Registration for activities proposed for the World Social Forum (WSF) 2009 ended on 21 November and more than 2,400 activities were registered by organisations and movements from 60 countries. Now it's time to start convergences and merging among the participant organisations. The WSF is a space for exchange and strengthening of alternatives built by networks and movements from all over the world, so it's very important that all the initiatives and organisations try to build alliances. If you have registered for the Forum, it's strongly recommended that you check the list of activities proposed by other organisations before you confirm your activity (18 December) to try to establish contacts to unify activities or to build a common programme with similar initiatives.
Jobs and Announcements
The Lancet, together with the Geneva-based Global Forum for Health Research, has announced the winners of the 2008 essay competition, Young Voices in Research for Health. The theme of this year’s contest was research for climate change and health. Essayists were asked to devise research questions on the topic as it applies to vulnerable populations around the world. Almost 300 entries were submitted, from 66 countries. A shortlist of 42 was chosen by a team of judges from the Global Forum and The Lancet. Six winners were selected from the shortlist: Enrique Falceto de Barros (Brazil), Philippa Bird (UK), Lester Sam Geroy (Philippines), Rhona Mijumbi (Uganda), Marame Ndour (Senegal), and Charles Salmen (USA).
This award celebrates the work of an individual, organisation or initiative that has shown outstanding vision and impact in improving healthcare in the developing world. Only work that has been completed or published after 1 January 2007, may be entered. You are able to enter in more than one category. The closing date for entries is 12pm, Friday 19 December 2008. The expert panel of judges will be looking for the individual, organisation or initiative that has most demonstrated. To enter the Global Leadership award, you will need to complete an entry form at the above website.
Significant human and financial resources have been invested worldwide in the collection of population, facility and community-based data. However, this information is often not used by key stakeholders to effectively inform policy and programmatic decision-making. As a result, many health systems fail to fully link evidence to decisions and suffer from a decreased ability to respond to priority needs at all levels of the health system. In an effort to strengthen the links between data and decision making, MEASURE Evaluation, the Health Metrics Network, and the East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA) are co-organizing a meeting January 28-29, 2009 in Arusha, Tanzania with the objectives of sharing successful experiences in using health data to improve programs and policies. Proven approaches for improving the use of data, common challenges to data use and key priorities for creating a culture of evidence-based decision making will be shared in this two day, interactive meeting. The meeting will include plenary presentation, group discussion and break-out learning sessions. In addition to the symposium, a skills building session in approaches and tools to facilitate data use will be held on January 30.
The Seventh World Congress on Health Economics will be taking place in Beijing 12-15th July 2009 on the theme 'Harmonizing Health and Economics'. Submission of abstracts and session proposals is open until 15 November 2008. This forum is accepting an increasing proportion of abstracts from low and middle income countries. More information about the topics and pre-congress symposiums is available on the website.
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.
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.