Welcome to the second edition of the Irish Forum for Global Health newsletter- your one stop shop for all things global health related including information on news, events, research, programmes, education, policy and publication.
EDITORIAL
The Irish Forum's submission on health to the Irish Aid White Paper Review was an opportunity for us to shape the direction of Ireland's development assistance programme over the next five years. More importantly, the process has also got some of us thinking about how we - along with our partners - need to re-think what 'Global Health' means, especially for the poorest and most disadvantaged communities for whom and with whom we work, and where to focus our efforts.
The shift in Irish Aid's public focus from HIV and AIDS to Hunger - and to Climate Change during Ireland's forthcoming EU Presidency - is forcing us to take more seriously the wider inter-sectoral dimensions of Health. This can be for pragmatic reasons, because Irish Aid is a major source of funding for academics and NGOs alike, and provides the policy direction for those of us who work for Irish Aid. (That's the great thing about the Irish Forum - how it has grown in the last couple of years from being a forum largely composed of academics to have a much broader membership including NGO and development agency practitioners).
The challenge for us is much more important than about 'where is the funding'. It is to demonstrate the value of Health as a signal of the successes and failures of our efforts in tackling Poverty and the effectiveness of our investments across the development sectors - Agriculture and Food, Education, HIV and the Environment. In the 1970s and 80s, Alma Ata and the Primary Health Care movement taught us about the links between female literacy and Health. In 21st century Africa, health indicators - disease and death - of mothers and children and of disadvantaged populations can become the best indicators and markers of our successes and failures in doing development aid.
Prof Ruairi Brugha, IFGH Executive Committee
RECENT EVENTS
The Migration of Sudanese Doctors: Dynamics & Opportunities Conference
The first Sudanese Medical Association (SMA - UK & Ireland) Conference in Ireland was held June 9-11, 2012 at both Galway and Dublin locations. The conference focused considerable attention on the migration of Sudanese doctors, its impact and the opportunities created. The conference brought together health policy makers in Ireland and Sudan, health care professionals, and academics to discuss the issues around migration of Sudanese medical professionals in local and global contexts. The conference also examined the impact on the Irish health system.
Sessions facilitated discussion on cooperation and initiatives for collaboration. Notably, the Federal Minister of Health (FMOH) of Sudan, Mr. Bahar Abugarda, was in attendance. An MOU was signed by the Sudan FMOH, Academy of Health Sciences, School of Nursing and Midwifery at NUI Galway, and the Sudanese Medical Association on June 9 at the Salthill Hotel in Galway. On June 11, policy makers, doctors, and academics met at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for further discussions on collaboration around Post Graduate training of medical doctors and other forms of traiing/capacity building, before touring Saint James's Hospital in Dublin.
Please check the SMA website for the forthcoming Conference Report, video of the event, and photos: http://www.smal-ukandireland.org.
Innovation, technology, and health
The IFGH supported the iheed Institute in the Irish launch of their report "Preparing the Next Generation of Community Health Workers: The Power of Technology for Training". The launch took place on 12 June, 2012 at Denzille Cinema, Dublin, showcasing the report and also launching iheed's new platform: iheedcrowd.
The iheed report on technology-enabled improvements for community health worker training programmes was created in partnership with the Barr Foundation, the mHealth Alliance, the MDG Health Alliance, and Dalberg Global Development Advisors. A key finding of this report is that multimedia applications with digital content and increased collaboration could potentially enable the training of one million new CHWs at less than a quarter of the cost of disseminating conventional training.
iheedcrowd is a website where digital designers can collaborate with iheed to create next generation educational content via a competition model. The model invovles the crowdsourcing of digital material based on specific briefs based on health education, e.g. diarrhoea and the use of Oral Rehydration solution. Digital designers are now being provided the opportunity to create next generation content in repsonse to global health education challenges.
To view the report, click here.
For more information, visit www.iheed.org.
GLOBAL HEALTH NEWS
World Health Assembly
The 65th session of the World Health Assembly took place in Geneva from 21-26 May, 2012. At this session, the WHA discussed a number of public health issues such as universal health coverage, noncommunicable diseases, mental disorders, nutrition, Millennium Development Goals, adolescent pregnancy, polio eradication, financing of research and development, International Health Regulations, and the WHO reform process. It adopted a number of resolutions on these issues. The WHA also appointed Dr Margaret Chan for a second five-year term as Director-General of WHO. Click here to view coverage from the WHO. Click here to read responses to the events from International Health Policies.
Forum 2012
Forum 2012 (hosted by COHRED and the Global Forum for Health Research) was held in Cape Town, South Africa, 24-26 April, 2012. Several IFGH members presented at this event. The crisis in human resources for health, particularly throughout Africa, is marked by a severe shortage of health workers. The session at which they presented addressed two controversial issues related to HRH - dual salaries and task shifting. Three panelists role-played as a northern academic, an African MOH, and a donor, and for two minutes portrayed different perspectives on these issues. This was followed by an in-depth discussion with the audience. Visit the IFGH Flickr account for photos.
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