Jobs and Announcements

This course seeks to help those who lack confidence using evidence in their work and facing external or internal pressure to justify the evidence that they produce. In this course delivered online participants will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of evidence. With a practical focus, they will learn the skills to identify sources of evidence, assess the quality of evidence, and integrate the use of evidence into their own work and organisation so that it is of high quality and can be used with confidence. At the end of the course, participants will be familiar with definitions of, and approaches to, evidence in international development and the wider implications for practitioners; be able to identify and work with existing sources of evidence, addressing relevance and purposes for different activities and audiences; be able to understand different approaches to, and have built skills in, assessing the quality of evidence; be able to plan for the use of better evidence in their work; have applied their learning and have explored the challenges and how to overcome them. During the practical component of the course, participants will apply their learning to a particular area of work where they use evidence, such as advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, or programming. The course takes place over four weeks and includes self-directed learning and one-to-one coaching tailored to the needs of the participant. It is aimed at technical staff in NGOs who need to engage with evidence in their work, for example in programme, planning, monitoring and evaluation, or advocacy. Participants will have some exposure to using research evidence through academic training or work experience, but need to gain a better understanding of core concepts.

HEARD is calling for applications for up to four full-time PhD Research Scholarships in any of the following key areas of strategic focus Sexual and Reproductive Health; Health Systems Strengthening and Economics of Critical Enablers in HIV Programming. Award of the HEARD PhD Research Scholarship is conditional on candidates meeting the requirements for PhD registration at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and on participating in a compulsory training component during the first year of study. The training component will be conducted over four two-week blocks during the first year of study. Candidates will produce a thesis related to one of HEARDs priority research nodes, as detailed above. The Scholarship programme emphasises the mastery of quantitative and qualitative methods for understanding policy problems and for devising, evaluating and/or implementing policy solutions. The intention of providing PhD scholarships is to produce expertly qualified graduates to advise or to be part of influential policy making organisations in Africa. During their PhD, students will be strongly encouraged to present their work at international meetings. Successful candidates will be based in Durban, South Africa, for the duration of the scholarship, with the exception of the time during which they may undertake field research elsewhere. Applications are invited from citizens of all African countries. Female candidates and, in the case of South Africa, those from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, are especially encouraged to apply.

The Canon Foundation for Scientific Research is seeking applications to provide support for scientists and academics from developing countries in the scientific and engineering fields who would like to attend local or international conferences, symposia and workshops or undertake other postgraduate study. The Foundation welcomes applications from researchers who would like to attend local or international conferences, symposia and workshops or undertake other postgraduate study. In most cases, they will meet all or part of travel, accommodation and registration costs. They also consider offering financial assistance to qualified researchers wishing to further their expertise at an internationally recognised overseas institution.

The 3rd Conference of the Association for the Social Sciences and Humanities in HIV (ASSHH) will be held in South Africa. The goal is to ask the kinds of critical questions it is sometimes difficult to pose in other settings, and to contribute to new and creative ways of thinking about the HIV epidemic. The conference will critically examine the growing gap between rhetoric and reality in the national and international HIV response and will provide opportunities for wide-ranging discussion and debate on the following themes: (Re)-writing the history of AIDS: whose facts, whose visions, whose stories?, An ‘epidemic of signification - cultural and media representations 30 years on, in the era of PrEP and ‘universal’ access, Sexual orientation and gender identity - a new or enduring battleground?, The politics of 'practice': research and practitioner perspectives on intervention and programme development, Power, politics and resistance: the demise of agency in the face of constraint, Positive nostalgia(s) and the international HIV response and Renewing social sciences and humanities research.