GEGA Activities

Internal development

GEGA is currently looking for an Advocacy Coordinator to facilitate external advocacy communications. More information on the job post can be found on the GEGA webpage at www.gega.org.za.

Overviews of the activities of the Ouagadougou, Nairobi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ecuador Gauges are available on the GEGA webpage, within the Gauge Profile pages for those Gauges. Also, a series of 25 advocacy fact sheets developed by the Ouagadougou Gauge have been added to their Gauge Profile page.

The GEGA Coordinating Committee recently convened to discuss GEGA's development. A number of decisions regarding emerging lines of work for GEGA were discussed, including an initiative to develop curricula and courses for training in health equity analysis, suitable for a variety of audiences.

External relations

HST, GEGA and Equinet have been selected to jointly host the 2004 meeting of ISEqH (International Society for Equity and Health) in Durban, South Africa.

The GEGA Secretariat participated in a seminar organized by Wemos on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and Health, and the role of NGOs. The seminar discussed, among other issues, monitoring and implementation of PRSPs in terms of equitability. Wemos will be following this line of work for some time, has organized a network to track the effects of PRSPs. They are interested in including Gauge perspectives on the issue, and invite opportunities to collaborate. More information is available at http://www.wemos.nl.

Conferences
The Global Forum for Health Research, which aims to close the 10/90 gap (only 10% of research funding is targeted to diseases that affect 90% of the population) is having their annual meeting November 12-15 in Arusha, Tanzania. Their website can be found at www.globalforumhealth.org.

The World Social Forum will be held in Porto Allegre from 23-28 January 2003. More information can be found at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/eng/

GIS Conference. GeoHealth 2002 Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, from 3-5 December, 2002. The conference "aims to forge closer links between the academics/practitioners using Geographical Information Systems (and related technologies) and the health policy-makers...for better decision-making." www.geohealth.org.nz

Training Resources related to equity

Training Modules on Health Research for Policy, Action and Practice are available on the Web (http://www.alliance-hpsr.org) and on CD. The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research in Collaboration with the Council on Health Research for Development, Global Forum for Health Research and INCLEN Trust have just published new training modules to support strategies aiming to increase the impact of health research on policy, programmes and practice. The modules focus on practical experience and best practices regarding priority-setting in health research (6 training units); knowledge management (5 training units); and advocacy and leadership (5 training units). The modules can be found at http://www3.alliance-hpsr.org:8080/Jahia/engineName/core/site/alliance/op/normal/cache/off/pid/1855?language=en.

Research-to-Policy Workshops. The Alliance in collaboration with regional HPSR networks is preparing a series of research to policy workshops with the aim of strengthening capacity to demand high quality, timely and relevant HPSR. This effort will be supported with the training materials just published. Indra Pathmanathan will be leading this effort and will rely on her vast experience with HPSR capacity strengthening and policy development. The workshops will take the modality of training of trainers, and will enable participants to tackle a variety of issues in advocacy, priority setting and knowledge management. Plans of action will be developed to increase the impact of research in the participants' areas of choice. Workshops will be celebrated between November 2002 and March 2003. Grants will be available for selected participants. For further information on dates and registration contact the Alliance. For further information, go to http://www.alliance-hpsr.org.

On-line Epidemiology training document. The "Manual of Epidemiology for District Health Management," published by WHO in 1989 is a basic document for training in epidemiological technique. The document can be found online at http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/924154404x.pdf (8MB).

Online Publications

Study on the progress of the HIPC initiative. Jubilee Research has recently published a document on the progress of the HIPC countries in reaching their debt reduction goals. The document suggests that for 60% of the HIPC countries, the initiative is failing. A summary document is available.

Winners and Losers: Assessing the Distributional Impact of Privatization, by Nancy Birdsall and John Nellis. Center for Global Development. "... the authors review the growing literature on the distributional effects of privatization….[and] examine which groups have gained or lost. The paper is a first step in a larger project [focused on] developing and transitional economies. It aims to derive lessons for minimizing any tradeoff between the efficiency and equity outcomes of the process..." "We …conclude that most privatization programs appear to have worsened the distribution of assets and income, at least in the short run..." Available online as PDF file [61p.] at: http://www.cgdev.org/wp/cgd_wp006.pdf

Annotated bibliography on equity in health by James A. Macinko, J. and Barbara Starfield. International Journal for Equity in Health 1(1). 2002. Available online at: http://www.equityhealthj.com/content/1/1/1. "... The purposes of this bibliography are to present an overview of the published literature on equity in health and to summarize key articles…to show the directions being taken in health equity research including theories, methods, and interventions to understand the genesis of inequities and their remediation. Therefore, the bibliography includes articles from the health equity literature that focus on mechanisms by which systematic differences arise and approaches to reducing them where and when they exist...."

Where is health? a contribution to the PRSP review by Ellen Verheul (Wemos) and Mike Rowson (Medact). "In this contribution to the PRSP review process, we focus on what we feel is still missing in the PRSPs and identify areas where donors fail to support the PRSP countries. Our concerns are listed under the main headings of the Key Questions for Review of the PRSP Approach. Areas for future action are presented in the boxes." Click here for review.

Solutions when the Solution is the Problem: Arraying the Disarray in Development. Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. Center for Global Development. "...This paper emerges from a puzzle among development practitioners and scholars-namely, why … people arrive at such vastly different and sharply divisive interpretations of the merits of new proposals to improve public service delivery under the broad banner of "participatory development"." "...the authors outline a conceptual framework that arrays the disarray in recent development initiatives, with the goal of improving policy dialogue and effectiveness..." Available online as PDF file [39p.] at: http://www.cgdev.org/wp/cgd_wp010.pdf

Human Development Report, 2002. Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World. (full text online in English, French, Spanish). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "Politics matter for human development. Reducing poverty depends as much on whether poor people have political power as on their opportunities for economic progress. Democracy has proven to be the system of governance most capable of mediating and preventing conflict and of securing and sustaining well-being. By expanding people's choices about how and by whom they are governed, democracy brings principles of participation and accountability to the process of human development..." All chapters available on line: http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/.

The proceedings from the HEN seminar on International Perspectives in Equity and Health are not online, but can be ordered online from http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/main/about/email_orders.htm. Chapters include:

Equity Publishing opportunities

The International Journal for Equity in Health (IJEqH) invites submissions on equity-related themes. IJEqH is a peer-reviewed online journal published through BioMed Central. Papers are available for no charge on line, and are listed in PubMed. Although BioMed Central generally charges authors $500 for each published article (waivers are considered for some authors), there will be no charge for the first year of publication of IJEqH. Further information on the journal and submission process can be found at http://www.equityhealthj.com.

Funding opportunities

Stigma Research. The Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new research program to support international collaborations to study stigma and global health. FIC, with 11 NIH partners, the Health Research Services Administration, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) with the International Development Research Centre. The current combined financial commitment of the Stigma and Global Health Research Program partners is approximately $2.75 million for the first year. Total support will be approximately $11 million over the next five years. For more information, go to www.nih.gov/fic/programs/stigma.html.

Action

Two years ago, African leaders pledged to drop import taxes on treated mosquito nets in an attempt to reduce the continent's enormous malaria epidemic. On the second anniversary of their meeting, 26 African countries, more than half, still tax the importation of mosquito nets. Information on how to support the "Drop the Malaria Tax" campaign can be found at www.MassiveEffort.org.

Feedback

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Information relevant to the Newsletter, including upcoming equity activities by Gauges or other groups, publication opportunities, tools, and documents