Bournemouth University helps organise health promotion conference in Nepal

Bournemouth University has helped organise the first National Health Promotion conference in Nepal. 

The conference is held in Kathmandu over the Easter weekend (March 30-April 1) and is a unique collaboration between Bournemouth University, the Government of Nepal, international organisations such as the World Health Organization, USAID, the Nepalese media, and several universities and colleges. It will highlight the importance of health promotion at all levels in Nepal.

Bournemouth University Professor Edwin van Teijlingen has been involved in the organisation of the first National Health Promotion conference in Nepal. 

The conference is held in Kathmandu over the Easter weekend (March 30 - April 1), and will highlight the importance of health promotion at all levels in Nepal.

It is a unique collaboration between Bournemouth University, the Government of Nepal, international organisations such as the World Health Organization and USAID, the Nepalese media, and several universities and colleges. 

It is the first ever conference of its kind to be held in Nepal in the field of health promotion.

One of the opening plenary will be given by Professor van Teijlingen, a Professor of Reproductive Health Research, who will outline health promotion from a global perspective.

A total of 75 papers will be presented at the conference, including one by PhD student Ms. Sheetal Sharma, from the School of Health and Social Care at BU. She will also present findings from the long-term research project that aimed to improve the uptake of maternity services in rural Nepal.

As part of the conference, Prof. van Teijlingen and Dr. Padam Simkhada from The University of Sheffield and a Visiting Faculty Member at BU, will also run a skills-building workshop which offers training on writing up the findings of health promotion research for academic journals.

Prof. van Teijlingen said: "Nepal has a double burden of diseases.  It experiences both the kind of infectious diseases associated with being a low-income country, and a growing burden of the kind of diseases commonly associated with lifestyles in high-income countries.

"It is encouraging to see that so many different organisations have signed up to the principles of health promotion."

Ms. Sharma added: "Nepal is an exciting country to conduct research in, with the diverse castes and motivated rural community volunteers; also among South Asian countries, its speed of development is considerable: the Maternal Mortality rate was halved despite a decade long civil war, Abortion is legal since 2002, same sex marriage since 2008. It is important to disseminate findings to relevant stakeholders."

There will be 250 participants from seven different countries including the USA, Canada, UK, India, Nigeria, the Netherlands and Nepal.