Following the call to middle to senior policymakers, academics and civil society members working in areas of trade and / or health from countries in East and Southern Africa to participate in a capacity building and research programme on trade and health, EQUINET will in co-operation with SEATINI and the Centre for Hea;th Policy be running a series of country-level training workshops on trade and health. These workshops will be held between May and June 2005 and will be followed by support to country level teams, to undertake and report on national assessments of trade and health.
Thanks to those who applied- they will now be directly contacted by the convenors to indicate proposed dates of the country meetings.
Latest Equinet Updates
Equinet workshop on health sensitive trade policy
Health civil society in east and southern africa: Towards a unified agenda
EQUINET, PHM, CWGH, TAC, SATUCC, Southern African Social Forum, SEATINI, PATAM and HAI convened a regional meeting of health civil society on February 17-19 2005 in Zambia, with local hosts CHESSORE.
The meeting resolved to build a united health civil society campaign for a national peoples health system. The meeting identified that to build this the region needs to address pressing issues of:
- Investing in adequate, well trained, appropriate, equitably distributed and motivated health workers;
- Ensuring sustained increased fair financing of the universal right to health, through rising investment in the public health sector;
- Building a critical mass of conscious and organised people, with rights to meaningfully participate in their health systems,
- Resisting privatisation and promoting public interests and national authority in trade agreements in the health sector.
Policy analysis capacity building workshop
On behalf of EQUINET, and as part of the EQUINET capacity building programme, the Centre for Health Policy, University of Witwatersrand, will host the third and final workshop in the current phase of the Policy Analysis Capacity Building Programme from March 30 to April 2nd in Johannesburg, South Africa. This programme was initiated in late 2003 with support from IDRC (Canada) and Rockefeller Foundation.
The objectives of this programme are :
* To promote investigation of health equity-related topics using policy analysis frameworks;
* To better understand the forces constraining decision-making on equity issues and shaping the achievement of equity goals in the health sector;
* To identify levers for equity-oriented advocacy and policy change within the health sector at national/regional/international levels;
* To build capacity in conducting health policy analyses;
* To strengthen the networks between those involved in this area of work.
Regional meeting of parliamentary committees on health
As a follow up to the 2003 meeting on “Parliamentary Alliances for Equity in Health” held in Johannesburg, and the June 2004 EQUINET Conference, members of various parliamentary portfolio committees on health in southern Africa held a meeting in Zambia to strengthen the networking, work and capacities of parliamentary committees on health to promote SADC objectives in health and to build co-operation with organisations with shared goals. The meeting was hosted by EQUINET, GEGA, SADC PF and IDASA and local hosts CHESSORE.
Equinet call for participants and abstracts
Regional Meeting on Strategies for Equitable Allocation of Health Care Resources,
Johannesburg, 18-20 April 2005
This call invites applicants to participate in and present work at the EQUINET regional meeting on “Strategies for Equitable Allocation of health care Resources,” being held in co-operation with the Health Economics Unit, University of Cape Town (HEU) and the Centre for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand (CHP) in Johannesburg, South Africa, 18-20 April 2005.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30829
Strengthening community health and agency
Report of the Regional Meeting January 26th to 28th 2005Kafue Gorge, Zambia
The Regional Network on Equity and Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) (www.equinetafrica.org) has noted that equity related work needs to define and build a more active role for important stakeholders in health. This means incorporating the power and ability that people (and social groups) have to make choices over health inputs and their capacity to use these choices to improve health. To do this requires a clearer analysis of the social dimensions of health and their role in health equity, i.e. the role of social networking and exclusion, of the forms and levels of participation and of how governance systems distribute power and authority over the resources needed for health. To understand these factors, EQUINET has been carrying out research work to evaluate the current and desired forms of participation within health systems in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania amongst other Southern African countries.
* Abstract Book
http://equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/ABS012005gov.pdf
Towards a unified agenda for people's health, equity and justice
EQUINET, PHM, CWGH, TAC, SATUCC, Southern African Social Forum, SEATINI, PATAM and HAI convened a regional meeting of health civil society on February 17-19 2005 in Zambia, with local hosts CHESSORE.
The meeting resolved to build a united health civil society campaign for a national peoples health system. The meeting identified that to build this the region needs to address pressing issues of:
- investing in adequate, well trained, appropriate, equitably distributed and motivated health workers;
- ensuring sustained increased fair financing of the universal right to health, through rising investment in the public health sector;
- building a critical mass of conscious and organised people, with rights to meaningfully participate in their health systems,
- resisting privatisation and promoting public interests and national authority in trade agreements in the health sector.
The meeting agreed that health civil society is unified by common values and pursuit of the fundamental right to health and to life, of equity and social justice and of people led and people centred health systems.
Call for applicants: Health sensitive trade policy
EQUINET invites middle to senior policymakers, academics and civil society members working in areas of trade and / or health from countries in East and Southern Africa to participate in a capacity building and research programme on trade and health.
Student grant awards: Call for proposals extended
EQUINET will award a number of small grants to post graduate students and undergraduate students in East and Southern Africa for research proposals in the areas of:
- Equity in Human Resources for Health
- Equity issues in food security and nutrition
- Equity in health sector responses to HIV/AIDS and treatment access
- Using health rights as a tool for equity in health
- Health equity in economic and trade policies
- Fair financing in health
- Governance and community participation in health
- Understanding and analyzing policy processes.
Call for applicants: Health Sensitive Trade Policy
Call Closes On January 15 2005
EQUINET invites middle to senior policymakers, academics and civil society members working in areas of trade and / or health from countries in East and Southern Africa to participate in a capacity building and research programme on trade and health, i.e. to
* Participate in country-level training on trade and health to be held between January and March 2005
* In country level teams, to undertake and report on national assessments of trade and health, supported by technical and financial resources, between March and June 2005
* Review the country level assessments at a regional meeting in mid 2005
* Make recommendations on follow up of the programme