National policy documents for violence and injury prevention

Abstract

Injuries are a threat to health in every country of the world. More than 5 million people die each year as a result of some form of injury and many more remain disabled for life. Given current trends, the global burden of injuries is expected to rise dramatically by the year 2020, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Despite the growing importance of this problem, few countries have national policy documents for violence and injury prevention. The World Report on Violence and Health and the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and related World Health Assembly Resolutions encourage governments to develop national policies for violence and injury prevention. WHO recently reviewed the existence of policy documents on injuries and violence prevention. Some of the results will be presented in the context of this presentation. Preliminary results show the existence of a relatively large number of documents from a small number of countries. Their focus varies considerably: few focus on all injuries and violence. Most documents focus on a sub-type of injury such as road traffic injury prevention or violence against women. The presentation will also describe the content of the new WHO Guidelines on Developing Policy Documents to Prevent Injuries and Violence. This document describes the process for developing such documents, stressing that this process - involving many stakeholders - may be as important as the document itself. Steps for the development of the document should include initial situation assessments, raising awareness, involving stakeholders, formulating the plan, approval, and endorsement.