The Susie Smith memorial prize of £3000 will be awarded to a single piece of already published writing on HIV and AIDS from sub-Saharan Africa. Any type of piece – (e.g. poetry, fiction, article, chapter of a book) – of up to 10,000 words, in English, and published since January 2006, will be eligible. The judges will focus on two key elements: Quality of the piece itself (writing, analysis, insights); and evidence of impact of the writing in the media and/or with people, governments or other institutions. All submissions must be received by 18th April 2010 and include a cover letter outlining what kind of impact the piece has had and/or what it has achieved sent to Susie Smith Memorial Prize Submission
Oxfam Great Britain Oxfam House John Smith Drive Oxford OX4 2JY.
Jobs and Announcements
The European Development Fund is offering grants for its ARIAL programme. The overall objective of the programme is to promote the political recognition and engagement of the local authorities (LAs) as important players and partners of development. The specific objective of the programme is to promote and strengthen the capacity of LAs in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In particular it seeks to strengthen LA representative institutions from the national level up to the international level so that they will be able to take part in the implementation of development policies, in particular with the European Union, and play a political role as provided for by the Cotonou Agreement. The core target group will be existing national and regional local authority associations, which are still to be identified by the successful candidates. Applicants will explain the methodology with which they plan to select/or have already selected the associations who will receive their support. Any selection process should ensure the effective representation of all ACP regions, and, where possible, all ACP countries. The successful candidate will ensure that existing associations, who most effectively represent local authorities, will receive support.
The 2010 Humanitarian Fund is now accepting applications. The Fund, supported by donations from the BMA and Royal College of Nursing, offers grants of up to £3,000 for projects taking place in developing countries. Projects must offer clear health benefits to the local population, must involve at least one current National Health Service employee and should have a sustainable impact. The grants will cover incidental costs such as travel and accommodation only (not equipment or drugs). For more details on the Fund please contact the BMA’s International Dept at the email address given or complete and return the application form on their website.
World Health Day, 7 April 2010, will focus on urbanisation and health. The theme was selected in recognition of the effect urbanisation has on our collective health globally and for us all individually. Tell the world about what is happening in your city and exchange ideas with people from around the globe. Go to the campaign social media site to join the discussion, upload your videos and photos and nominate your urban health hero. With the campaign 1000 cities, 1000 lives, events will be organised worldwide during the week of 7 – 11 April 2010. The global goals of the campaign are: 1,000 cities – to open up public spaces to health, whether it be activities in parks, town hall meetings, clean-up campaigns, or closing off portions of streets to motorised vehicles – and 1,000 lives – to collect 1,000 stories of urban health champions who have taken action and had a significant impact on health in their cities.
This will be the first time MEDINFO is held in Africa. The Congress aims to boost exposure to grassroots healthcare delivery and the underpinning health information systems, as well as to open the door to new academic partnerships into the future and help to nurture a new breed of health informaticians. The theme for the Congress is ‘Partnerships for effective e-health solutions’, with a particular focus on how innovative collaborations can promote sustainable solutions to health challenges. Information and communication technologies may have enormous potential for improving the health and lives of individuals. Innovative and effective change using such technologies is reliant upon people working together in partnerships to create innovative and effective solutions to problems with particular regard to contextual and environmental factors. To this end, the Congress brings together the health informatics community from across the globe who are seeking to work together and share experiences and knowledge to promote sustainable solutions to global health challenges.
As part of the African Governance Institute’s activities programme in policy dialogue and advocacy for democratic and participatory governance in Africa, this seminar is designed to allow governance experts, governance practitioners from the public and private sectors, and civil society activists to engage in an intellectual dialogue on the major challenges facing Africa and to propose ways in which to rethink governance in general, and developmental governance in particular, with a view to satisfying the people’s aspirations for peace, human rights and development. The development challenge for Africa is to institute policies, institutions and processes that would help eradicate poverty and enhance socio-economic transformations as a means of reinforcing human security and ensuring self-sustaining development. Given the challenges of globalisation and the worldwide hegemony of liberal ideology, it is imperative that in the current rehabilitation of the pan-African project of continental unity, those in position of authority in politics, bureaucracy, civil society and the private sector, be challenged to generate new African thinking on developmental governance.
The goal of this petition is to get 10 million signatures (globally) in 10 years and to moblise support to force world leaders to implement anti-poverty policy changes. Ten solutions are proposed to end poverty. Full equality between men and women, a worldwide minimum wage of $20 per day and the end of child labour are proposed, as well as guarantees of shelter, healthcare, education, food and drinking water as basic human rights. Land redistribution, an end to private monopoly ownership over natural resources, the termination of intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical drugs and the cancellation of third world debt are also mentioned. Total transparency is demanded for any corporation with more than 100 employees and a 1% tax on all benefits distributed to shareholders of corporations to create unemployment funds. Other solutions include the termination of tax havens around the world, cancellation of taxes on labour and basic consumption while introducing global taxes, equal voting for developing countries in international organisations such as the IMF, and a commitment by industrialised countries to decrease carbon emission by 50% over a ten-year period, as well as reducing by 25% each developed country’s consumption of natural resources.
Three leading paediatric associations are uniting to host the 26th IPA Congress of Pediatrics in Johannesburg, South Africa from 4–9 August 2010. More than 5,000 participants are expected to attend this landmark event, the first IPA congress to be held in sub-Saharan Africa. It will unite paediatricians and health professionals working towards the target set by Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce child mortality by two thirds before 2015. The scientific programme is designed to meet the needs of general paediatricians from both the developed and the developing world. Plenary sessions will include: the MDGs and the current state of health of children in the world, and progress towards the MDGs; the state of the world’s newborns, including major issues determining maternal and newborn health in developing and developed countries; the determinants of health, such as genetics, nutrition and the environment; disasters and trauma affecting child health, such as disasters, crises and the worldwide epidemic of trauma; and the global burden of infectious diseases affecting children and the challenge of emerging infections.
Researchers during the early stages of their independent research careers often find it hard to obtain grant support in competition with more established colleagues. This is paradoxical since there is evidence that researchers at the start of their independent careers are at their most creative. The Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards will be specifically targeted at this group of researchers; Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Awards will be reserved for fully-established independent researchers. Investigator Awards will be made available at two levels of experience and seniority: Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards and Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Awards. In addition to these new awards, the Trust will be introducing Enhancement Awards, which will be available to Wellcome Trust Investigators, Research Fellows and Strategic Award holders. These will provide flexible additional funding to support evolving research programmes and could, for example, support equipment, collaborations, and additional research costs.
Experimental Biology is an annual meeting comprising of nearly 13,000 scientists and exhibitors representing six sponsoring societies and 18 guest societies, which will be held from 24–28 April 2010 in Anaheim. General fields of study include anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, pathology, nutrition, pharmacology and immunology. EB 2010 is open to all members of the sponsoring and guest societies and nonmembers with interest in research and life sciences. The majority of scientists represent university and academic institutions as well as government agencies, non-profit organisations and private corporations. This multidisciplinary, scientific meeting features plenary and award lectures, pre-meeting workshops, oral and posters sessions, on-site career services and exhibits of an exhibit floor with an array of equipment, supplies and publications required for research labs and experimental study.