This brief reports on the issues raised in the third webinar in the EQUINET series on climate justice and health, with this webinar on health systems and climate. It was convened by the Research for Equity and Community Health (REACH) Trust, and the International Working Group for Health Systems Strengthening (IWGHSS). This brief summarises key points raised by speakers and participants on how climate features are impacting on PHC-oriented health systems; the actions that need to be taken to address these issues at local, national and regional level and in international/ global level processes and forums from a regional lens; issues raised to be further discussed in the other thematic webinars. The brief is shared to draw further comment and input on the issue. The video of the full webinar is also available on the EQUINET website.
Useful Resources
In 2023 – 24 EQUINET is organising a series of online dialogues to share knowledge and perspectives from community/local, national and international level on the impact of climate trends, the intersect with the other drivers/ determinants of inequity, the implications for policy and action that links climate to health equity and vice versa, and the . proposals for policy, practice, research, and action. This brief reports on the issues raised in the fourth webinar in the series on climate justice and trade systems, convened by SEATINI-Southern Africa in the EQUINET steering committee. This brief summarises key points raised by speakers and participants on how climate features are impacting on trade and health systems; the actions that need to be taken to address these issues at local, national and regional level and in international/ global level processes and forums from a regional lens; and issues raised to be further discussed in the other thematic webinars. The brief is shared to draw further comment and input on the issue.The video of the full webinar is available on the EQUINET website.
SSM - Health Systems is a new open access journal, edited by Sally Theobald (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK) and John Ataguba (University of Manitoba, Canada). The journal specialises in publishing interdisciplinary social science research that focuses on improving health systems and resources, broadly defined to include health systems and social care and support systems that impact on health and well-being of populations around the world. The journal is inviting submissions and waiving all article publishing charges until 31 December 2023.
Resource-poor areas in sub-Saharan Africa benefit from collaborative research partnerships between clinicians/researchers and industry, but the scientific rigour and research integrity of such collaborations need to be preserved, and research partnerships protected from threats such as conflicts of interest. Science Councils, and Research Ethics Committees (RECs) play key roles in sustaining science and health research, and are eminently positioned to identify, prevent or manage conflicts of interest. UCT, in partnership with researchers in Kenya, Cameroon, Lebanon and elsewhere in South Africa, is providing a free online course aimed at Research Ethics Committee members and Science Granting Council staff to enhance skills to identify, manage and prevent conflict of interest in the health research process. The project also includes an open access toolkit which is a resource for Research Ethics Committee members, Science Granting Council staff, researchers, managers and administrators involved in the research process.
Launched in April 2023 by WHO, the health inequality data repository aims to make disaggregated data more accessible to diverse global audiences, including policy-makers, analysts, researchers, health professionals and others.6 The repository contains the largest collection of publicly available disaggregated data on health and health-relevant topics, with about 11 million data points. The repository includes over 2000 indicators related to the SDGs; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health; immunization; HIV, tuberculosis and malaria; adult health; health care; burden of disease; disability; environmental health; WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work; and other health determinants. A key feature of the repository is its user-friendly interface, which makes it accessible to audiences with a range of technical skills. The repository allows users to explore data through an interactive data visualization software that was specifically developed for health inequality analyses, the health equity assessment toolkit. The repository also opens new opportunities for expanded inequality monitoring.
Built upon frontier scientific work, this platform visualises hyperlocal human impacts of climate change and its effects on human security for more than 24,000 regions across the world. It shows the effects we face today, on our health, our livelihoods, and the infrastructure we need. It shows how they are projected to evolve over the next century, bringing into focus which regions and locations are most at risk.
A new course featuring David Harvey teaching Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. Recorded live in 2020 first at The People’s Forum and then in quarantine, these 12 accessible lectures guide the reader through the major themes of Marx’s seminal text on political economy, and feature commentary relating the text to the pandemic and economic crisis.
A new WHO eLearning course series, ‘Health Inequality Monitoring Foundations’ delivers a self-directed learning environment, designed to meet the immediate learning needs of users. It is primarily targeted to monitoring and evaluation officers, researchers, analysts, and others with a general interest in health data and inequality monitoring. The Overview course gives a general introduction to the monitoring process and key terminology and concepts. The Data sources course examines the strengths, limitations and opportunities to improve common data sources for health inequality monitoring, as well as the processes of data source mapping and data linking. The Health data disaggregation course explores how disaggregated health data are integral across the steps of monitoring, and builds skills in assessing and reporting disaggregated data. The Summary measures of health inequality course discusses the general characteristics of simple and complex summary measures, and guides learners through the selection, calculation, interpretation and reporting of a range of measures. The Reporting course demonstrates the components of high-quality health inequality reporting, emphasizing purpose-driven, audience-centred, and technically rigorous approaches. These courses are available for free on the Health Inequality Monitoring channel of OpenWHO.
“In our era, when we consider the destructive (ecological and military) might at the disposal of the powers-that-be, the risk.. that war will end up destroying all the opposing camps, is real. On the other hand, there is a second path that demands the lucid and organized intervention of the internationalist front of workers and peoples.” Taking as its point of departure this observation by Samir Amin, this film depicts the audacious struggles of, as well as interviews with, addresses by and special moments involving this outstanding intellectual of the South. In the film Samir Amin discusses the political economy of development, capitalism and imperialism, as well as the resistance of workers and peoples. The film includes testimonies from other key thinkers of the region and images from the film The Dispossessed by Mathieu Roy, and also by several other sequences from throughout the world.
Bonhomme argues that some seminal writing during and on pandemics are worth revisiting, mostly because they provide room for ingenuity, strangeness and insight into another world. This short reading list explores how novels — past and present — have not only tackled epidemics but also provided acute and thought-provoking insight into humanity's tenacity. Given these texts' range in time, scope, and region, the novels are presented to offer a new crop of texts to flourish and overcome the corrosive effects of pandemic disillusionment and despair.