The Society for Family Health (SFH) is a South African affiliate of Population Services International (PSI), an international NGO network operational in over 70 countries. SFH in South Africa concentrates on issues of HIV/ AIDS. As part of their HIV/AIDS control efforts, SFH is using social marketing to motivate behaviour change with respect to consistent condom use, HIV testing and other safer behaviours. The duties and responsibilities include project management, monitoring and evaluation, supervision, coordination and relationship management, managing budgets and reporting. The successful candidate will be a creative, innovative and strategic thinker, and will have: excellent communication, analytical, organisational, interpersonal and cross-cultural skills; a strong interest in private sector approaches to development; and a proven ability to produce results and meet objectives under difficult circumstances.
Jobs and Announcements
In response to a global need for evidence-based global recommendations on the use of digital health interventions available via mobile device, the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research in collaboration with other WHO departments has commenced the process of developing WHO Guidelines. As part of this process, over the coming months, a series of systematic reviews of research evidence have been commissioned on specific digital health topics. WHO is requesting from the global community any and all relevant primary studies that should be considered for inclusion in the systematic reviews. This is an opportunity to contribute to the literature that will be included in the systematic reviews that will be informing WHO Guidelines on Digital Health Interventions. The Guidelines will systematically consolidate evidence of effectiveness related to these digital health interventions, as well as review associated feasibility, costs, and risks, in order to formulate concrete recommendations to inform evidence-based investments and prioritisation. Studies can focus on issues related to effectiveness, equity, resource use acceptability, feasibility, or resource use/cost-effectiveness, and can be from any setting, can be both published or unpublished, can include both randomised and non-randomised studies and qualitative studies. The systematic review team will review all submitted papers and determine if they fulfil the inclusion criteria.
The East African Community (EAC) in collaboration with leading national, regional and international Partners is organising the first ever “1st EAC Heads of State Summit on Investment in Health and Joint International Health Sector Investors and Donors Round-table Meeting and International Trade Exhibition” as part of proceedings of the 19th Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State, from 27th to 30th November 2017 at the Commonwealth Speke Resort Hotel & Conference Centre, Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda. The Theme of the Summit and Round-table Meeting and Trade Exhibition is "Investing in Health Systems, Infrastructure, Health Services and Research for accelerated attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the EAC by the year 2030". The event will incorporate an International Trade Fair and Open Air Exhibitions and it will provide an opportunity for high level discussions among Partner States, national, regional and international Partners, local investors and other stakeholders aimed at focusing attention on the urgent need for major investments in the health sector.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) announces a call for submission of proposals from academics and researchers in African universities and Research Centers for the 2017 session of its annual Democratic Governance Institute. The institute will be held in the Council’s headquarters in Dakar, Senegal from 4 – 15 September 2017 on the theme “Economic Governance and Africa’s Economic Transformation’. The Democratic Governance Institute, launched in 1992 by CODESRIA, is an annual interdisciplinary forum which brings together about fifteen researchers from various parts of the continent and the Diaspora, as well as some non-African scholars engaged in innovative research on topics related to the general theme of governance. An area where Africa’s play a critical role in the global economy is the resource extraction sector. After the resource boom of the 2000-2010 decade and the confidence attending to the ‘Africa rising’ narratives, a number of countries are experiencing deeper economic regression. Creative ways to support the extraction of resources have not kept pace with demands of Africans for an interrogation of the place of Africa in the global value chain. Fast and fleeting forms of extraction are now being implemented because appetite for Africa’s resources from external markets remains high and continues to grow. While useful provisions to counter the appetite for African resources exist, many intellectuals have not publicized the African Mining Vision of the African Union to reiterate demands for changing the structures of mining and African economies.The theme of “Economic Governance and Africa’s Economic Transformation’ has been selected with the hope that laureates will have time to reflect in some depth on the contemporary economic trends in the continent and the kind of governance architecture required to insulate African economies from dangerous global economic networks. Applicants who wish to be considered as laureates should be PhD candidates or scholars in their early career with a proven capacity to conduct research on the theme of the Institute. Intellectuals active in the policy process and/or social movements and civil society organizations are also encouraged to apply. The number of places offered by CODESRIA at each session is limited to fifteen (15). Young African academics from the Diaspora and Non-African scholars who are able to fund their participation may also apply for a limited number of places. All applications or requests for additional information should be sent electronically to the email below.
The objective of this course is to help sharpen the facilitation techniques of people who use participatory methods for their projects, and who work with groups. This course will deepen their understanding of group processes, and provides a space for facilitators to learn from each other by sharing knowledge and experiences. The training course will be run in a workshop style with a high degree of participant involvement using adult learning methods. Group work and role plays will be interspersed with input sessions combining theory and practice. The trainers are expert facilitators, and will also demonstrate the skills that they share. The course is also designed to include a range of different method that can be used to facilitate group processes. The training course covers essential skills for facilitation, the roles of a facilitator and interpersonal communication and conversation styles in facilitation. Further, the course will introduce participants to skills on how to manage group dynamics & understanding group decision-making processes, how to design a facilitation process and facilitation tools and techniques and how to use them.
The Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (CPMH), a joint initiative of the Psychology Department at Stellenbosch University and the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, is an independent inter-disciplinary academic research and teaching centre for public mental health promotion and service development in Africa. The CPMH is proud to invite applications from across the African continent for the MPhil in Public Mental Health in 2018. A key gap in current mental health professional training in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa is an orientation to public mental health. This means an orientation to the mental health needs of populations, and the policies, laws and services that are required to meet those needs. The training offered by the Centre provides clinicians, health service managers, policy makers and NGO workers with crucial skills to enable them to plan and evaluate the services that they deliver and manage; lobby effectively for mental health; take on leadership roles in the strengthening of mental health systems; and conduct research in various aspects of public mental health in Africa. The MPhil in Public Mental Health is a part-time research degree that aims to develop advanced research skills, enabling participants to undertake their own research projects (such as evaluating services, policies and interventions) as well as interpret research findings for mental health policy and practice. The programme is designed to be accessible to practitioners who work full-time, and who are from a range of backgrounds: social work, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, occupational therapy, nursing, health economics, public mental health, public health, health service management, policy making and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The training aims to build the professional capacity and leadership of the participants in their work, while contributing to knowledge generation in Africa. The degree requires the completion of a 3-week residential training module in research methodology for public mental health in Cape Town and the preparation of a dissertation of a minimum of 20 000 words, in either monograph or publication ready format.
Stellenbosch University and the Human Sciences Research Council will jointly host the 13th AIDSImpact Conference at the Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town South Africa. Each AIDSImpact meeting attracts delegates new to the field as well as a core group of loyal psychosocial and behavioral researchers, prevention workers, community members and policy makers from universities and institutes across all five continents who use the biannual meeting to present their studies, interventions and prevention schemes. AIDSImpact has evolved as one of the leading platforms for understanding, updating and debating the behavioral, psychosocial and community facets of HIV in light of changing social conditions and medical advances. A review of past AIDSImpact scientific programs reveals the evolution of the psychosocial and behavioral response to the HIV epidemic over the past 25 years. The 2017 Cape Town conference will promote pioneering work on understanding the dynamics of a changing epidemic. A key focus will be consideration of new choices for HIV - for prevention, treatment, care and strategic planning.
With funding support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, announces a call for proposals for a new intervention targeting support to doctoral schools and rebuilding scholarly communities in the social sciences and humanities in African universities. The overall goal is to engender a generation of academics and knowledge that can enable the people of the continent critically (re) imagine and (re) create better, freer, more sustainable, and more inclusive communities and worlds. Proposals to be supported under this call are those submitted by individual/ groups of graduate/doctoral schools, SSH faculties, including research and teaching units dealing with higher education studies. Proposals should focus on issues to do with curricular reform, doctoral student supervision practices and mentoring of faculty in graduate supervision; interventions to rebuild/recreate scholarly infrastructures and academic communities through holding faculty seminars, strengthening faculty journals and conferences, systems to recreate strong workshop and seminar cultures; support for scholarly writing and academic publishing workshops especially targeting doctoral students and early career academics.
This is an opportunity for activists and scholars to contribute to a series of three linked workshops in Africa. Each two-day meeting will debate current challenges and prospects for Left analysis and action. The organisers are seeking both key 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; 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: Africa in a ‘post-crisis’ world, economic strategy, industrialisation and the agrarian question and resistance and social movements in Africa.
Health Policy Analysis (HPA), seeks to understand and explain the policy process. The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research is supporting a fellowship programme in HPA for 2017-18, for PhD students, or those registered for an equivalent degree, based in LMICs who seek to research the politics of health policy change – focussed, for example, on agenda setting, an aspect of policy formulation, an experience of policy implementation, the politics of policy evaluation/learning, or another, relevant, area. The PhD ideas must also be nested in relevant policy, political science, public administration and/or organisational theory. Proposed applicants must be a national of an LMIC already registered or be currently finalising registration for a PhD, or equivalent, in an LMIC university, and at a stage where they have NOT yet finalised their study protocol or started data collection. Those selected as HPA fellows under this programme will be supported to conduct their PhD research and will be required to attend 2 week-long thesis workshops during this time – broadly, to support the finalisation of their protocol (year 1) and a related paper (year 2). HPA fellows will receive distance learning support between workshops and receive bursary support for their PhD research, linked to the preparation and completion of workshop-related outputs. Applicants must submit the following: a full and complete CV, with copies of all post-graduate university level academic certificates; a 1-2 page motivational statement for your application, indicating how this programme will fit with their existing PhD plans and timelines; a 4-5 page note outlining the work which they hope/plan to do, the theoretical base and methodology and justifying its significance in terms of current HPA work in LMICs; a letter of support from their supervisor (on their university letterhead), and a brief CV of their supervisor; evidence of registration (completed or in progress) for a PhD or equivalent, at an LMIC university, including the disciplinary area of study, year of entry, expected graduation data and current phase of studies; and the name and contact details of 3 referees, with clarification of their relationship to each; of whom at least 2 should have supervised the applicant an academic capacity. Preference will be given to women candidates, those under 40 years of age and to candidates from low income countries (LICs).