The council of the International Pharmaceutical Federation has adopted a strategy for the future. The three main aims are to expand the federation into a "United Nations of pharmaceutical organisation", to focus on the World Health Organisation, and to identify resources to support those two activities.
The FIP president (Mr Peter Kielgast) told the congress that the first aim involved recruiting more countries into membership and also expanding contact with other organisations. He acknowledged that the FIP could never fully emulate the UN because many of the latter's 200 or so member countries were too small for pharmacy to be properly represented. (The federation currently has 86 national pharmaceutical associations as "ordinary members" and 14 as "associate members".) Mr Kielgast hoped to forge direct links with many more countries, even if it was not through national associations joining the FIP.
On the FIP's relationship with WHO, Mr Kielgast said that WHO was where the world's health priorities were set. Because its members were national governments, national pharmaceutical organisation could not access WHO direct. While the FIP did not get involved in national affairs, it was able to represent its national member organisations at WHO. This was not a new role for the FIP but a new focus.
Mr Kielgast added that WHO had no enforcement system. It worked with non-governmental organisation such as the FIP to fulfil its mission. It set priorities that were followed at the national level. The FIP's objective was to ensure that the competence of pharmacists was recognised in these priorities. Some other health professions had had more active links with WHO than pharmacy had had so far.
Now was a good time to increase the FIP focus because WHO had recently undergone major change following the appointment of Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland as its director-general.
Mr Kielgast also said that the FIP was taking a close look at all its activities and had formulated a plan of action for 1999-2000. The first priority was to restructure the annual congress, which was its most visible activity. There would be an increased focus on activities of benefit to national member organisation rather than the individual members.
Part two of the plan of action was to revitalise the FIP publications, such as the International Pharmacy Journal, to ensure that they were useful tools for its members.
The third part was to concentrate activity on the WHO's focus areas, which currently were malaria, smoking cessation, counterfeit medicines and AIDS.
Other planned activities included promoting the value of the pharmacist, organising a leadership conference for chief executive officers of national member organisations and intensifying the FIP's working relationship with its partner organisations.