I have been thinking about networks lately. And seeing them everywhere!
Oftentimes in the global health arena or perhaps more broadly in the non-profit sector, there seems to be a lot of overlap in interests and resources. The corporate world is moving towards mergers and consolidations, even community health services are being pared down to increase efficiency. Of course examples from the corporate and public sector are bound to raise controversial issues, however it can be argued that these organizations are working toward greater effectiveness.
Naturally, we should all be focusing on mutual collaboration and partnership. That's where SUNSIH comes in! We are here to help you facilitate knowledge and information sharing with other organizations or to help you access the wealth of information available through on-line resources and through collaboration with associated networks.
Here are the top 5 ways (and in no particular order) that you can plug into the SUNSIH/REUSSI network:
5. If you're part of a group who is working on or advocating for global health issues then we want to hear from you! We partner with organization who share our values and vision- contact us to learn more- general@sunsih.ca.
4. Browse our "Links" webpage for great resources that suit your own interests.
3. Want to receive local event information and global health updates? Our listserv may be the thing for you! Or even better, if you have a global health/local health event you'd like to publicize we would be happy to post the details to our listserv. In either case send us an email with your request!
2. Have you got something to say? Well then step up on our soap box and lay it out for us on our blog. Or just scope out the latest posts.
1. Apply to be a campus rep or regional rep to connect global health group working throughout your region.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Mira Mehes
SUNSIH VP and networking fan
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Chronic Poverty- A Global Concern
For all of you who receive dozens of global/public health emails each day (or more!) this blog is for you.
I was just pondering about the effectiveness of mass mailings and more importantly multiple mailings from the same organizations. I'm certain that at some point SUNSIH's been guilty of this activity, although we are conscious of the benefits of consolidating relevant information in a single communication. Perhaps what I think of most is whether there is a better way to share news and information without overwhelming you. I know we can all scan through our emails and draw out the important data, but wouldn't it be nice to have it come to you completely sorted out? If you have any suggestions for a more accessible way for us to share event information please do let us know! Also if you would like to suggest the type of content you would like to receive we would like to hear from you. general@sunsih.ca
Anyway, once in a while you do come across a great gem which is what I would like to share with you today. This report actually showed up in my inbox a few weeks ago but I've recently shared it with a colleague and so I thought I would share it with you as well. Of course as always, I do urge you to take it with a grain of salt.
I was just pondering about the effectiveness of mass mailings and more importantly multiple mailings from the same organizations. I'm certain that at some point SUNSIH's been guilty of this activity, although we are conscious of the benefits of consolidating relevant information in a single communication. Perhaps what I think of most is whether there is a better way to share news and information without overwhelming you. I know we can all scan through our emails and draw out the important data, but wouldn't it be nice to have it come to you completely sorted out? If you have any suggestions for a more accessible way for us to share event information please do let us know! Also if you would like to suggest the type of content you would like to receive we would like to hear from you. general@sunsih.ca
Anyway, once in a while you do come across a great gem which is what I would like to share with you today. This report actually showed up in my inbox a few weeks ago but I've recently shared it with a colleague and so I thought I would share it with you as well. Of course as always, I do urge you to take it with a grain of salt.
Chronic Poverty Research Centre CPRC - UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)
July 2008
Available online PDF [164p.] at: http://www.chronicpoverty.org
‘…..Over the last five years, in an era of unprecedented global wealth creation, the number of people living in chronic poverty has increased. Between 320 and 443 million people are now trapped in poverty that lasts for many years, often for their entire lifetime. Their children frequently inherit chronic poverty, if they survive infancy. Many chronically poor people die prematurely from easily preventable health problems.
For the chronically poor, poverty is not simply about having a very low income: it is about multidimensional deprivation – hunger, undernutrition, illiteracy, unsafe drinking water, lack of access to basic health services, social discrimination, physical insecurity and political exclusion. Whichever way one frames the problem of chronic poverty – as human suffering, as vulnerability, as a basic needs failure, as the abrogation of human rights, as degraded citizenship – one thing is clear.
Widespread chronic poverty occurs in a world that has the knowledge and resources to eradicate it.
This report argues that tackling chronic poverty is the global priority for our generation. There are robust ethical grounds for arguing that chronically poor people merit the greatest international, national and personal attention and effort. Tackling chronic poverty is vital if our world is to achieve an acceptable level of justice and fairness.
There are also strong pragmatic reasons for doing so. Addressing chronic poverty sooner rather than later will achieve much greater results at a dramatically lower cost. More broadly, reducing chronic poverty provides global public benefits, in terms of political and economic stability and public health….”
“….Priority goes to two policy areas – social protection (Chapter 3) and public services for the hard to reach (Chapter 5) – that can spearhead the assault on chronic poverty. Alongside these are anti-discrimination and gender empowerment (Chapter 5), building individual and collective assets (Chapters 3, 4 and 6) and strategic urbanisation and migration (Chapters 4 and 5). Working together, these policies reduce chronic poverty directly and create and maintain a just social compact that will underpin long-term efforts to eradicate chronic poverty (Chapter 6). Such social compacts ensure a distribution of public goods and services that contributes to justice and fairness….”
Content:
PART A – Chronic poverty as a key policy issue
Chapter 1 – Foundations for understanding and challenging chronic poverty
A. Chronic poverty and justice
B. The nature and extent of chronic poverty
C. Why address chronic poverty?
D: How to address chronic poverty?
E. Chronically Deprived Countries and Consistent Improvers
F. Conclusion
Chapter 2 – The policy and political challenge
A. Introduction
B. Where are the chronically poor in PRSs?
C. Policy responses/policy choices in PRSs
D. Political systems and ownership
E. Institutional mainstreaming and participation of the poor
F. Implementation
Obstacles to implementation
G. Conclusion
PART B – Four sets of policies for poverty eradication
Chapter 3 – Addressing insecurity through social protection
A. Introduction
B. The central role of vulnerability
C. The importance of social protection
D. Lessons from existing social protection programmes and policies
E. Country context
F. Conclusion
Chapter 4 – Economic growth and chronic poverty
A. Introduction
B. Poor people and the growth process
C. Disaggregation matters for policy
D. Transformative growth
E. Growth and strategic choices
F. Social protection as a policy lever for growth in Chronically Deprived Countries
G. Conclusion
Chapter 5 – Transformative social change
A. Introduction
B. Gender equality, social inclusion and increased ‘agency’: social goals to end chronic poverty
C. Politics
D. Policy contexts
E. Conclusion
Chapter 6 – Ending violent conflict and building a social compact
A. Introduction
B. Violent conflict and impoverishment
C. Redefining the fragile state
D. Towards a social compact
E. Financing the social compact
F. Conclusion
PART C – Conclusion
Chapter 7 – Eradicating chronic poverty
A. Eradicating chronic poverty
B. Five key poverty traps 1
C. Policy reponses to chronic poverty traps
D. Country context
E. Regaining the promise of poverty reduction
References
Background Papers :
http://www.chronicpoverty.org
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
New GHEC website
Dear friends and colleagues,
It was recently brought to my attention that GHEC has updated their website: www.globalhealthedu.org
Please take a look under RESOURCES especially in the PRIMARILY FOR STUDENTS & RESIDENTS section. It provides very useful information including Global Health:Career Options & Specialization (http://globalhealthedu.org/Pages/GlobalHealthCareer.aspx), newer topics such as "Establishing a Research Career in Global Health" and a Guidebook on Developing Residency Training in Global Health. http://globalhealthedu.org/Pages/Resource.aspx
GHEC also has developed educational modules for students to review either on their own or in instructor-led courses. They are great and very useful for your local student groups on campus! Please pass on this information to others who may be interested. http://globalhealthedu.org/Modules/Default.aspx
Sincerely,
Eugene Lam
President
Student University Network for Social and International Health
SUNSIH/REUSSI
It was recently brought to my attention that GHEC has updated their website: www.globalhealthedu.org
Please take a look under RESOURCES especially in the PRIMARILY FOR STUDENTS & RESIDENTS section. It provides very useful information including Global Health:Career Options & Specialization (http://globalhealthedu.org/Pages/GlobalHealthCareer.aspx), newer topics such as "Establishing a Research Career in Global Health" and a Guidebook on Developing Residency Training in Global Health. http://globalhealthedu.org/Pages/Resource.aspx
GHEC also has developed educational modules for students to review either on their own or in instructor-led courses. They are great and very useful for your local student groups on campus! Please pass on this information to others who may be interested. http://globalhealthedu.org/Modules/Default.aspx
Sincerely,
Eugene Lam
President
Student University Network for Social and International Health
SUNSIH/REUSSI
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Public Health in Crisis-Affected Populations
Dear Friends,
A professor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has written a paper on public health in crises, meant mainly as a didactic tool for non-epidemiologists, and intended for people at all levels (donors, NGOs, UN, government, media, students etc.). It's open-access so please feel free to distribute to others who may be interested.
This is the link:
His info is below:
Francesco Checchi
Lecturer
Disease Control and Vector Biology Unit
Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Room 51G6, 49-51 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP, United Kingdom
office +44 (0)20 7927 2336
mobile +44 (0)79 0671 9637
fax +44 (0)20 7927 2918
e-mail francesco.checchi@lshtm.ac.uk
Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Room 51G6, 49-51 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP, United Kingdom
office +44 (0)20 7927 2336
mobile +44 (0)79 0671 9637
fax +44 (0)20 7927 2918
e-mail francesco.checchi@lshtm.ac.uk
Monday, June 16, 2008
International Day of the African Child
June 16th is the International Day of the African Child
I was just listening to a CBC report on the status of education in South Africa.
This program was particularly relevant because it brought up the 1976 Soweto uprising.
Schoolchildren protesting for their right to equal education were shot at by police officers.
At the time, the apartheid government established a school system that discriminated against all black students. Learning was made less accessible through the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 which stated that lessons would be split between Afrikaans and English. Indigenous languages were excluded, except for physical, religious and musical instruction.
Imagine being a 7th grader and suddenly being told that you were no longer allowed to learn mathematics, socials studies and science in your own language! Students were required to learn in a language that was unfamiliar for many and oppressive for all.
The original Soweto rioting led to weeks of protesting that resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. Although it took nearly 20 more years for national change, this event inspired the internationally recognized day of the African Child initiated by the Organization of African Unity in 1991.
The theme this year is “Right to Participation: Let Children be Seen and Heard”.
I was just listening to a CBC report on the status of education in South Africa.
This program was particularly relevant because it brought up the 1976 Soweto uprising.
Schoolchildren protesting for their right to equal education were shot at by police officers.
At the time, the apartheid government established a school system that discriminated against all black students. Learning was made less accessible through the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 which stated that lessons would be split between Afrikaans and English. Indigenous languages were excluded, except for physical, religious and musical instruction.
Imagine being a 7th grader and suddenly being told that you were no longer allowed to learn mathematics, socials studies and science in your own language! Students were required to learn in a language that was unfamiliar for many and oppressive for all.
The original Soweto rioting led to weeks of protesting that resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. Although it took nearly 20 more years for national change, this event inspired the internationally recognized day of the African Child initiated by the Organization of African Unity in 1991.
The theme this year is “Right to Participation: Let Children be Seen and Heard”.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sexual Exploitation at the Hands of UN Peacekeepers and NGO Aid Workers: Perpetuating the Power Imbalance, and the Poverty of Rights
The UK branch of Save the Children International released a report at the end of May 2008 detailing the extent of a problem that was first identified in 2002. It was meant not to be a technically rigorous expose of the perpetrators and the victims, but more a 'snapshot' of the current situation, and the ineffectiveness of the policies put in place by the international community in response to this problem in 2002.
I was shocked and dismayed to learn of these gross offenses, and disappointed to realize that even those with good intentions at heart are subject to the evils of the human form. Or, perhaps the very call to work in a supposedly glorified and distinguished position, as is often seen within these already decimated and impoverished communities, appeals to the sociopathic tendencies that would then permit them to avail of the inherent power-imbalance that the aid and NGO industry exacerbates.
The data was collected through field visits, focus groups, and interviews in locations where Save the Children International have projects: Haiti, Cote d'Ivoire, and Sudan. The interviews would reveal very explicit stories of abuse at the hands of foreign aid workers, peacekeepers, and local staff of NGOs. The whole spectrum of sexual abuse, from verbal sexual harassment, to forced/coerced sexual assault was revealed, often with the exchange for money, material goods, perceived promise of protection and security, or the basics of human subsistence, food and clean water.
Naturally, children are the most vulnerable in any population, and this study revealed that children displaced from their home communities, children from especially poor families, and children whose families are dependent on humanitarian aid. Orphans were also particularly susceptible, suffering the double offense of sexual exploitation, and then the absence of a parental figure to advocate for the child, to seek redress.
The perpetrators were found to be members of 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping, and security organizations, with a particular source being the UN Department of Peacekeeping Organizations. Outside the scope of this report, it is difficult to quantify to extent of the abuses, given the undereporting by victim, and the absence of a reporting system within each of these organizations.
It isn't hard to imagine the reasons for under-reporting, when these children come to understand that sex can be used as a survival tactic. And, the risk of losing the protection and security of much needed resources is enough to suspend the need for one's physical integrity. This only speaks to the double failure of the aid community, to subject these already disadvantaged population to further affronts to their security, and that aid is insufficient in sustaining those most in need, and instead further deepens this power differential. Stigmatisation is a powerful social element, as womanhood and purity are integral to a girl's identity and perception within her community, which also can cause negative economic ramifications for the family, who cannot marry out their daughter for the gain of a dowry. Even if a victim summoned the strength to step forward, there is a general lack of confidence in the system, for both reporting and for discipline, of those who perpetrate the abuse.
What should the international community do about this?
Below is some proposed solutions put forth by Save the Children
I was shocked and dismayed to learn of these gross offenses, and disappointed to realize that even those with good intentions at heart are subject to the evils of the human form. Or, perhaps the very call to work in a supposedly glorified and distinguished position, as is often seen within these already decimated and impoverished communities, appeals to the sociopathic tendencies that would then permit them to avail of the inherent power-imbalance that the aid and NGO industry exacerbates.
The data was collected through field visits, focus groups, and interviews in locations where Save the Children International have projects: Haiti, Cote d'Ivoire, and Sudan. The interviews would reveal very explicit stories of abuse at the hands of foreign aid workers, peacekeepers, and local staff of NGOs. The whole spectrum of sexual abuse, from verbal sexual harassment, to forced/coerced sexual assault was revealed, often with the exchange for money, material goods, perceived promise of protection and security, or the basics of human subsistence, food and clean water.
Naturally, children are the most vulnerable in any population, and this study revealed that children displaced from their home communities, children from especially poor families, and children whose families are dependent on humanitarian aid. Orphans were also particularly susceptible, suffering the double offense of sexual exploitation, and then the absence of a parental figure to advocate for the child, to seek redress.
The perpetrators were found to be members of 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping, and security organizations, with a particular source being the UN Department of Peacekeeping Organizations. Outside the scope of this report, it is difficult to quantify to extent of the abuses, given the undereporting by victim, and the absence of a reporting system within each of these organizations.
It isn't hard to imagine the reasons for under-reporting, when these children come to understand that sex can be used as a survival tactic. And, the risk of losing the protection and security of much needed resources is enough to suspend the need for one's physical integrity. This only speaks to the double failure of the aid community, to subject these already disadvantaged population to further affronts to their security, and that aid is insufficient in sustaining those most in need, and instead further deepens this power differential. Stigmatisation is a powerful social element, as womanhood and purity are integral to a girl's identity and perception within her community, which also can cause negative economic ramifications for the family, who cannot marry out their daughter for the gain of a dowry. Even if a victim summoned the strength to step forward, there is a general lack of confidence in the system, for both reporting and for discipline, of those who perpetrate the abuse.
What should the international community do about this?
Below is some proposed solutions put forth by Save the Children
- Formation of interagency bodies that then provide evaluation and policing of the NGO agencies
- NGOs developing internal standards of conduct
- Implementing effective local complaints mechanisms for reporting abuse
- Formation of a new global watchdog
- Tackling the root causes or drivers of abuse: this goes beyond monitoring and reprimanding individuals within aid and peacekeeping agencies, but looking at the systematic failures of child protection services within the communities.
The only other thing I would like to see added is an ongoing evaluation mechanism for the effectiveness of these 'interventions'. Since this problem was identified in 2002, the extent of child sexual exploitation has not diminished, but has indeed increased. Are we to wait another 6, 12, 20 years for another field-based qualitative review of the issue, revealing that yet more years of child abuse have occurred?
Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula - We Want You!
What is this?
The Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula is an official trans-national project of International Federation on Medical Students' Association (IFMSA) in collaboration with WHO Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development. The survey is being conducted by IFMSA SCOME from October 2007- May 2008 and extended until June 2008.
The Aim and Objectives
The aim of this project is to create a Map and Database of Paediatric Curricula around the world which enables us to get the information about the Paediatric Curricula. It is intended as a tool to gather and consolidate information on what medical students learn and understand, and also what skills they have in paediatric.
The main objectives of this project are to : (1) describe what medical students learn during their paediatric curricula, (2) describe clinical skills taught in Paediatric Curricula, and (3) find out what medical students know and learn about IMCI in their paediatric curricula.
Target Audience
We need your help to promote this survey in your home country and encourage medical students who had finished paediatric clerkship/clerkship to participate. We need at least 1387 responses, with at minimum three minimum students from each medical school taking part. We also extended the target audience to freshly graduated doctors (not exceeded by 6 month after graduation).
Link
The on-line survey can be accessed through:
http://tools.ifmsa.org/surveys
Username: pediatrics
Password: pediatrics
Current Response
So far, we have received 543 responses from people in 61 countries
What do we need you to ?
Fill in the survey if you have completed paediatric clinical rotation or clerkship
Send the link to your peers in your own language, add the link to your national and local medical student websites
What do you get in return?
In addition to the reward of knowing that you are contributing to an important piece of research, you'll be the lucky recipients of a free copy of the Pocket book
http://www.who.int/child
In addition, all those who participate in the survey will receive summary of the final results.
Final Extended Deadline
June 16, 2008 at 24.00 (Geneva time)
On behalf of GSPC team,
Fina Hidayati Tams, B.Med
International Project Coordinator
Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula
Faculty of Medicine
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
Intern CAH Dept. WHO HQ, Geneva, Switzerland
Period : May-June 2008
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