Governments, misinformation and social media (2) How to strengthen HIFA advocacy?

12 April, 2022

Thank you Joseph,

"Governments have not done enough to steer [social media] giants towards doing more... I think it is a question of what priority governments place on the effect of accurate health information in achieving their declared aspiration to deliver quality health care to their populations."

Yes indeed. I look forward to hear people's ideas on how we can more effectively raise awareness of the importance of reliable healthcare information. HIFA has been trying to do this since we launched in 2006, but our impact has been limited by low capacity (one professional staff). Nevertheless, we have collaborated with the British Medical Association and WHO throughout. With the BMA we have secured a policy statement on Healthcare Information for All from the World Medical Association, representing over 10 million doctors. Just a few weeks ago, Global Healthcare Information Network (the non-profit that administers HIFA) secured official relations status with WHO.

HIFA is well positioned to build on these achievements and strengthen our advocacy programme.

To do this we need to increase our capacity to at least two professional staff. I invite suggestions on how we can do this, whether through increased income (our current Budget for 2022 is £140k but we have only secured £40, most of which is restricted to specific projects), through secondment from other organisations (WHO for example provides technical support and lead moderation for HIFA-French, HIFA-Portuguese, and HIFA-Spanish), or through volunteerism (our impact is greatly strengthened through our existing volunteers and we welcome more). Reply here or contact me neil@hifa.org

Best wishes, Neil

Let's build a future where every person has access to reliable healthcare information and is protected from misinformation - Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is global coordinator of the HIFA global health movement (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in collaboration with WHO. HIFA brings stakeholders together to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information.

Twitter: @hifa_org neil@hifa.org