This short-course in Cape Town, South Africa, has been developed to support staff of governmental and non-governmental organisations working at national, provincial and district levels, in the implementation of the new Adolescent & Youth Health Policy 2017 and allied policies. It aims to build the capacity of those with management responsibilities for the implementation of policies through improved knowledge about adolescence, key health problems affecting young people and priority evidence-based interventions to address them and strengthen programming skills. This course is provided by the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, housed within the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre (DTHC) at the University of Cape Town.
Jobs and Announcements
Adolescent and Youth Health Policy Short Course
Deadline for applications: 25 August 2017
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Humanities Call: Meaning-making Research Initiatives (MRI)
Deadline for applications: 15 September 2017
Within the framework of its 2017-2021 Strategic Plan, CODESRIA introduces Meaning-Making Research Initiative (MRI) as the principal tool for supporting research. Like previous tools, MRI will focus on supporting research that contributes to agendas for imagining, planning and creating African futures. The Council is issuing this special call for proposals because of the peculiar challenges that teaching and research in the Humanities are encountering in African universities today. It is also motivated by the important contributions that scholarship in the Humanities can make to an understanding of Africa and efforts to construct African futures. CODESRIA seeks projects that broach new and interesting questions and employs innovative methods to address these issues. Projects that address important social challenges on the continent and that are rooted in conversations between the Humanities and other fields of knowledge like the social and natural sciences are strongly encouraged. Work that examines on the status and importance of the Humanities in society and reflects on how to develop humanities teaching and research in universities are also encouraged. Group initiatives: MRIs under this special call should be groups of researchers from one country or multiple countries. Each group should have between 3 and 5 members and should take into account CODESRIA’s core principles of gender, linguistic, intergenerational, interdisciplinary diversity. All applications must engage with CODESRIA’s 2017-2021 thematic priorities and cross-cutting issues: democratic processes, governance, citizenship and security in Africa; ecologies, economies and societies in Africa; higher education dynamics in a changing Africa.
Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2018)
8 – 12 October 2018, Liverpool, UK
The Global Symposium on Health Systems Research is organised every two years by Health Systems Global to bring together the full range of players involved in health systems and policy research and practice. The Alma Ata vision of ‘Health for All’ remains as compelling today as it was in 1978, as reflected in goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But the world has changed in forty years. Despite improved health outcomes, there remain extraordinary challenges for health equity and social inclusion, such as demographic and disease transitions, conflicts and their subsequent migrations, pluralistic health systems and markets, and climate change. Political systems still marginalise those most in need. Yet there are new opportunities for health systems to achieve universal coverage. The Fifth Global Symposium will advance conversations and collaborations on new ways of financing health; delivering services; and engaging the health workforce, new social and political alliances, and new applications of technologies to promote health for all.
Grand Challenges Canada Funding Opportunities
Deadline for applications: 3 August 2017
Through the Stars in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Request for Proposals, Grand Challenges Canada seeks bold ideas for products, services and implementation models that could transform how persistent challenges in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health are addressed in low- and middle-income countries. Of particular interest to Grand Challenges Canada are innovations to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in humanitarian contexts, notably among internally displaced and refugee populations, as well as innovations that improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, so that they are empowered and have greater influence over their lives and futures.
MPhil in Public Mental Health: Call for Applications
Deadline for Applications 1 September 2017
The Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (CPMH), a joint initiative of the Psychology Department at Stellenbosch University and the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, is an independent inter-disciplinary academic research and teaching centre for public mental health promotion and service development in Africa. The CPMH is proud to invite applications from across the African continent for the MPhil in Public Mental Health in 2018. A key gap in current mental health professional training in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa is an orientation to public mental health. This means an orientation to the mental health needs of populations, and the policies, laws and services that are required to meet those needs. The training offered by the Centre provides clinicians, health service managers, policy makers and NGO workers with crucial skills to enable them to plan and evaluate the services that they deliver and manage; lobby effectively for mental health; take on leadership roles in the strengthening of mental health systems; and conduct research in various aspects of public mental health in Africa. The MPhil in Public Mental Health is a part-time research degree that aims to develop advanced research skills, enabling participants to undertake their own research projects (such as evaluating services, policies and interventions) as well as interpret research findings for mental health policy and practice. The programme is designed to be accessible to practitioners who work full-time, and who are from a range of backgrounds: social work, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, occupational therapy, nursing, health economics, public mental health, public health, health service management, policy making and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The training aims to build the professional capacity and leadership of the participants in their work, while contributing to knowledge generation in Africa. The degree requires the completion of a 3-week residential training module in research methodology for public mental health in Cape Town and the preparation of a dissertation of a minimum of 20 000 words, in either monograph or publication ready format.
PHASA Conference 2017 (The Public Health Association of South Africa)
4-7 September 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Public Health Association of South Africa invites the local, regional and international public health community to Johannesburg, South Africa for their 13th annual conference. The theme of the 2017 conference is “A Global Charter for the Public’s Health”: Implications for Public Health Practice in South Africa. Last year, the conference considered public health practices in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. This year the conference will critically reflect on the WFPHA/WHO collaboration “A Global Charter for the Public’s Health” and its implications for public health in South Africa. The conference will examine the four enabling functions of the Charter, viz. governance, capacity, information and advocacy. There will be conversations on how these four enabling functions can be strengthened in South Africa and discussions on critical current issues like globalisation and decolonisation in relation to public health.
PhD Bursaries for Researching Obesogenic Food Environments in South Africa
Applications considered monthly. Final closing date 31st October 2017.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies is a unique programme offered by PLAAS at the University of the Western Cape. It is the only programme in the land and agrarian studies field at a South African university. Two PhD bursaries are available as part of the IDRC-funded project “Researching Obesogenic Food Environments”, which is led by Profs David Sanders and Rina Swart at the UWC School of Public Health in partnership with the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) and with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. PLAAS is an excellent platform for academic teaching and learning in land and agrarian reform, poverty and natural resources management. Established PLAAS researchers, involved in socially relevant and innovative research, are also course coordinators. The application of teaching and learning takes place through contact time with coordinators, self-learning through extensive reading and analysis, together with writing assignments. Applicants with extensive work experience (at least ten years) in land and agrarian issues, and with good writing abilities, without an undergraduate degree, may apply to be considered on the basis of recognition of prior learning (RPL).
Scholarship for Research on Demilitarisation in Lesotho
Deadline for applications: 31 August 2017
For many countries, there are arguments against military expenditure, including its opportunity costs and the availability of cost effective alternative ways of providing security. A number of countries exist without a military, including Costa Rica, Iceland, Panama and Mauritius. The Peacebuilding Programme at Durban University of Technology is offering a scholarship at master’s or doctoral level to extend this work. In particular, the student might work in the following areas: Examine the findings of the Lesotho foresight and scenarios project, titled ‘The Lesotho we want: imagining the future, shaping it today’; and ideas towards a demilitarisation initiative which fit with and build on the attitudes and priorities of the population. The student would, in conjunction with others, plan a campaign to build acceptance of the idea of demilitarisation and then implement the plan. Demilitarisation would be a political decision so the idea has to find acceptance in the minds of politicians. In conjunction with others, the student would plan and implement ways to bring this about.
SFH: HIV Self-Testing Programme Manager
Deadline for applications: 20 August 2017
The Society for Family Health (SFH) is a South African affiliate of Population Services International (PSI), an international NGO network operational in over 70 countries. SFH in South Africa concentrates on issues of HIV/ AIDS. As part of their HIV/AIDS control efforts, SFH is using social marketing to motivate behaviour change with respect to consistent condom use, HIV testing and other safer behaviours. The duties and responsibilities include project management, monitoring and evaluation, supervision, coordination and relationship management, managing budgets and reporting. The successful candidate will be a creative, innovative and strategic thinker, and will have: excellent communication, analytical, organisational, interpersonal and cross-cultural skills; a strong interest in private sector approaches to development; and a proven ability to produce results and meet objectives under difficult circumstances.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Call for Research Findings on Digital Health Interventions
Deadline for submissions: 15 September 2017
In response to a global need for evidence-based global recommendations on the use of digital health interventions available via mobile device, the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research in collaboration with other WHO departments has commenced the process of developing WHO Guidelines. As part of this process, over the coming months, a series of systematic reviews of research evidence have been commissioned on specific digital health topics. WHO is requesting from the global community any and all relevant primary studies that should be considered for inclusion in the systematic reviews. This is an opportunity to contribute to the literature that will be included in the systematic reviews that will be informing WHO Guidelines on Digital Health Interventions. The Guidelines will systematically consolidate evidence of effectiveness related to these digital health interventions, as well as review associated feasibility, costs, and risks, in order to formulate concrete recommendations to inform evidence-based investments and prioritisation. Studies can focus on issues related to effectiveness, equity, resource use acceptability, feasibility, or resource use/cost-effectiveness, and can be from any setting, can be both published or unpublished, can include both randomised and non-randomised studies and qualitative studies. The systematic review team will review all submitted papers and determine if they fulfil the inclusion criteria.