The purpose of the proposed seminar and workshop is to examine how to secure collective action to provide global public goods through research and development (R&D) and innovation for the specific health needs of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Specifically, the event will explore how to learn from other sectors (such as agriculture, the environment and energy) in order to secure fair and sustainable contributions that ensure the provision of global public goods. Following the introductory keynote address by Professor Kaul, a high-level panel, with policy-makers from high-income countries (HICs) and LMICs, will discuss key issues relating to current efforts to organise the production of global public goods for health where the market has been failing. The public seminar is free and open to anyone and aims to attract, in particular, representatives of intergovernmental organisations, country missions, civil society and the private sector.
Jobs and Announcements
The Social Aspects of HIV and AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA), established in 2001 by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), is an alliance of partners established to conduct, support and use social sciences research to prevent the further spread of HIV and mitigate the impact of its devastation in sub-Saharan Africa. The SAHARA 7 conference theme is "Translating evidence into action: Engaging with communities, policies, human rights, gender, service delivery".
The Sixth South African AIDS Conference will be held in Durban from 18-21 June 2013. The conference theme is "Building on our successes: Integrating responses". As South Africa enters the fourth decade of HIV and AIDS, the conference aims to look back at lessons learnt and reflect, celebrate the gains made, and find ways to build on past successes by integrating HIV with other health responses. The conference will bring together various members of the HIV research community, including clinicians, academics, civil society and government.
The 2013 World Health Organisation (WHO) Barcelona Course in Health Financing will review effective policy instruments to improve health system performance through better health financing policy. The special theme of the course is moving towards and sustaining universal coverage with a highlight on how to counter the impact of economic downturns. The course is built around the following modules: designing a benefit package (equity, affordability and transparency); raising revenues (thinking outside the box); pooling health revenues (the cost of fragmentation); purchasing (getting more health for the money); and coordinating reform (aligning policy instruments with policy objectives). The course is free.
The World Health Organisation’s Workforce Alliance convened the First and the Second Global Forums on Human Resources for Health, in 2008 in Uganda, and 2011 in Thailand respectively. The Global Forums brought together key experts, fellow champions as well as frontline health workers around the common goal of improving the human resources for health to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals. Both Forums concluded with the adoption from committed participants of ambitious agendas suitable to translate political will, leadership and partnership into sustainable and effective actions. The Third Global Forum will be held in Recife, Brazil, from 10–13 November 2013.
The Moremi Initiative for Women's Leadership in Africa (Moremi Initiative) is calling for applications for the 2013 Moremi Leadership Empowerment and Development (MILEAD) Fellows Programme. The Programme is a long-term leadership development programme designed to identify, develop and promote emerging young African women leaders to attain and thrive in leadership roles in their community and Africa as a whole. The programme targets young women interested in developing transformational leadership skills that help them address issues facing women and girls across communities in Africa. It aims to equip Fellows with the requisite knowledge, skills, values and networks they need to succeed as 21st century women leaders. Applications are welcome from young African women ages 19-25, living in Africa and the Diaspora. Specific requirements of the programme and related dates are outlined in the application package.
From its base in the University of the Western Cape’s School of Public Health, this year’s HIV in Context Research Symposium looks beyond biomedicine at some of the social determinants of HIV, and of responses to HIV, within and outside the health sector. The Symposium will examine the links between HIV, inequality and the dynamics and impacts of urbanisation – dynamics that play out between settings as people move permanently or temporarily to urban centres, and within the highly unequal spaces constituting South African cities. The particular experience of Cape Town as a destination and transit point on migration trajectories will be examined in relation to other cities in South Africa and beyond. Through diverse disciplinary and sectoral lenses, practitioners, researchers, policy makers and civil society activists will examine the many ways in which urbanisation, inequality and HIV interact and affect people’s lives.
The Capacity Summit 2013 will bring together leading organisations, capacity building experts, policy-makers and the HIV-affected community to translate the emerging consensus on defining and developing capacity building interventions that are institutionalised, country-owned, evidence based and sustainable to attain the HIV and health targets towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The Capacity Summit 2013 is designed to contribute to the good practice within the HIV and health service delivery in the east and southern African region. The Summit’s objectives are: to catalyse and advance knowledge about how to make capacity building work for HIV response and achieve health targets at community, country and regional levels; to address skills and capacity gaps and overcome barriers that limit capacity building interventions to achieve results that are community driven; to promote and enhance collaboration in order to effectively translate and expand on the successes achieved so far in capacity building for HIV and better health services delivery; to influence leaders, including key policy makers and external funders, to increase their commitment to gender-sensitive, country-owned and evidence-based capacity building interventions, including targeted interventions for the most at-risk communities and individuals; and to promote accountability among all stakeholders engaged at various levels of capacity building.
The Third Global Forum’s programme will position health workforce development as a critical requirement for effective universal health care (UHC) and will be designed around one overarching theme – “human resources for health: foundation for universal health coverage and the post- 2015 development agenda” – as well as five sub-themes and their corresponding tracks: (i) leadership, partnerships and accountability for health for human resources (HRH) development; (ii) impact-driven HRH investments towards UHC; (iii) a supportive HRH legal and regulatory landscape for UHC; (iv) empowerment of health workers by overcoming policy, social and cultural barriers; and (v) the harnessing of HRH innovation and research through new management models and technologies. To provide a solid evidence base and background to the Third Global Forum’s proceedings, the theme issue will feature commissioned as well as independently submitted articles that will set the scene for and generate innovative thinking on HRH for UHC. The World Health Organisation is looking for contributions on the Forum’s general theme, five sub-themes and tracks, especially those emphasising aspects of HRH directly related to achieving UHC. Submission of relevant country experiences is particularly encouraged. The deadline for submissions is 10 March 2013.
The Sixth South African AIDS Conference will be held in Durban from 18-21 June 2013. The conference theme is "Building on our successes: Integrating responses". As South Africa enters the fourth decade of HIV and AIDS, the conference aims to look back at lessons learnt and reflect, celebrate the gains made, and find ways to build on past successes by integrating HIV with other health responses. The conference will bring together various members of the HIV research community, including clinicians, academics, civil society and government.