The 4th Global Forum on Human Resources for Health will be held in Dublin, Ireland from 13-17 November 2017 hosted by the World Health Organization, the Global Health Workforce Network, Trinity College, Dublin, Irish Aid and the Department of Health. The Forum represents a unique opportunity to engage a multisectoral group of actors across the education, finance, health and labour sectors; multilateral and bilateral agencies; academic institutions; health professional associations and civil society, in a coherent advocacy platform. The Forum will be an occasion to address the health workforce agenda with a multisectoral lens. The theme of the 4th Global Forum is achieving the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health milestones and the Commission’s recommendations. The Forum will: take stock of progress since the 3rd Global Forum; inform on innovations in workforce policy and practice; engage with and capture the views of various stakeholder groups on advancing implementation to reach the agreed GSHRH milestones by 2020 and 2030; promote collective actions across various stakeholder groups to accelerate implementation towards achieving global and national priorities and targets; and promote learning, sharing, networking, and collaboration among HRH stakeholders. The Forum will also facilitate special sessions to debate and discuss issues of global relevance such as, but not limited to, emergency preparedness & response, antimicrobial resistance, 90-90-90 and others.
Jobs and Announcements
The African Platform on Human Resources for Health will hold its 5th Forum in Kampala, Uganda, from Wednesday 19th to Friday 21st April 2017. The African Platform is the regional arm of the Global Health Workforce Network (GWN) that was launched in Geneva last December, 2016 as the successor the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA). The Forum will review the status of implementation of the “Road map for scaling up human resources for health for improved health service delivery in the African Region 2012–2025” that was launched in 2012; build understanding of relevant recent developments such as the “Global strategy on human resources for health: (Workforce 2030)”; the African Health Strategy.; the Five-Year Action Plan to implement the recommendations of the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth; and discuss the implications for African countries of the establishment of the Global Health Workforce Network (GHWN), at the WHO secretariat in Geneva. The forum will review the role of the health workforce (HWF) in Africa in advancing the movement towards Universal Health Coverage, as a part of the means to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Forum will be conducted through Plenary, Break out and Poster sessions under the following five thematic streams: HWF Education and Training; Preparing the African HWF for Universal Health Coverage ; Leadership for Development, Management and Regulation; Nursing; as the Backbone of the Health and HWF Migration. Participation is open to a broad range of stakeholders especially from the African region.
The Community of Practitioners on Accountability and Social Action in Health (COPASAH) is a global network of community of practitioners who share a people–centric vision and human rights based approach to health, health care and human dignity. COPASAH’s Steering Committee, represented by the COPASAH Global Secretariat, is seeking a resource person to facilitate a review and Organisation Development (OD) process. The primary task of the consultant will be to determine the value-addition and impact of COPASAH’s activities for the network’s membership base, examine its organisational structure, and advise on the future structure, strategies and activities within the context of the broader field of social action and accountability for health.
Scholars working on Women in Mining across Africa are invited to contribute to an edited book volume which aims to focus on contributions (through labour and otherwise) and roles (through social reproduction or resistance struggles) played by African women in mining/ extractive industries. African mining historiography has largely erased or silenced women and neglected their contribution in mining. In this literature and popular culture, mineworkers are almost always seen as men, as though mines are, and have always been, inhabited by men. This is despite evidence from as early as the 1500s which shows women as ‘pit people’. Scholarship which acknowledges women’s presence tends to portray women as outsiders who inhabit the ‘peripheries’ of mining and hardly as ‘centres’ or key players in their own right. This book project aims to address this bias by revisiting and interrogating, from a feminist perspective, the contributions of women in mining and the historiography of mining in Africa, as a way of re-claiming “her-story” and re-insert it into ‘hi-story’ of mining, to recover and resurrect women’s voices, centre their role and attest to their presence and make visible their contributions in mining. The gaps the editors seek to address include; different roles played by women who work/worked in mining (underground, open cast, artisanal and alluvial mines) and the invisible social reproduction work done by women in mining communities. The editors are also interested in chapters that revisit and critically re-examine archival material, and insert African women in the dominant mining historiography which currently excludes and or marginalises them. Authors who are interested in submitting a paper should, in the first instance, send a short abstract-length proposal (not more than 500 words) outlining the scope of their paper and its novelty by the 20th of April 2017.
This series of meetings is an opportunity for activists and scholars to contribute to three linked workshops in Africa. Each two-day meeting will debate current challenges and prospects for analysis and action. The organisers are seeking speakers and offers of papers, with a plan to publish a selection in the Review of African Political Economy. The workshops are scheduled in November 2017 in Accra, Ghana; April 2018 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; June 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa; and September 2018 at the African Studies Association in the UK. These workshops will link analysis and activism in contemporary Africa from the perspective of radical political economy, and will be organised around three linked themes: (1) Africa in a ‘post-crisis’ world, (2) Economic strategy, industrialisation and (3) The agrarian question and resistance and social movements in Africa.
The University of Melbourne is offering an online course that will explore the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young people around the world. The course will be relevant for anyone with an interest in the health and wellbeing of young people. Applicants don't need to be of any particular personal or professional background to benefit from this course, but having some basic undergraduate study experience will be helpful for learning. Financial support is available for learners who cannot afford the fee.
Cochrane South Africa, in its role as coordinating unit of the Cochrane African Network, has bursaries available to participate in the Primer in Systematic Reviews online short-course, running from 1 May to 14 July or 1 October to 8 December 2017. This course is being offered by the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care in collaboration with Cochrane South Africa, as part of the Effective Health Care Research Consortium. It aims to build capacity of participants to find, appraise, interpret and consider the use of systematic reviews of effects of interventions. If you would like to apply for a bursary please complete the application form and submit to ameer.hohlfeld@mrc.ac.za by 14 April 2017. The Primer in Systematic Reviews online short-course duration is 6 weeks (excluding orientation) and requires up to 4 hours of effort a week. The course is purely online and uses an e-learning platform called SUNLearn. At the end of the course participants should be able to: 1. Outline the rationale for research synthesis and phrasing questions 2. Identity the principles of randomised controlled trials and risk of bias 3. Find, read and appraise systematic reviews (SRs) 4. Interpret findings of reviews of effects, including statistical interpretation of meta-analysis 5. Be able to interpret a GRADE profile and Summary of Findings table 6. Outline key components of a systematic review of effects that need to be considered in applying to health policy and practice. See website for application information.
COPASAH is a global network of accountability practitioners who share a people centric vision and human rights based approach to health, health care and human dignity. COPASAH is holding a series of social accountability online dialogues to further share mutual learning through the use of virtual platforms and communication technologies. The online platform will support different streams of accountability practice - such as budget monitoring, struggle based health rights groups, health movements and technical resource groups on community monitoring – to interact and share experiences. COPASAH is looking for partners to facilitate online Social Accountability Dialogues, to facilitate discussions on a range of health rights themes.
Applications are invited for an International Fellowship for urban scholars on any theme pertinent to a better understanding of urban realities in the global south funded by the Urban Studies Foundation. The Fellowship covers the costs of a sabbatical period at a university of the candidate’s choice in either the global north or the global south (facilitating south-south exchange) for the purpose of writing up the candidate’s existing research findings in the form of publishable articles or a book under the guidance of a chosen mentor in their field of study. Funding is available for a period ranging between 3-9 months. Applicants must be early career urban scholars with a PhD obtained within the preceding 5 years who currently work in a university or other research institution within the global south. Candidates must also be nationals of a country in the global south. Preference may be given to candidates from least or low-income countries but middle-income developing countries are not excluded if the need for support is justified. The candidate must make suitable arrangements to be mentored by a suitably experienced senior urban scholar at his/her chosen research institution. The application must include: an outline of the planned research, demonstrating its originality, rigour and value to the field of urban studies; with a statement of the intended research outputs; and further information provided on the website.
This conference is a Joint initiative of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), World Medical Association (WMA) and the School of Public Health at the University of Witwatersrand. The keynote speaker is Sir Michael Marmot, ex-Chair of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.