The World Health Organization (WHO) director general – Dr. Tedros once said ‘Health and peace are interrelated, there cannot be health without peace and there cannot be peace without health.’ This I totally agree with him. Health can be said to be “the state of being free from illness or injury”, It is defined by the Britannica dictionary as; the extent of an individual’s continuing physical, emotional, mental, and social ability to cope with his or her environment. This implies an individual experiences peace once the presence of the aforementioned in, or around him. And so this makes one inquisitive to know what is peace.
Peace is an amorphous term been defined in various ways by various scholars, it is not the absence of conflict or violence as thought by many – but the ability to manage conflict constructively, as an important opportunity for change and increased understanding, respectively. Dr. Tedros further explaoned that peace is not only about the absence of violence but also about sustaining peaceful societies. It is therefore important to note that health and peace goes hand-in-hand and cannot do without each other. Conflict on the other hand is the difference either within an individual or between 2 or more parties as a result of conflicting interest, goals scarce resources etc mostly caused by wrong perception and other factors.
According to President Dwight (34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961) – “Peace is the cornerstone of every nation’s development (emphasis mine) as it comes along with unity, positive thinking, and collaboration for the common good of all.” Looking at this statement, we will understand that development is basically due to innovations and technology. In recent times, technology has taken over every facet of life activities. Now we have app/tools developed to suit various aspect and or purposes ranging from the least to major activities such as Accounting, car repairs, shipping, justice system etc. Sport is not left out. Innovative technology was introduced to football during the last world-cup to improve and enhance monitoring of foul and other unacceptable practices on field to resolve conflicting or confusing issues. One of such examples is the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) check for decision making. Within the health sector, various innovative technologies have been used to improve the health system ranging from; health delivery, disease surveillance, laboratory and diagnostics, nutrition and food security etc. An example is the Vaccination Tracking System (VTS) for Health Delivery which assisted to reach last mile and last child on the polio program. Another app used is the Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting (AVADAR) for polio surveillance. These 2 aforementioned contributed to the certification of a polio free Nigeria in August 2020. This was achievable with the collaboration of solution tech organizations across the globe such as eHealth Systems Africa (eHA), Novel-T and others.
There is a need to replicate health systems innovative technology in the peace and conflict arena because conflicts are major obstacle to health. I once mentioned in a video which was part of an assignment on introduction to global health course – that conflict is the greatest global health challenge as it brings about several other negative impact to the human health. The Global Health for Peace Initiative (GHPI)’s menu of health for peace interventions has helped outlined areas where collaborations can be made using technology to improve peace globally.
Health interventions are particularly well-suited for peacebuilding, therefore, if we can use the above, to work with technology-driven solution organizations around the globe, there is high-possibility of improved conflict analysis, and so we can prevent conflict blowing into war. For me, I will also add that we need improved technology in the areas of early warnings, conflict mapping and the rest. In the accounting world, there are applications like ‘peach-tree’ that made accounting processes easier than what it used to be in the past. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) has also made analysis easier for monitoring and evaluation specialists. As such, we could have app to improve early warning mechanisms, app that can improve conflict mapping etc. Having said all the above, it is important to note that collaborating with technology solution driven organizations in the above areas, and especially on early warning mechanism will surely improve peace initiatives globally.
Ogunseye-Falodun 