The Wellcome Trust and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research recognise the importance of using health research evidence in policymaking. This joint call for proposals is focused on low income countries and intends to build much needed capacity to strengthen links between research and policy making. Proposals are invited from groups based in low income countries to: Develop and implement innovative interventions that enhance policy maker capacity and/or civil society capacity to employ health policy and systems research evidence in policy making and policy dialogue; and conduct rigorous evaluations of the strategies employed. All proposals must address both of these objectives. Brief expressions of interest should be submitted to the Alliance by 16 January 2009.
Jobs and Announcements
The HIV Clinical Group at Pretoria University, in conjunction with PIJIP and WCL clinic students, is working to prepare and garner widespread NGO support for a submission before the African Commission during its meeting in Abuja, Nigeria from 10–24 November. This submission will call upon the African Commission to adopt an interpretation of the right to health under the African Charter, which mirrors the one provided by General Comment 14 to the ICESCR, specifically recognising that access to medicines is a crucial component to the right to health. Furthermore, upon recognising that the right to health includes the components of accessibility, availability, acceptability, and good quality of medicines, the submission will call upon the African Commission, in the future, to use these standards as a means to uniformly monitor state's compliance with the right to health.
From 27 January to 1 February 2009, the city of Belem, Brazil will host the World Social Forum. Hundreds of self-managed activities – as campings, workshops, seminars, conferences, testimonies, marches, cultural and artistic activities, among others – during this six days will be spaces for exchange, reflection and building of proposals for another possible world. The registration to participate in WSF 2009 starts in October and can be made via the website address.
The 2008 AC3 Non-governmental Organisations’ (NGO) Conference will be held on 23-October 2008 in Pretoria, South Africa. It will focus on building the organisational capacity of communities to respond effectively to their unique needs. The conference will assist organisations to: build organisational skills, identify other capacity building opportunities, provide learning opportunities to expand existing or new skills, provide an opportunity for organisations to share best practices and serve as a major annual networking opportunity for community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations and faith-based organisations.
This year’s AIDS Vaccine Conference will be held on 13-16 October 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s an annual event for the exchange of scientific information relating to HIV vaccine research and development. The annual conference is organised under the aegis of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and contributes to the goals of the Enterprise by providing a venue for an international exchange of information in HIV vaccine research and development, cross-fertilising scientific areas of research, increasing coordination and communication among international groups and monitoring progress in the field.
The Global Secretariat of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), jointly with the Secretariat of the Global Health Watch 2 (GHW2), calls upon all PHM country circles and networks to participate in the launching of the GHW2. Global Health Watch is a collaboration of leading popular movements and non-governmental organisations consisting of civil society activists, community groups, health workers and academics. It has compiled the second edition of its alternative to World Health Organisation’s (WHO) World Health Report – a hard-hitting, evidence-based analysis of the political economy of health and health care – as a challenge to major global bodies that influence health. Its monitoring of institutions including the World Bank, WHO and UNICEF reveals that, while some important initiatives are being taken, much more needs to be done to have any hope of meeting the UN’s health-related Millennium Development Goals.
The revised dates for the Conference have now been fixed for 10 to 12 March 2009 at the La Palm Beach Hotel in Accra. The theme of the conference is 'Priorities of Health Economics in Africa'. The conference will cover: User fees; Health insurance and equitable health care financing in Africa; New international health care financing mechanisms and initiatives; Human resources for health in Africa; Economic evaluation of health services in Africa; Measuring health and factors contributing to health; Microeconomic techniques and issues; Preferences and willingness to pay; Economics and financing of AIDS and malaria in Africa; and Health research priorities.
The Info-Activism Camp is organised by Tactical Tech and will be held in India in February 2009. Tactical Tech is an international NGO helping rights advocates use information, communications and digital technologies to maximise the impact of their advocacy work. They provide advocates with guides, tools, training and consultancy to help them develop the skills and tactics they need to increase the impact of their campaigning. The Info-Activism Camp will bring together 120 rights advocates from the global South with technologists, designers and activists for a week-long hands-on workshop to share skills, tools and tactics in digital advocacy.
The University of Melbourne is offering an exciting opportunity for a developing academic leader in Health Financing and Policy to make a difference in poor countries. The Research Fellow will play a major role in establishing a Knowledge Hub in Health Finance and related health policy for low- and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This new academic centre will bring together and develop expertise and knowledge on the financing of health services, identify research priorities and potential partner institutions, and link with other academic centres in Australia. The date for first review of applications was 31 August 2008, but late applications are accepted.
You are invited to submit an abstract for consideration by the Scientific Programme Committee for participation at the 4th SA Aids Conference programme. The conference is scheduled to place at Durban International Convention Centre from 31 March – 3 April 2009. The theme of the conference is “ Scaling up for Success”. Abstracts will be reviewed according to the following tracks: Basic Sciences; Clinical Sciences; Epidemiology, Prevention and Public Health; Social and Economical Sciences, Human rights and Ethics; Best Practices and Programmes; and Community Exchange Encounters. Abstracts can only be submitted electronically through the SA AIDS Conference website. Abstracts submitted to the conference secretariat directly through any other means will not be accepted for review. Please draft your abstract according to the headings listed below in no more than 300 words in total. You may draft your abstract in text format only using a word processing software i.e MS Word and then copy and paste the text in the abstract submission box.Note that no graphic images, tables, graphs or columns should be submitted with your abstract. Abstract submissions close on 31 December 2008