The Inclusive Healthcare Innovation Initiative (IHII) has been launched in South Africa by two University of Cape Town (UCT) faculties, with the aim of creating a collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach to achieving healthcare innovation. The Graduate School of Business and the Faculty of Health Sciences unveiled the collaborative project, which is intended to encourage African citizens to reimagine healthcare across the continent. “The complexity of challenges faced in healthcare is calling for different paradigms of thinking and for the co-creation of new innovative solutions,” said Professor de Villiers, dean of UCT Faculty of Health Sciences. “Now more than ever innovation is required to develop solutions that can improve the delivery of healthcare in Africa in an inclusive, effective and affordable manner. These solutions must transcend current challenges in the system to improve health outcomes for patients but also to change the routines, responsibility and values of our healthworkers responsible for delivering the care.”New iPad app to record data at Groote Schuur.
Jobs and Announcements
The University of Turin, Italy, in partnership with the International Training Centre (ITC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO), is offering a Master course in Occupational Safety and Health. This one-year programme, to be held in English, includes an Internet-based distance learning phase, a face-to-face residential period on the ITC/ILO's campus in Turin followed by another distance phase for the preparation of the dissertation. The proposed programme combines the advantages of the academic experience in OSH of Turin University with the ITC/ILO's international training experience. An international approach has been applied to the contents, the methodology development as well as to the composition of the training team. This programme involves participants from both developing and developed countries, who will thus have an opportunity to share their different experiences. Applicants to visit the website for information on applications. A number of partial fellowships are available only for participants from developing countries on a competitive basis.
The African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet), a network of health communication practitioners across 50 countries, proposes an interactive three-day practicum focused on health communication monitoring and evaluation. The practicum will address topics such as how health communication strategy design influences monitoring and evaluation plans; the use of behavior change theories/models to guide evaluation planning; using evaluation and monitoring data to inform program strategies; using health communication research to test theories; and effectively disseminating and using evidence and findings to improve the science of health communication. Early registration is encouraged as the practicum is limited to a maximum of 150 participants. To register, please complete the registration form on the website.
The Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 30 September to 3 October 2014.The theme of the symposium is the science and practice of people-centred health systems. Researchers, policy-makers, funders, implementers and other stakeholders, from all regions and all socio-economic levels, will work together on the challenge of how to make health systems more responsive to the needs of individuals, families and communities. The symposium invites abstract submissions. Individual abstract submission closes 3 March 2014. More information is available on the symposium website.
The Second Conference of the African Health Economics and Policy Association (AfHEA), will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 11 to 13 March 2014. The overall theme of this conference is "The Post-2015 African Health Agenda and UHC: Opportunities and Challenges".
COncern is seeking applicants to manage the implementation of Concern Kenya's programme in line with its Country Strategic Plan (2012-1016) and its programme strategies maintaining and strengthening focus on community empowerment, system strengthening and emergency preparedness.
This call is fo articles about BRICS from a critical perspective. There are many avenues for publishing about the BRICS from an optimistic, uncritical standpoint, not least the BRICS governments’ own academic ‘think tank’ network and the mainstream media. But the authors of this call argue that social movements, labour organizations and other active citizens need analyses that advance the cause of justice, that do not suffer a failure of investigative nerve, and that fearlessly pose problems and alternatives. They seek contributions from all five countries as well as those that are in the immediate hinterland of BRICS. The articles will be published in mid-March 2014, in time for the Fortaleza BRICS Summit.
An upcoming Special Issue on "How Public Health Can Meet the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century," will be published in the Public Health subject area of BioMed Research International in July 2014. A call for papers has been made for the Special Issue, which is open to both original research articles as well as review articles. BioMed Research International is an open access journal, which means that all published articles are made freely available online without a subscription, and authors retain the copyright of their work.
Lend your voice to a continuing discussion that is helping to shape Africa's future. The inspiring contributions of our speakers are the key component behind eLearning Africa’s position as the most relevant networking event for practitioners and professionals working in ICT, education and training on the Continent. Whether you’re using a mobile app to engage young people with citizenship programmes, implementing state of the art technology to bring rural communities onto the grid and online, researching the impact of tablets in vocational learning, coordinating a local iHub to encourage home-grown innovation or lobbying government to prioritise ICT in national education policy, the eLearning Africa Conference audience wants to hear about it. they are are looking for the stories, experiences, research, thinking and expertise that make up the picture of ICT for development, education and training in Africa today, under the overall theme of Opening Frontiers to the Future.
What does post-westernness look like? What does it mean to be a cultural practitioner working outside the current imperial centres? What happens when water becomes more expensive than oil? How will south-south co-operation change things? What colour is the future? This call is for written submissions to “The State”, a media space for written and audiovisual communications, critical texts, interrogative narratives, images, manifestos and conversations. Send pitches or submissions of new work or pieces in English that have not yet been published in English, along with a brief bio, to submit@thestate.ae, by January 15th, 2014. Commissioned pieces will receive an honorarium.