Date: December 6-8, Venue: Cape Town, S.Africa
The Health Systems Research Unit at the Medical Research Council, South Africa's pleased to announce a three-day training course: "Randomised Controlled Trials" 6-8 Dec, 2001. Randomised controlled trials are the most reliable way to evaluate the effects of an intervention, be it a drug, a new technology, a new way of training health care providers or organising health care. Over 10 000 RCT's are published in the scientific medical literature every year, and they have become an important aspect of the advance of knowledge. The course is designed for people, who may not have yet conducted an RCT, or who wish to deepen their knowledge. The course is open to all. There is no cost for the training course itself for participants from developing countries. The course fee for developed country participants, or employees of agencies able to sponsor such training will be R5000.
Jobs and Announcements
The International Planned Parenthood Federation is looking for a Africa Regional Director. For more information Contact: Dick Irish -Ref: DB_09.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is looking for a Regional Technical Advisor for HIV/AIDS. The top priority for this post is to provide assistance to the South Africa HIV/AIDS Programme Office, which is responsible for programmes in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. For more information contact: Dawn Sheckells. Include req. no. I 01 009 and source code DRUMBEAT.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Amidst a growing concern about increasing inequality, the spatial dimensions of inequality have begun to attract considerable policy interest. In China, Russia, India, Mexico and South Africa, as well as most other developing and transition economies, there is a sense that spatial and regional inequality, of economic activity, incomes and social indicators, is on the increase. Despite these important popular and policy concerns, there is remarkably little systematic and coherent documentation of the facts of what has happened to spatial and regional inequality over the past ten to twenty years. Correspondingly, there is insufficient understanding of the determinants of internal spatial inequality in a globalizing world. To meet this gap in knowledge, Cornell University, London School of Economics and WIDER are sponsoring a conference on "Spatial Inequality and Development," to be held at the London School of Economics on June 27-29, 2002. The conference seeks to attract contributions, which document and analyze the facts of within country spatial inequality, and its determinants, especially during the period of globalization of the last two decades. A broad view is taken of inequality, covering the distribution of such variables as economic activity, economic structure, population, income, social indicators, infrastructure and public expenditure. While the main focus of the conference is on empirical analysis of recent history, contributions which conceptualize the measurement of spatial inequality, or analyze its evolution in a longer historical frame, will also be considered. It is intended to collect the papers selected for and presented to the conference, in a volume to be edited by Professor Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University, and Professor Tony Venables, London School of Economics, and to be published by a leading academic press.
UCT is seeking a senior Family Medicine Physician with appropriate postgraduate qualifications, and clinical experience in urban and rural settings for this post for appointment as soon as possible.
The successful candidate will have proven research, teaching, clinical and managerial ability in this field. She/he will need to play a major role in the restructuring of the regional joint health services teaching platform, affecting training and research programmes in the
faculty, and district based public sector health services. This will include leading and developing the present Division of Family Medicine in the School of Public Health and Primary Health Care, and involves undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, initiating an active research programme, and promoting staff development. Closing date: 21 September 2001.
Closing date for applications: October 20 2001
The Regional Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) has played a role over the past three years in highlighting issues of equity in health in southern Africa. It does so by networking professionals, civil society and policy makers to promote policies for equity in health, undertaking research, initiating conferences, workshops, and discussions through the internet, and providing inputs at the SADC forums.
Noting the already significant work taking place on poverty, poverty reduction strategy papers and the links to health, and equally the strength of policy commitment to equity in health, and noting work already done by EQUINET in this area (which will be provided), EQUINET seeks to commission a paper to inform policy and research work on poverty, equity and health in southern Africa. More specifically the paper should address the following issues:
1. Using existing work done by EQUINET, WHO etc on poverty-equity-human rights links, briefly outline a conceptual framework relevant to public policy and practice for linking poverty and equity in health in southern Africa, where both poverty and inequality are extremely high. This should show both the points of distinction and of linkage between poverty and equity.
2. Identify from this, and supported where possible by evidence gathered by EQUINET, MAP and major poverty monitoring initiatives, where public policy priorities lie in dealing with the poverty-equity issues in health.
3. On the basis of the above, discuss the specific health sector measures / policies and features of policy processes that are pro-poor or enhance equity outcomes and those that exacerbate both inequity and poverty.
4. Critically assess the extent to which these measures and processes are present in PRSPs in southern Africa (using available web documentation of PRSPs and PRSP processes) and the implications for ensuring that PRSPs better integrate poverty-equity linkages.
Time frame: Six months, with an expected work time of three months.
Fee: Usd4 500
Process: Applicants are asked to submit a proposal for the grant that includes
i. a CV, clearly identifying previous work and documents authored in the areas of poverty, equity and health
ii. a sample of a paper produced by the applicant
iii. in one page a list in bullet form of the points to be considered in preparing the conceptual outline in item (1) of the paper and a paragraph of the broad issues most likely to be covered in item (4)
Applications should be sent, with contact postal, fax and email address to
TARSC 47 Van Praagh Ave, Milton Park, Harare, Zimbabwe
Ph: 263-4-708835 Fax: 263-4-737 220 Email: rloewenson@healthnet.zw
The Partnership for Global Health Equity is a small grants facility created to provide seed funding for Canada-South partnerships that involve the production or utilisation of equity-oriented research for health. The Partnership is housed at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and has a number of contributors, including IDRC, RITC, CIDA, CSIH, CPHA, and other Canadian and developing country health research organisations. The inaugural October 2001 competition will be administered by the Canadian Society for International Health. The Partnership seeks to encourage a range of innovative health research related activities and partnerships that are focussed on the health priorities faced by Southern countries and are pro-equity, gender-sensitive, participatory, and trans-disciplinary. Priority research areas include tobacco control policy, population health and community-based approaches to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, health equity, and globalisation and health. The Partnership intends to fund research whose current theme, approach, and/or partnerships do not readily fit under already existing funding frameworks, and thus to identify some of the current gaps in health research funding and to explore mechanisms to increase the resources available for important and innovative health research activities. The application deadline is October 1st 2001.
The Institute of Development Studies, UK, is seeking to appoint two or three researchers to strengthen and expand its health and social change team. We encourage applications from outstanding applicants with a broad interest in issues of health and development. We particularly encourage people who can contribute to our work on one of the following: gender and health equity, health sector reform and development in China, or new approaches to health development in Africa. Closing Date: 8th October 2001. Interview Date: 29th & 30th October 2001.
The Global Health Council invites healthcare providers, community organizers, program managers, policy makers, researchers, and advocates from around the world to submit abstracts for presentation at their 29th Annual Conference, 28-31 May 2002, in Washington, D.C. Abstracts are being solicited to present research and experience (in Panel Sessions, Roundtable Sessions, and/or Poster Presentations)that: 1) Further defines the challenges of global health in times of crisis, and 2) Identifies effective policies and programs to improve the health status of populations, especially of vulnerable groups. For full description refer to the online Call for Abstracts available in the Annual Conference section on GHC's website.
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