New Solutions seeks submissions for a special issue that will focus on the informal economy. The broad definition suggested by Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) will be used as a basis for this issue: “the informal sector refers to the production and employment that takes place in unincorporated small or unregistered enterprises; informal employment refers to employment without legal and social protection—both inside and outside the informal sector; and the informal economy refers to all units, activities, and workers so defined and the output from them. Together, they form the broad base of the workforce and economy, both nationally and globally.” (WIEGO Working Paper No. 1). Because New Solutions is a policy journal, manuscripts, including scientific papers, should include a perspective that addresses relevant policy concerns. Manuscripts are welcome for any of its journal sections, including: Scientific Solutions, Feature Articles, Movement Solutions, Documents, Voices, and Comment and Controversy. Earlier submissions are encouraged to ensure consideration. Pre-submission inquiries may be sent to the editors.
Jobs and Announcements
The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept describes how during early life (conception, pregnancy, infancy and childhood) the interplay between maternal and environmental factors program (induce physiological changes) fetal and child growth and development that have long-term consequences on later health and disease risk. Timely interventions may reduce such risk in individuals and also limit its transmission to the next generation. DOHaD research has substantial implications for many transitioning African societies and for global health policy. The 9th World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, will bring together scientists, clinical researchers, obstetricians, paediatricians, public health professionals and policy leaders from around the world. These experts will address, head-on, the many challenges that currently impact the health of mothers, babies in the womb, infants, children and adolescents, as well as explore solutions, interventions and policies to optimise health across the life of people. The 9th World Congress, the first to be held in Africa, will explore new solutions in infant and child malnutrition, and new epidemics of obesity and non-communicable diseases.
CODESRIA’s postdoctoral fellowship program is meant to give scholars at different levels of their careers the resources to undertake sustained work over multiple years on a project of their choice with the goal of producing empirically grounded and theoretically innovative work that will constitute original contributions to their field of work and to the understanding of Africa in the world. In addition to a financial grant of USD 15,000 over a 15-`month period, selected scholars will be provided access to CODESRIA’s library. Priority thematic areas from which the Council seeks to draw participants for its 2015 postdoctoral fellowships relate to a range of areas relating to African youth, economic transformation, human rights, social security and social welfare systems, African arts, education and gender analysis. Further detail on the themes and requirements for applications can be found on the website.
The Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) is an annual international conference focusing on policy-related health issues. The Conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 26 – 31 January 2016. The theme for PMAC 2016 is “Priority Setting for Universal Health Coverage”. The objectives are to advocate and build momentum on evidence- informed priority setting and policy decisions to achieve UHC goals; to advocate for the global movement and collaborations to strengthen the priority setting of health interventions and technology in the long-term; to share knowledge, experience, and viewpoints on health-related priority setting among organisations and countries; and to build capacity of policymakers and respective stakeholders for development and introduction of contextually-relevant priority setting mechanisms in support of UHC. The abstract should contain no more than 300 words that illustrate original research, or experience from the field on the subjects which have never been presented at any international conference. All submissions should fall under three main sub-themes as follows: firstly, organising priority setting: what evidence is needed? Secondly, using priority setting evidence in making UHC decisions. Thirdly, priority setting in action: learning and sharing country experiences.
The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and the Southern African Trust are seeking a SADC Civil Society Expert who has extensive experience working with civil society in the SADC region to undertake a mapping and analysis of civil society in the SADC region, and contribute to the development of a Sustainability Mechanism. Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications including a cover letter detailing their understanding of the scope of the assignment, a budget, the curriculum vitae and a sample report of at least one previous assignment undertaken by the 6 March 2015 to the email address below.
WHO has announced a new Call for Papers for a peer-reviewed Journal Series on “Informing the Establishment of the WHO Global Observatory on Health Research and Development”. This Call is launched in association with the WHO Global Observatory on Health Research and Development (R&D) called for by WHO’s Member States in the 2013 WHA Resolution 66.22, as part of a strategic work plan to promote innovation, build capacity, improve access and mobilise resources to address diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest countries. With this collection of papers, WHO aims to provide global stakeholders with up-to-date knowledge on methods, strategies, tools, experiences and applications to draw from when developing future investment decisions and implementation plans for new R&D. More importantly, the aim is to push the frontier for knowledge and innovation in this field by inviting new thinking, approaches, analysis and information and welcome a wide range of perspectives and disciplines relevant to understanding the availability of and funding for health R&D. Papers will be published during the course of 2015/16 in Health Research Policy and Systems.
New Solutions seeks submissions for a special issue that will focus on the extractive industries. Extractive industries are defined as processes that involve the extraction of raw materials from the natural environment to be used for consumption and include the mining of precious and other metals (e.g. gold, silver, iron, manganese, tin, asbestos and rare-earth metals, amongst others), and the extraction of energy sources such as coal, uranium, natural gas, oil sources such as oil shale and tar sands, as well as dredging and quarrying for primary materials. Because New Solutions is a policy journal, manuscripts, including scientific papers, should include a perspective that addresses relevant policy concerns. Manuscripts are welcome for any of its journal sections, including: Scientific Solutions, Feature Articles, Movement Solutions, Documents, Voices, and Comment and Controversy. The editors encourage submissions that highlight possible alternatives or solutions and examples of positive community responses and activities.
International Development Research Centre and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada have announced the 2015 open call for proposals under the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund. With a strong focus on taking effective, pilot-tested innovations to a wider scale of use and application, this call will fund outstanding research-for-development projects that promise consistent and meaningful development outcomes (i.e. reaching important numbers of end-users) by testing, demonstrating and effectively scaling up models, delivery mechanisms, and approaches. This is an open, competitive call for proposals, and will fund projects submitted by strong partnerships between research, development, private sector, and other organisations from Canada and from eligible countries.Projects are anticipated to begin in October 2015. The size of the projects funded by this call will be in range from CA$0.5 to $1.5 million.
The Community Development Resource Association (CDRA), a civil society organisation, established in 1987, based in Cape Town, South Africa, is conducting courses on Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning between 9 March - 27 November 2015 in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The pressure that organisations face for external accountability leave many tasked with ticking the boxes and filling in the blanks with a sense of unease. The same questions tend to plague researchers. Does the evaluation framework represent what the project is about? Are researchers bringing learning into practice adequately? Are partners learning and growing? This five-day course is for those keen to design monitoring and evaluation processes that foster learning.
The Child Health Foundation is currently accepting letters of intent from interested health workers, investigators, or community organisations for innovative research or innovative service projects directed at improving the health of infants, children, and pregnant women. Selected individuals or groups will be notified to further send a full proposal. The Foundation has been supporting innovative approaches to adapting ORT to the health care and social situations around globe. Small innovative projects can make a major impact on child health in diverse settings, and find out the answers to some persistent health problems. The number of projects approved depends on the amount of funding available. The 2014 Innovative Small Grants have been awarded for the health and well-being of children to organisations in Tanzania, India, Kenya, Colombia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Vietnam.