The World Health Organization in December 2004 urged all member countries to consider mechanisms for pooling financing for healthcare, including Social Health Insurance, in order to achieve universal coverage. The Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town offers a 5-day short course addressing the changing role of health insurance in low and middle income countries. The course focuses on the financial management of risk pools in diverse settings covering a broad spectrum of insurance arrangements including community-based health insurance, private voluntary insurance for the formal sector and social or national health insurance.
Jobs and Announcements
Private Health Insurance and Social Health Insurance
An international short course
Further details: /newsletter/id/30989
Strategic Research Grants, Third Round 2005
Effects of Global Health Initiatives on Health Systems Development
The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research is collaborating with the Systemwide Effects of the Fund (SWEF) Research Network in a process based on a competitive Call for Proposals to support research to assess the effects of global health initiatives on the health systems in recipient countries. This collaboration aims to support research to measure the systemwide effects of global health initiatives - such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF), the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the World Bank Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP), and others - on broader health systems in low-income countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Tanzania: Head of Project HIV/AIDS Campaign
BBC World Service Trust
The Head of Project will assume overall responsibility for delivering a major mass media project to address HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. The project will meet agreed targets and objectives, and be delivered on time and on budget. The role will include management of an in-country production team and project office, ensuring the quality and cohesion of media outputs, establishing and managing effective partnerships with local media, government, NGOs and other key stakeholders.
Challenges in Reforming the Health Sector in Africa: Reforming Health Systems Under Economic Siege - The Zimbabwean Experience
Paulinus Lingani Ncube Sikosana
The book provides an insight and descriptive analyses of health sector reforms that are being implemented in African countries, with particular application to Zimbabwe. In some cases the Zimbabwean experience is blended with those of other countries in Africa. The book elaborates on the various elements of health sector reforms which include; health financing options, organizational restructuring, core health service packages, the introduction of market forces, hospital autonomy and the Sector Wide Approach to health development. These reform elements are described from a theoretical perspective; the rationale, implications, implementation modalities, their potential impact which the author provocatively links to the practical experiences of the selected country. The book highlights the fact that reforms in African countries have a different thrust to those in developing countries, though in both cases the ultimate objectives are the same.
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa: From Knowledge Sharing to Implementation
3 - 5 October 2005, Durban, South Africa
The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) conference is an annual forum aimed at fostering closer collaboration and networking between European and sub-Saharan African partners involved in health research and capacity building in Africa, especially in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria clinical trials. The Forum also provides a platform for feedback on new developments in research in these fields, and several recognised international experts will deliver state-of-the-art presentations and facilitate workshops.
Planning for Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Programmes
1 - 26 August 2005, Johannesburg, South Africa
Programme Planning for Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health focuses on building sound interventions for adolescent sexual and reproductive health designed to strengthen institutional capacity to effectively monitor programme operations and evaluate performance. The nuts and bolts of programme planning are fused with adolescent-centered SRH concerns through an array of provocative and interactive sessions.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30943
Association for Health and Environmental Development (AHED) – Egypt fifth conference
The "Association for Health and Environmental Development (AHED) – Egypt" in the collaboration with "People's Health Movement (PHM)" has the pleasure to announce its fifth general conference that will be held on May 14th and 15th, 2005. The conference under the title " PEOPLE'S HEALTH: DETERMINANTS, CURRENT CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES" aims at identifying the current challenges facing people's health, determinants of ill health as well as identifying alternative strategies for better health. You can access the conference announcement and application form at AHED's website, www.ahedegypt.org, where you can also find the Arabic versions of both the announcement and the application form. You may apply online via through AHED's website from this link http://www.ahedegypt.org/application.htm.
Economic justice festival calls for action on cotton subsidies
"We cotton farmers, people living with HIV/AIDS, youth, women, cross border traders and economic justice activists participating in the Global Week of Action Economic Justice Festival in the Harare Gardens, Zimbabwe, 13 April 2005 note with great concern testimonies given by cotton farmers. The peasant farmers have lamented the grand robbery that has pushed their households into abject poverty. The enemy is known. It is the unfair low prices that cotton is fetching in the current marketing season. It is the unfair world trading system. It is the failure of global institutions such as the WTO to deliver social justice to the poor and downtrodden producers of this earth."
Further details: /newsletter/id/30924
Ford Foundation/SAHARA Doctoral Scholarships
The SAHARA Network seeks to promote outstanding research in the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and to foster a fruitful dialogue between scholars and policymakers in all sectors. The Network is committed to supporting work of academic excellence that helps to promote public discussion on AIDS issues in Africa and the rest of the developing world. The SAHARA Network is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the Ford Foundation/SAHARA Doctoral Scholarships of Senior Research Fellows. The SAHARA Network, coordinated by the Human Sciences Research Council, must nominate four candidates for these awards, each valued at US$ 44,000 each year up for a 3-year tenure.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30902
Health and Human Rights: Train-the-Trainers course
Training in human rights for health professionals has increasingly been identified as a critical need for the health sector. This is particularly the case in light of the findings of the Truth Commission that highlighted the role played by training institutions in human rights abuses under apartheid. The course is aimed at teaching staff in institutions training health professionals -Universities, Technicons, Nursing Colleges and other Training Facilities. Participants should ideally be teachers active in undergraduate or postgraduate teaching in a position to introduce or facilitate ongoing sustainability of training initiatives beyond the course.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30913