The SANNAM Biennial Conference and Annual General Meeting will take place from 16-18 November 2011 in Gaborone, Botswana. SANNAM is calling for abstracts for the conference, the main theme of which is ‘Engaging Communities for Accelerating the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the SADC Region’. Sub-themes include: health care programmes for addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); transforming general educational education for MDGs; strengthening educational nursing and midwifery for improvement for MDGs; community participation and MDGs; capacity building, leadership and MDGs; monitoring and evaluation progress for achievement/milestones on MDGs; challenges/factors related to MDGS; enhancing the environment for achieving MDGs; the expansion of nursing services to meet MDGs; collaboration and partnerships for MDGs; and human resources for achieving MDGs.
Jobs and Announcements
The theme of the 2011 PHASA conference, which will be held from 28-30 November 2011, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is "Closing the health equity gap: Public health leadership, education and practice”. The theme will enable participants to review the progress that South Africa has made in achieving equity in health status, health care, the social determinants of health and access to resources.
The ACU Titular Fellowships provide opportunities for staff from member universities and employees working in industry, commerce or public service in a Commonwealth country to spend periods of time in other member universities or relevant institutions outside their own country. Preference will be given to workers in the following priority subject areas: agriculture, forestry and food sciences, biotechnology, development strategies, earth and marine sciences, engineering, health and related social sciences, information technology, management for change, professional education and training, social and cultural development and university development and management. Fellowships will be tenable for up to a maximum of six months.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Public Library of Science (PloS) are calling for papers for a joint WHO/PLoS collection on the theme of the 2012 World Health Report on Research for Health. This flagship report from WHO will, for the first time in its history, focus on research for better health. The primary target audience of the report will be ministers of health in the WHO member states, and the goal of the report is to provide new ideas, innovative thinking, and pragmatic advice for member states on how to strengthen their own health research systems. In addition to primary research (both quantitative and qualitative) and well-developed case studies, WHO and PLoS also invite the submission of review and policy articles on how national health research systems contribute to the broader international research endeavour, especially in the context of the following areas: global health research governance; inequitable access to the benefits and products of research; global standards for responsible research conduct; and future research trends with implications for the developing world.
The Africa Initiative, a joint partnership between The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Makerere University (MAK), that the research grants competition is now accepting new proposals for funding of up to $15,000 CAD. They would like to invite applicants to submit proposals that are field-based and address substantive-policy relevant challenges facing African policy makers at national, regional, and global levels in one or more of the areas of conflict resolution, energy, food security, health, migration, and the cross-cutting theme of climate change. The Africa Initiative encourages proposals from relevant fields of physical sciences and social sciences. Priority will be given to African-based scholars, and early- to mid-career Canadian-based researchers. Applicants must have a post-graduate degree or be in the advanced stages of a doctoral program.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is calling for proposals for its new Multinational Working Group (GMT) on the theme of "Health, Society and Politics: for a equitable health system in Africa”. MWG is an important CODESRIA program that aims at promoting multinational and multidisciplinary reflections on issues affecting the African community of social science researchers. Each MWG will be led by two or three coordinators and will include a maximum of fifteen researchers. Two to three senior researchers will be selected as independent assessors and will also be resource persons during the meetings of each Group. The average length of an MWG is two years during which all phases of the research process should be completed and final results prepared for publication in the CODESRIA Book Series. For more details on the MWGs and on the activities of CODESRIA, visit the Council’s website: www.codesria.org.
This conference will consider the link between and contributions of the social sciences and humanities to HIV research and action. The International Association of HIV Social Scientists, which is organising the event, argues that social science emphasises a critical, reflexive stance and willingness to confront the social, ethical, and political dimensions of scientific investigations of the HIV epidemic, which has made it instrumental in successful HIV prevention efforts such as the normalisation of condom use against sexual transmission and the introduction of safe injecting equipment for injecting drug use. Social scientific research has also provided insights into issues related to the treatment and care of people living with HIV and AIDS, and has addressed the broader social and political barriers to effective responses to HIV. Yet there have been few forums in which scholars from different social science and humanities disciplines can come together to develop connections among the various phenomena we study, and between ourselves and our biomedical, policy and community based colleagues. This conference is a forum for those keen to extend the scope of the social sciences and its capacity to trace connections between all kinds of phenomenon, notably those that contribute to the complexity and changing nature of the epidemic. Themes include: treatment as prevention, HIV and the body, social epidemiology and social networks, global politics, and responsibility and risk governance, as well as new directions for HIV and AIDS treatment.
This symposium will consider infectious diseases in Africa, including bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic diseases, which comprise a major cause of death, disability, and social and economic disruption for millions of people in Africa’s developing countries. This conference will aim to look at the borderless effect of infection, its impact on children and the importance of intervention. International speakers will talk about how to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and discuss new diagnostics vaccines and drug treatments.
This first Southern African Network of Nurses and Midwives (SANNAM) biennial conference will present evidence demonstrating how nurses, as key members of the health team, promote and contribute to quality and access to health care. It will also demonstrate the importance of connecting other health workers and the community at large in accelerating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The conference will feature plenary sessions, which will set the stage for discussion of critical issues that either facilitate or impede the achievement of the MDGs. Concurrent sessions, symposia, poster presentations, debates and panel discussions will address issues to demonstrate the intricate links between the MDGs SANNAM is calling on all professionals and communities to work collectively at the conference in addressing the links.
Is aid for trade working? This is the question that the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade will seek to address when it convenes in July 2011. The Review will evaluate progress in terms of the Aid-for-Trade Work Programme 2010-2011, which was issued on 27 November 2009. The work Programme’s aim is to keep an on-going focus on aid for trade, which will generate continued impetus to resource mobilisation, mainstreaming, operationalisation and implementation of aid for trade projects. The Work Programme is complemented by Aid-for-Trade meetings, culminating in the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade. The World Trade Organisation is hosting the event.