title: Rural health activism over two decades: the Wonca Working Party on Rural Practice 1992-2012.
abstract: The Wonca Working Party on Rural Practice (WWPRP) was formed in 1992 in response to the realization that rural healthcare faced many serious and similar challenges around the world. Over the years the members of the committee have come from many different countries but found inspiration and strength in developing and sharing educational and health system innovations that could be modified and applied to different rural settings. The 11 world rural health conferences organized by the WWPRP over the first two decades since it was founded brought together a range of people, from rural doctors and other front-line healthcare workers to administrators and educational leaders, who connected with and learned from each other to advance rural health care around the world. The WWPRP policy documents and conference consensus statements have been important in shaping rural health care in a number of different contexts, and have led to issues of rural health care rising to prominence on the world stage. The WWPRP has throughout been an activist lobby group with a focus on the rural communities it serves rather than its members, and enters its third decade with much left to be done.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Rural Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa. ian.couper@wits.ac.za.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Couper
authors.affiliation: Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. strasser@nosm.ca.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Strasser
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada. dean@med.mun.ca.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rourke
authors.affiliation: Keele University School of Medicine, Montgomery, Powys, UK. john@johnwj.com.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wynn-Jones
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel; D026683:Advisory Committees; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D014943:Global Health / Q000639:trends*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007857:Leadership; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010344:Patient Advocacy / Q000639:trends*; D012423:Rural Health / Q000639:trends*
keywords: Africa; Allied Health; Asia; Australia/Pacific; Education; Europe; General/Family Practice; Health Service reform; Human Rights and Ethics; Indigenous Health Worker; Medical; Middle East; North America; Nursing; Primary Health Care; Professional conduct; Researcher; South America