barbara and Dr Neil Arya for taking the time to review and comment on the dissertation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caecilie Böck Buhmann

Caecilie Buhmann is a final-year medical student at Copenhagen University. The work in this paper originated as a dissertation for a BSc in Global Health in 2005 from University College London and the author's study of Peace through Health at the Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University and at the Department of Health Action in Crisis at the World Health Organization. She is an At Large Member of the Board of Directors of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War.