The Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA) Partnerships with Canadians Branch (PWCB) is launching a C$75 million call for projects over $500,000 to take a comprehensive and integrated approach to address maternal, newborn, and child health, under its Partners for Development Programme. Projects must align with the elements and principles of Canada's contribution to the Muskoka Initiative, which will focus its efforts along three key paths: strengthening health systems to improve health service delivery at the district level by training more health workers and expanding access for mothers and children to needed health care facilities and interventions; improving nutrition by increasing access to healthy and nutritious food and needed nutritional supplements that help reduce mortality; and addressing the leading diseases and illnesses that are killing mothers and their children. Projects must be implemented in eligible countries with high rates of maternal and child mortality. Eligible countries in the East, Central and Southern African region are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This call will fund projects from Canadian organisations in partnership with organisations in developing countries.
Jobs and Announcements
Funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by the Netherlands Organizations for International Co-operation in Higher Education (NUFFIC), the Netherlands Fellowship Programme is an opportunity for non-governmental organisations, governmental and private organisations in developing countries to build their capacity. The overall aim of the NFP is to help alleviate qualitative and quantitative shortages of skilled staff within a wide range of governmental, private and non-governmental organizations by offering fellowships to mid-career professionals to improve the capacity of the organizations they work for. The need for training has to be evident within the context of an organisation. Candidates from Sub-Saharan Africa, women and members of priority groups and marginalised regions are specifically invited to apply for an NFP fellowship. The NFP offers several sub-programmes. Each sub-programme has a separate section on the Fellowship Programme’s website, with information about eligibility criteria, application and selection and deadlines (if applicable). Sub-programmes include short courses, master’s degrees and PhD studies.
The threat from counterfeit and sub-standard medicines is growing, particularly in poorer countries with weak regulatory mechanisms and poorly monitored distribution networks. Counterfeiting can be very profitable, and counterfeiters are increasingly sophisticated, making patients in developing countries, who usually have to buy medicines from their own resources, particularly vulnerable. The Centre on Global Health Security is organising this roundtable meeting, the objective of which is to help refine definitions of counterfeit, falsified and substandard medicines and to consider possible ways forward for the international community in addressing the health hazards posed by these medicines. Participants will include senior representatives from concerned international organisations, governments, industry, academia and civil society.
In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly (GA) agreed to undertake a comprehensive review in 2011 of the progress achieved in realising the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. Civil society involvement is being called for in the UN General Assembly 2011 Comprehensive AIDS Review, to be held in New York in June 2011 (still to be confirmed). A Civil Society Task Force (CSTF) is being set up as a mechanism to facilitate input of civil society and the private sector in the 2011 Review, including the preparatory process. The Task Force will include twelve individuals from a broad range of civil society groups and from geographically diverse countries. The Task Force will lead on: shaping and implementing the design for the Civil Society Dialogue in April 2011, including format, topics, messages and speakers; devising criteria and the call for nominations for civil society speakers; identifying, preparing and briefing civil society speakers for all formal sessions; and briefing civil society participants in the High Level Meeting. Those civil society advocates interested in participating in joint advocacy and mobilisation are invited to join the AIDS Review listserve.
The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) funds local, national, sub-regional, and regional organisations in Africa working towards women’s empowerment. The AWDF is an institutional capacity-building and programme development fund, which aims to help build a culture of learning and partnership within the African women's movement. In addition to awarding grants, the AWDF attempts to strengthen the organisational capacities of its grantees. The AWDF funds work in six thematic areas: women's human rights; political participation; peace building; health, reproductive rights; economic empowerment; and HIV and AIDS. Applicants are expected to build relevant and reasonable running/core costs into their project proposals. Grants are made to national and regional organisations for aspects of organisational growth and development such as strategic planning, developing fundraising strategies, communications systems, retreats, governance systems etc. Grants cover capital costs such as purchase of computers, printers, and photocopiers. The AWDF makes grants in three cycles each year. Applications can be sent in at any time. Organisations can apply for grants ranging from US$1,000 - US$40,000. Grants over US$20,000 are only made to organisations which operate on a regional basis.
The fifth African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE) will be held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from the 5th to the 19th of May 2011. APORDE is a high-level training programme in development economics which aims to build capacity in economics and economic policy-making. The course will run for two weeks and consist of lectures and seminars taught by leading international and African economists. This call is directed at talented African, Asian and Latin American economists, policy makers and civil society activists who, if selected, will be fully funded. APORDE will cover essential topics in development economics, including industrial policy, inequality, poverty, financial crises and social policy. Lectures will equip participants with key information pertaining to both mainstream and critical approaches. Day lectures will last for three and a half hours, while a number of shorter lectures will also be organised.
In partnership with Computer Aid International, BioMed Central will be hosting a two-day conference on open access publishing at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, from 11-12 November 2010. Open access to the results of scientific and medical research has potential to play an important role in international development, and this conference will discuss the benefits of open access publishing in an African context, from the perspective of both readers seeking access to information, and researchers seeking to globally communicate the results of their work. Attendance at the conference is free and is open to researchers, librarians, vice-chancellors and funders for discussions on access to scientific research. However, space is limited so, to reserve your place, please send an email to the address given here.
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Knowledge Translation and Health Technology Assessment in Health Equity, housed at the Centre for Global Health at the University of Ottawa, is currently in the process of updating and expanding its Equity-Oriented Toolkit for Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The Equity-Oriented Toolkit is based on a needs-based model of HTA. It provides tools that explicitly consider health equity at each of the four steps of health technology assessment: burden of Illness, community effectiveness, economic evaluation, and knowledge translation and implementation. It also incorporates concepts of health impact assessment within the HTA process. The centre is seeking suggestions on validated and widely disseminated HTA tools that explicitly consider health equity and that are relevant to the toolkit. These tools may be specific analytical methods such as the Disability-Adjusted Life Years, checklists such as the Health Impact Screening Checklist, software programmes such as the Harvard Policy Maker, and databases such as the Cochrane Library.
Medicins sans Frontieres has launched its campaign ‘Europe! Hands off our medicine’ to fight against legislative changes that could see the supply of generic drugs from India and other countries shut down or significantly reduced. This is an appeal to you to sign the petition and distribute it as widely as possible in your country and networks. Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines to stay alive. More than 80% of the medicines used by MSF to treat AIDS across the developing world are produced in India. But the European Commission (EC) is now launching an attack on affordable medicines by pushing for unfair legislation to govern the production, registration, transportation and exportation of generic medicines. This legislation makes no clear distinction between fake drugs and genuine generics. People who need generics could face shortages and may die if they need are life-saving drugs. Negotiations are ongoing between the European Union and India, and MSF wants to use this petition to draw the attention to this problematic issue and send a message to the EC Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht, and European Union governments, calling on him to put a halt to Europe’s destructive trade policies and to commit to an agenda that will offer access to medicines for all. To sign on, click on the link given here.
The Third HIV and AIDS in the Workplace Research Conference, taking place in Johannesburg from 9-11 November, will reflect on the intersection of workplace HIV responses, academic research and surveillance, with a particular focus on strengthening prevention interventions in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa, linking prevention research to workplace practice. Prevention will be a key priority focus area, as success in preventing new infections is now widely accepted as the key to ultimately curbing the impact of HIV and AIDS on South Africa and its people. The Conference offers an opportunity for business to step back and reflect on HIV and AIDS programmes, using the lens of research and practice to consider what has worked and what lessons can be extracted. The Conference is also a platform to translate research into meaningful and sustainable responses that can be applied in the workplace.