The East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) Health Community in collaboration with the International Best Practices (IBP) Consortium will host the Seventh Best Practices Forum (BPF), which will precede the 23rd Director’s Joint Consultative Committee (DJCC) Meeting. The two events will be held from 12 to 14 August 2013. The BPF and the DJCC will bring together Senior Officials (who include health experts, health researchers and heads of health training institutions) from Ministries of Health of the ECSA Health Community member states and diverse collaborating partners from the region and beyond. Their aim will be to identify best practices and key policy issues, approaches and making recommendations to strengthen the response to emerging and re-emerging health concerns in the ECSA Region. Individuals and institutions are invited to submit abstracts for presentation of papers under the BPF. The sub-themes are: integration of non-communicable and communicable disease programmes; addressing adolescent health issues; and strengthening global health diplomacy for equity in public health delivery.
Jobs and Announcements
PHASA and AFPHA are calling for abstracts for their two conferences, which will run jointly in South Africa. Contributors may write on any of the following six themes: leadership for a lasting legacy; social determinants of health; burden of disease, disability and population health; improving the performance of the health system; policy advocacy and community action for health; and public health education, teaching and training.
The theme of the 2013 session of the Institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa is “Health, Environment and Development in Africa”. The interface between health and the environment is an overriding challenge for development in Africa today. In many African countries, health is often the source of the slow pace of development processes. On the other hand, with their integration in the global market, African economies have become highly dependent on the environment and the exploitation of natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable. But the environment is not only physical; it also takes into account the socio-cultural aspects of the populations living there, in terms of norms, values and social practices which also pose health problems. African Social Science researchers are therefore invited to reflect, taking into account the gender dimension, on the interface between health and the environment, an important issue for the development of the continent. For every session, CODESRIA will appoint a director from the academic and research community to provide intellectual leadership for the Institute, as well as resource persons and laureates. Applications are now open for all three types of positions.
To move forward the debate around universal health care (UHC) there is an urgent need to define a way to measure progress towards UHC, both at global and country level. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been working with the World Bank to define a set of possible indicators that member states can use to monitor their own progress. A subset of these indicators could be used if UHC is accepted as part of the post-2015 development framework. All non-governmental organisations working in the health sector are invited to join the open discussion on how to measure UHC on 23 May at 13.30. Its aim is to open spaces for civil society organisations to feed into the process. Please confirm your participation as soon as possible. If you have any inquiries or need any further information, contact WHO at jeanteta@who.int or the email given below.
These two events will be held jointly in South Africa. The target audience is policy makers, public health academics and students, health professionals, health service managers and individuals from non-governmental and community-based health organisations. The joint conference will have as its focus, a scientific debate and discussion on strategies and action needed to move beyond the MDGs and on the public health legacy that we should leave, or want to, leave behind for the future generation. Speakers will include policy-makers, leading local and international academics and representatives of international organisations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Federation of Public Health Associations. Parallel workshops will precede the main conference, with wide-ranging topics to suit diverse interests.
A total of four postdoctoral fellowships are available in the area of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) for the Collaboration for Health Systems and Policy Analysis and Innovation (CHESAI) project, which is based at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town (UCT) and the School of Public Health, University of Western Cape (UWC), both in Cape Town, South Africa. The fellowships are for the period 2012-2016. Applicants must have citizenship of a sub-Saharan African country, be an expatriate African, or demonstrate commitment to future work in African health systems. They must have achieved a PhD in the last five years in any suitable field, such as health sciences or social sciences and not have previously held any permanent academic positions. Their work must show clear evidence of robust scholarly performance including a relevant publications record and have some relevant experience, specifically a track record of interest in health policy and systems issues, preferably including research. Applicants will be asked to propose an area of work relevant to one or more of the CHESAI themes, and to show how their past research provides a basis for this proposed work and/or what additional activities are proposed to contribute to the CHESAI community of practice. Please contact Jill Oliver and Thubelihle Mathole at the email address given.
The theme of the 2013 session of the Institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa is “Health, Environment and Development in Africa”. The interface between health and the environment is an overriding challenge for development in Africa today. In many African countries, health is often the source of the slow pace of development processes. On the other hand, with their integration in the global market, African economies have become highly dependent on the environment and the exploitation of natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable. But the environment is not only physical; it also takes into account the socio-cultural aspects of the populations living there, in terms of norms, values and social practices which also pose health problems. African Social Science researchers are therefore invited to reflect, taking into account the gender dimension, on the interface between health and the environment, an important issue for the development of the continent. For every session, CODESRIA will appoint a director from the academic and research community to provide intellectual leadership for the Institute, as well as resource persons and laureates. Applications are now open for all three types of positions.
Co-led by WHO and UNICEF, and with the support of the governments of Sweden and Botswana, the High-level Global Thematic Consultation on Health in the post-2015 agenda took place on 5-6 March 2013, in Botswana. This was one of 11 United Nations thematic consultations to help define the priorities of the future development agenda. As part of the ongoing consultation towards a final report that will be presented in May 2013, interested parties are invited to make contributions. Some commentators have noted a lack of inputs from low- and middle-income countries. CHESTRAD specifically calls on all contributors from these countries. The draft report is included in this newsletter.
The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is an initiative of nine African universities, four African research institutes, and selected northern partners. CARTA offers an innovative model for doctoral training in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen the capacity of participating institutions to conduct and lead internationally competitive research. Applications are now open for fellowships.
A new 5-year, EU-funded programme comprising partners from Bangladesh (BRAC University), Ethiopia (Sidama Health Zone/TB Reach), Indonesia (Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology), Kenya (LVCT), Malawi (REACH Trust), Mozambique (University Eduardo Mondlane) will investigate the role of close-to-community health workers in improving health outcomes in Africa and Asia. Although interventions to promote community health workers are increasingly popular, it is not clear if this model of healthcare provision can work in all settings, and what support is needed to ensure quality services reach those most in need of them in poor and remote communities. Coordinated by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and supported by KIT, REACHOUT research will uncover the contribution of different close-to-community healthcare interventions to any improvements in practice and to find out what works, in which context and why.