Equinet Africa

***NEW***Call for applicants: Online course in early 2024 on health impact assessment in east and southern Africa.  CALL CLOSES 5PM OCTOBER 6 2023

EQUINET through TARSC, in association with ECSA Health Community, SATUCC, TalkAB[M]R, Nossal Institute of Global Health and other international experts is convening online training including mentored case work to build HIA capacities in different actors in ESA countries. The course is being held free of any fee cost for participants. It will build understanding of the theoretical basis of HIA, and knowledge of the methods, evidence, analysis in an HIA, of reporting of and engagement on HIA, and implementation and monitoring of proposed actions. It will provide mentored guidance of participant HIA practical work, using real HIA case studies, and discuss implementation issues and strategies for scaling up and integrating HIA in law. It is aimed at state, non- state, labour and professional actors from different ESA countries, with practical work organised within country teams.  Each team will have an identified positive or negative economic activity or policy innovation used to implement a mentored HIA in a country/site as part of the training, supported by a small grant for the work. This may be a large commercial activity (eg mine, food, tourism, infrastructure, hydropower, dumpsite or agribusiness activity, a public-private-partnership health service). It may be a new policy proposal, such as nutrition labelling, sweetened beverage tax, clean air traffic levy etc.  The capacity building will be implemented in 12 online (zoom) largely 90 minute training sessions staggered at intervals between February and May 2024 and held at 1300 Southern African time on a Tuesday or Thursday , with intervals of one or more weeks between sessions for practical desk-based or local HIA work to apply the knowledge gained in the training, for report and mentored feedback. The course programme and timings will be made available to accepted participants in 2023, and course materials and readings will be provided. The mentored HIA reports produced are intended to be used for engaging on recommendations and for a repository of HIA reports, protecting as relevant confidential information. There will be a course evaluation, and participants satisfactorily completing the course will receive a certificate of completion.

 Applicants for the call should be from an ESA country, from a state, non- state, labour, professional or academic institution, with roles in or an intention to implement HIA. We encourage applicants to apply as a team of up to 4 people from these groups from a country or setting, but will also consider individual applicants. who, if selected, will be included within the relevant country team. Applicants should have at least undergraduate level education, have access to internet, be familiar with zoom, and be able to commit to participating in the twelve online sessions and to implementing the mentored practical work in their team. Applicant teams/individuals should identify a positive or negative economic activity or policy innovation that they may wish to focus on to implement a mentored HIA as part of the training, noting that in the course each country team will work on one mutually agreed issue, to be finalised with selected applicants in late 2023.

1: A maximum one page outline covering,

• If applying as a team (i) the team members and lead, their country, institutions, positions, education level and intended or past experience, role in relation to HIA and (ii) information on the proposed policy or activity that will be the focus for the mentored HIA for the team in the course, including its location, what the policy/activity involves, why it has been proposed and how and with whom the HIA results may be used.
• If applying as an individual (i) the applicant country, institution, position, education level and intended or past experience, role in relation to HIA and (ii) information on the proposed policy or activity that will be the focus for the mentored HIA for the team in the course, including its location, what the policy/activity involves, why it has been proposed and how and with whom the HIA results may be used.

2: A brief letter confirming availability for the full twelve sessions, noting familiarity with zoom, confirming internet access, and providing contact information for follow up

3: The CV(s) of all team members / of the applicant. .

 Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application before or by 1 November 2023. Please send any queries on the call to the EQUINET secretariat. 

Call NOW CLOSED for case studies on healthy urban food systems and waste management systems in east and southern Africa. 

The above call closed 5pm Southern Africa time on 18 August. We appreciate all the applications received that are ciurrently being reviewed and applicants will be notified by August 29th. The call was for case studies on food and waste systems that engage with climate change and inclusive circular economies in urban areas. A conceptual framework with five key areas for this has been collaboratively developed by EQUINET in the region and IS FOUND HERE.