Advocacy: the silence of Europe's public health associations is deafening.

Abstract

National public health associations (PHAs) have a key role to play in advocating for effective, evidence-based policies (in both the public and private spheres) and practices that have positive impacts on population health and health equity. In some instances, PHAs are the only civil society voice for public health. The advocacy efforts of PHAs are impressive. Several have and continue to play leadership roles in tobacco control; others are advocates on issues relating to alcohol policies, injury prevention, ecosystem health, and the prevention and control of both infectious and non-communicable diseases. Still others have championed politically sensitive causes, such as the hard-won advances in access to clean needle and syringe programs.(Also refer to the annual reports for 2011–14 published by the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), available at: www.wfpha.org.)1 Advocacy is, in some countries, part of the curriculum in public health programs. In …