Early Career Professionals’ (Researchers, Practitioners, and Policymakers) Role in Advocating, Disseminating, and Implementing the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity: ISPAH Early Career Network View
Increasing population levels of physical activity (PA) can assist in achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals,benefiting multiple sectors and contributing to global prosperity. Practices and policies to increase PA levels exist at thesubnational, national, and international levels. In 2018, the World Health Organization launched the first Global Action Plan onPhysical Activity (GAPPA). The GAPPA provides guidance through a framework of effective and feasible policy actions forincreasing PA, and requires engagement and advocacy from a wide spectrum of stakeholders for successful implementationof the proposed actions. Early career professionals, including researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, can play a majorrole with helping “all people being regularly active” by contributing to 4 overarching areas: (1) generation—of evidence,(2) dissemination—of key messages and evidence, (3) implementation—of the evidence-based actions proposed in the GAPPA,and (4) contributing to advocacy for robust national action plans on PA. The contribution of early career professionals can beachieved through 5 pathways: (1) research, (2) workplace/practice, (3) business, (4) policy, and (5) professional and publicopinion. Recommendations of how early career professionals can contribute to the generation, dissemination, and implementation of the evidence and actions proposed by the GAPPA are provided
