Gega Activities
Health Equity - Research to Action course
After successfully organizing the course twice in Durban in June and then again in Italy in November 2004, planning is underway to develop the course further for the South Asian Region in 2005. GEGA will be involved in organizing the course together with Independent University of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Health Equity Watch, Canadian International Development Agency, and many other partners in the region. The course entitled 'Equity and Health Systems' is expected to be organized in India in September 2005.

French version of 'The Equity Gauge - Concepts, Principles, and Guidelines' is now available [852kb ]

Going from Bad to worse: Malawi's maternal mortality. This paper presents an analysis of clinical, health systems, and underlying reasons, with recommendations for national and international stakeholders. The paper was commissioned by Task Force 4 of the UN Millennium Project and prepared by GEGA, Malawi Safe Motherhood project, Equi-TB Knowledge Programme, Malawi and Medact. The paper and a summary of the paper is available on GEGA website at www.gega.org.za

GEGA conference report 2004 is now available: Building Global and National Coalitions for Action in Health Equity. Report of the International Conference on Equity in Health, 13-14 June 2004 Durban, South Africa [706kb ]

The Ouagadougou Equity Gauge is involved in developing a Masters in Population and Health for the Francophone African Region. The Masters is expected to start in October 2005 with 15-20 people from at least 10-12 countries of the region. The development of the curriculum is under way and the training for facilitators of the programme will start soon. The Gauge is also looking into the possibility of integrating GEGA's Health Equity: Research to Action course into various modules of the Masters programme.

People's Health Assembly 2, July 18-23 2005 Cuenca, Ecuador.

Who can participate?
Priority will be given to delegates from organisations and committees that work in the area of health and health-related problems at the local, national, regional, and world level.
How can people participate in the preparations for the Assembly?

For details on how to submit Stories and Testimonies go to: http://www.iphcglobal.org/pha2.htm. Deadline March 31st 2005

PUBLICATIONS:

Public health, ethics, and equity

"In the last fifty years, average overall health status has increased more or less in parallel with a much celebrated decline in mortality, attributed mostly to poverty reduction, sanitation, nutrition, housing, immunization, and improved medical care. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that these achievements were not equally distributed. In most countries, while some social groups have benefited significantly, the situation of others has stagnated or may even have worsened.

These are some of the important questions that this book addresses in building an interdisciplinary understanding of health equity. With contributions from distinguished philosophers, anthropologists, economists, and public-health specialists, it centres on five major themes: what is health equity? health equity and social justice; responsibilities for health; ethical issues in health evaluation; and anthropological perspectives."

For contents and ordering information go to:
http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-927636-6

Improving Impacts of Research Partnerships

Daniel Maselli, Jon-Andri Lys, Jacqueline Schmid
Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries, KFPE. ISBN 3-906151-83-2 - 2004
Available online as PDF file [86p.] at: http://www.kfpe.ch/download/KFPE_ImpactStudy-final.pdf

"….Research is a widely applied instrument for harnessing knowledge and providing insight into complex development issues. It helps in generating options for policy, management and action, and in empowering people and organizations in developing and transition countries, as well as industrialised countries. Ultimately this should make it easier to cope with the challenges of sustainable development under increasingly difficult circumstances. Research for development is therefore frequently placed in an application oriented context, in which concepts like inter and transdisciplinary research, equity, ownership, participation, etc. are widely accepted, but are not always put into practice. Research partnerships of various types and intensities, involving research institutions in industrialised and developing or transition countries, are important means for contributing to knowledge generation and capacity building.

3rd Forum on Human Development - "Cultural Identity, democracy and global equity"
Paris, 17-19 January, 2005
Organized by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/Human Development Report Office
The papers and speeches are available at website: http://hdr.undp.org/events/forum2005/about.cfm

"…..The dynamics of globalization, the increasing flows of commodities, capital, services, information and cultural goods as well as the accelerated migration of people, are rapidly changing the make up of societies. Some will benefit hugely from these changes while others will be unable to or even fall further behind. Inequalities will continue to widen and identity-related demands will get stronger. International and national governance of economic, political and social systems must adapt to this new reality of the 21st century. In this context, government action is necessary and urgent. New approaches to governance need to be invented if we are to achieve progress in human development overall or at least in terms of extreme poverty as measured by the Millennium Development Goals. This third Forum promoted viable responses to the challenges of human development today and offering governments strategies for meeting their commitments as signatories to the Millennium Declaration of 2000. ….."

HELSINKI PROCESS REPORTS - 2005
Website: http://www.helsinkiprocess.fi

The Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy has released three reports:

Global problem solving:
GOVERNING GLOBALIZATION- GLOBALIZING GOVERNANCE - NEW APPROACHES TO GLOBAL PROBLEM SOLVING
Report of the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy Track on "New Approaches to Global Problem Solving"
http://www.helsinkiprocess.fi/netcomm/ImgLib/24/89/Track1.pdf
"….The Helsinki Process Track on "New Approaches to Global Problem Solving" has examined why the current instruments of global governance are not producing satisfactory progress in solving global problems. International decision making is too exclusively focused on governments and remains disproportionately concentrated in the G-7 countries.

Financing for Development: http://www.helsinkiprocess.fi/netcomm/ImgLib/24/89/Track2.pdf
" The drivers of transformational change consist of value components and instrumental elements. The value component has to do with the power of common aspirations and ethical principles to bind actors to common purposes. The instrumental component provides incentives for individual, institutional and corporate efforts to improve productivity growth, jobs, incomes and resources available for realizing human aspirations and specific goals for human security as well as for enhancing the capacity and dignity of the individual…."

Human security:
http://www.helsinkiprocess.fi/netcomm/ImgLib/24/89/Track3.pdf
"…..The Human Security Track of the Helsinki Process calls for a new commitment of political energy, and practical reforms of policy and action, to correct these human security failures. Human security consists of physical safety, and of economic well-being, social inclusion, and the full exercise of human rights.

TRAINING:

Advanced Short Course on Health Sector Reform and Financing
15 - 26 August 2005 at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam (KIT)
Website:http://www.kit.nl/development/html/health_sector_reform_and_finan.asp
"……Health systems in countries all over the world are facing challenges in order to meet the increasing needs and demands of their citizens. Sector reforms are being introduced in the institutional organization of health systems - decentralization, involvement of the private sector, redefinition of the core role of Ministries of Health - and in the financing options for health systems - user fees, social insurance and community financing. All these reforms involve new modalities of planning and implementation, new types of partnerships and co-operation and they may require innovative thinking about mandates and core functions.

The aim of the short course is to assist participants in understanding the context and scope of the current reforms and financing options going on in the health sector of developing countries.

Prerequisites
Participants should have:

Application
An application form is attached and may be forwarded electronically to healthtraining@kit.nl or by hard copy to the address below.
Applications for the 2005 course are due no later than June 15, 2005.

Contact Information:
Course secretariat: healthtraining@kit.nl
Address: Health Training KIT PO Box 95001, NL 1090 HA Amsterdam
Tel.: 31-20-568 8237

ADVANCED HEALTH LEADERSHIP FORUM
Innovative Executive Program on Health Policy and Health Systems Change
Applications due March 30, 2005

Part I: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
July 15-22, 2005 (right after the iHEA meeting)
Part II: University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, California January 6-13, 2006

Description for upcoming program, July 2005-January 2006:
A 14-day earned certificate program in which renowned senior faculty and policy leaders from key international and national organizations interact with high-level participants re: evidenced-based solutions to key policy and management issues. Participants grapple in a practical manner with the issues and options that have been converging internationally.

Who should attend?
Senior executives of nations: health ministers or senior policy leaders, legislators and regulators Senior executives of organizations (e.g. World Bank, OECD, PAHO, policy research organizations) or enterprises (e.g. insurance, pharmaceutical, health care delivery, health care devices, care management)

For more information including an application, see our website at:
www.ahlf.upf.es or email Meg Kellogg at ahlf@berkeley.edu. Apply by March 30, 2005. Scholarships may be available.

CONFERENCES:

The Global Forum for Health Research announces a call for abstracts of presentations for its 2005 annual meeting
Forum 9, Mumbai, India, from 12 to 16 September 2005
Theme: Poverty, equity and health research
The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 31 March 2005.
Website at www.globalforumhealth.org/forum%209/001__programme.php
"…. Abstracts will orient the debate to research needs and gaps and to policy options based on evidence. In addition, successful abstracts will be consistent with the theme of the meeting: "Poverty, Equity and Health Research" and with the intention this year to highlight research to reduce inequities in health and health research through effective action on the social determinants of health…."

5th International Conference on the Capability Approach Knowledge and Public Action: Education, Responsibility, Collective Agency, Equity
11-14 September 2005, UNESCO, Paris, France
Conference web site: http://www.hd-ca.org/conference
The Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) will organise the 5th annual Conference on the Capability Approach next September 2005 in Paris and Versailles, France. The special theme of this year conference is Knowledge and Public Action. It includes four research directions, on which participants are encouraged to submit papers.
1. Quality Education.
2. Responsibility as Source of Freedom
3. Collective Agency, Personal Capabilities, Institutions
4. Public Action and Sharing with
The deadline for the submission of a paper proposal is the 1st April 2005. All proposals will be reviewed by the Conference Scientific Committee and notice of acceptance of the papers will be sent by early May 2005. Then the full papers are expected on the 1st July 2005.

For any further information, please contact:
Jean-Luc Dubois, Centre d'Economie et d'Ethique pour l'Environnement et le Développement (C3ED)
Université de Versailles St. Quentin en Yvelines (UVSQ)
47 Bd Vauban - 78047 Guyancourt Cedex, France
Tel: 00.33.1.39.25.56.86 - Fax: 00.33.1.39.25.53.00 Email: hdcaparis@aol.com

Information provided in this newsletter is taken from a variety of sources including websites and listserves like Equidad list, Health Equity Network list, spirit of 1848 list, and iHEA News.