Month: April 2011

You Voted, We Listened: Results of the GH Topic Online Poll

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section

In March, the IH section asked members to vote on which global health topics are most important to them in order to make our bi-monthly section-wide calls more relevant to membership. We sent out a section-wide e-mail with a link to an online poll and received 167 responses by April 1.

Three topics came in with most votes overall: infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, pandemics, with 81 votes; health systems strengthening, with 79 votes; and maternal, neonatal, and child health and nutrition, with 78 votes. Among these, infectious diseases received the most votes (15%) among all first choice topics, and this topic was also ranked highly among people’s second and third choices. Among other first choices for GH topics, ‘new topic’ came in second, and health and human rights’ came in third with 11%. Among second topic choices, health and human rights shared second place with community-based primary health care and improved metrics, research, monitoring and evaluation.

We also had 50 new GH topics suggested. While there was no clear consensus about priorities among these, a text pattern analysis revealed preferences for equity and inequities, social determinants of health, and community, sanitation, and prevention. Thanks to everyone who voted, and to Eckhard Kleinau for organizing the results.

PSI Internship: Malaria and Child Survival Department Intern (Washington, DC)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media, Internships and Fellowships

Description:
PSI seeks an intern to support the Malaria & Child Survival Department. This internship provides an opportunity to work with department staff to provide technical support and global knowledge management for PSI’s diarrheal disease, malaria, pneumonia and nutrition programs. The intern will support various administrative, management and technical functions.

PSI offers flexible working hours and a dynamic, creative, and progressive work environment. This internship requires at least 35 hours per week and is a paid position, based in Washington, DC. The internship will begin June 1 and go through August 2011.

Responsibilities: The Malaria & Child Survival intern will have a variety of duties for different projects related to PSI’s activities. Duties will include but are not limited to:

  • Conducting research and synthesizing reports on various malnutrition, malaria, diarrheal disease and pneumonia programs, findings and data;
  • Fulfilling administrative functions as required, including invoicing, expense reconciling and submitting monthly product reports;
  • Supporting administrative preparation for key Malaria & Child Survival presentations, conferences, meetings and retreats;
  • Maintaining and updating various administrative records of PSI sales and activities, including an internal system of knowledge management;
  • Assisting in creation and updating of communications materials, including one pagers and presentations;
  • Assisting with analysis of health metrics data;
  • Responding to internal/external requests for information and assisting with website updates as necessary;
  • Support with grant writing and proposal submission as necessary.
  • Assist with curriculum overview for graphics-driven course and facilitator and trainee manuals for department training course.

Experience:
The ideal candidate will possess strong computer, analytical and organizational skills; attention to detail; ability to prioritize and perform multiple tasks; ability to follow assignments through to completion; and strong commitment to deadlines. Additionally, an ideal candidate will have:

  • Strong qualitative and quantitative skills, including ability to synthesize large amounts of information into succinct documents.
  • Experience with data management, indexing and spreadsheets.
  • Strong organizational and time management skills.
  • Experience and proficiency with Adobe Indesign and Adobe Illustrator.
  • Interest in health and/or international development preferred.

Please send a letter of interest and resume/CV to mcsd@psi.org. No phone calls please.

Waiting for Handouts

by ihsection, posted in Disaster Response, Guest Blog

by Ibrahim Kargbo E-mail LinkedIn Twitter

On a recent trip to Haiti to conduct program monitoring and evaluation, I was taken aback by the statement of a woman who was forced to relocate due to the 2010 earthquake. When asked why she continues to attend HIV/AIDS education programs, her response was “…because I was promised a house and money”. Upon further interaction with the woman, I learned that she was told by a responding aid organization that she would be given a house and money to help her recover. Hearing her comment, I was left to question whether or not the responsibility of post-disaster recovery is made clear and rightly shared.

I very much support the massive global response to environmental disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the recent 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. As a global community, we share the tremendous responsibility of assisting each other with disaster recovery efforts. Regardless of the disaster, we donate money, time, technical assistance, and other resources to countries in need, either because we are expected to do so or because we are emotionally impelled to assist; whichever is the case, we manage to step up to the plate to provide recovery assistance.

But at what point should disaster recovery become more of the effected country’s responsibility than that of assisting countries? As we overwhelmingly respond to disasters, we forget to remind countries that emergency assistance they receive is only temporary and as citizens, it is they and their governments who are ultimately responsible for recovery efforts and long-term reconstruction. Donors and disaster response agencies should refrain from promising and or providing long-term resources for disaster recovery, doing so may potentially create an environment which citizens and country governments do not take initiative and responsibility for long-term recovery efforts, further handicapping the people’s ability to recover from future disasters.

In a perfect world, country citizens and their governments do not wait for handouts from donors and other countries, but instead, respond to disasters with pride for their country and support of one another. We all should work towards a perfect world.

Ibrahim Kargbo is a Master of Public Health student at George Mason University.

Notes on IH Section Conference Call: Discussion of the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (April 11, 2011)

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Section Announcements

The IH Section held its second topic-focused conference call on the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel on Monday, April 11, 2011 from 1:00 to 2:00 EST.  We had several excellent speakers and panelists and a very productive discussion.  Unfortunately, due to members of leadership being unavailable due to travel and limited connectivity, the call experienced some technical difficulties.  Many attendees who called in to listen may have missed the discussion due to its late start; therefore, we have posted a detailed summary of the discussion (graciously recorded by Dr. Amy Hagopian) here for those interested.

Speakers:
John Palen (Sr. Technical Advisor, State Department’s Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator)
Pascal Zurn (World Health Organization’s Global Health Workforce Alliance team)

Panelists:
Polly Pittman (George Washington University),
Cheryl Peterson (American Nursing Association),
Estelle Quain (USAID), and
Anke Tijtsma (Netherland’s Wemos organization)

Moderator and note-taker: Amy Hagopian (University of Washington)

We opened with Pascal describing the process so far, and how WHO is organizing to update member States at this year’s upcoming World Health Assembly. John talked about how the U.S. is organizing to respond to the guidelines and prepare data reports. He also noted the numerous HRH activities supported by the PEPFAR mechanism to train and retain health providers in PEPFAR supported countries.

Polly updated us on the pace of medical immigration to the U.S. in the last year or two. While physician migrants are up (pushing 30% of the total number of US physicians now), nurse migration is currently down. Clinical auxiliary personnel are immigrating at a greater pace (lab scientists, PTs, OTs). These latter personnel, along with nurses, are coming from the Philippines, Canada and Mexico, among other places. The Alliance for Ethical International Recruitment Practices is getting organized now, however, for the coming influx of nurses that is anticipated when the economy improves in the U.S. For-profit recruiting firms are also gearing up.

Cheryl talked about the role of labor in keeping working conditions strong in the U.S., and protecting the rights of immigrant health workers.

There was a question about whether there might a role for the Alliance as a part of the National Authority process.

Estelle said the Global Health Initiative continues to have a focus on human resources for health as a part of health system strengthening. The focus of USAID and the PEPFAR side of the U.S. government, is on the “push factors” motivators such as source country working conditions, wages and supervision.

Anke talked about how the Netherlands is responding. The Ministry of Health will be the reporting authority, which was transmitted to the WHO months ago. There is a role for labor unions and professional organizations as well. After the Code was translated to Dutch, a meeting was organized at the Hague to inform national stakeholders about the content of the Code and what will be expected of each party. They are now working on data flows, and revisions to law and regulation. Anke did express concern that the “other stakeholders” page of the reporting form from WHO was a little too brief and unfocused.

Pascal confirmed that WHO plans to hold conversations with interested member States (such as the U.S.) to offer guidance on how to complete the reporting form, after the web hearing is completed on April 17.

Polly and others noted there is a bifurcation in the U.S. government of people working on the Push factors and those working on the Pull factors pertaining to health workforce immigrants. There is a strong need to bring together these parties. The significant number of U.S. medical residency training positions (that exceeds the number of medical school graduates by about a third) creates a strong pulling force on medical migrants, and there has been no discussion about addressing this. (To the contrary, one of last summer’s health reform bills called on an expansion of the residency training program in the U.S.)

John called our attention to the proliferation of private for-profit training schools in Southeast Asia, creating further fodder for the migration stream.

We discussed where the discussion should take place, and there was consensus that HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) was the most probably agency to host discussions about the combination of push and pull factors that create health worker migration flows. Further, there is a strong need to generate appropriate data for reporting purposes, some of which is now only in the private sector and not organized. HRSA can address all these issues, given its portfolio of work. There is also probably a role for universities on the data, research and reporting side.

Amy noted that neither the State Dept nor HHS had responded to either letter sent to them (one from the “community of interest” and one from APHA). The APHA also has a resolution endorsing the Code.

Note: We discovered later that there Nils Daulaire, from HHS, has issued a letter in response to Dr. Benjamin’s letter on the Code of Practice.  We are very grateful to our excellent speakers and panelists, and to Dr. Hagopian for organizing and moderating this call.  Many thanks to our members who called in to listen – please call in for our June discussion!

Summer Internship Position with VillageReach (Seattle, WA)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media, Internships and Fellowships

The following is a posting for a summer internship position with VillageReach.  The original posting can be found here (pdf).

Background: VillageReach is a 501(c)3 nonprofit social enterprise working to save lives and improve wellbeing in developing countries by increasing last‐mile access to healthcare and investing in social businesses that address gaps in community infrastructure. For more information visit: www.villagereach.org.

Internship Description: The HSG Internship is an opportunity for an experienced graduate‐level student interested in both research and implementation to contribute his/her knowledge to the design and evaluation of health system interventions at VillageReach. The intern will work closely with VillageReach program staff on a variety of activities to support the work of the Health Systems Group. The initial focus of the intern will be on supporting the expansion of our work in Malawi and documenting our work through case studies and other knowledge dissemination reports, although other projects and duties will be assigned.

• Expansion of our Work in Malawi: VillageReach has been working at the district and community level in Malawi since 2008. Our focus has been on a deep community health intervention aimed at decreasing key illness for children under five. Now that we have developed strong relationships and infrastructure at the community level, we are  researching new ways to expand our work in Malawi in high‐impact, sustainable ways. The intern will be responsible for conducting secondary research on potential additional interventions that VillageReach could take on as part of their work in Malawi. This will include learning about VillageReach’ interventions to date through report review and discussions with key staff, but also looking at other successful high‐impact community interventions from other projects or other country settings.

• Drafting of Case Studies on VillageReach work: The intern will also be asked to assist with documentation of current VillageReach projects through case studies, blog posts, academic articles, website content, etc. This may include documentation of our long‐term work in Malawi and Mozambique, as well as some of our short‐term engagements in other countries.

This position requires strong writing and sophisticated research skills, technical knowledge of global health program design, and experience working in a low‐income country context. Experience working with and/or researching health supply chains is a plus. The successful candidate will be a person motivated by mission, a highly dynamic and flexible environment and the understanding that his or her contribution can and will impact the success of VillageReach.

Qualifications

  • Graduate‐level student studying global public health
  • Skilled writer and researcher
  • Outstanding ability to synthesize, organize, and present research
  • Skilled at accessing secondary sources
  • Fluency in English
  • Experience working in a low‐income country

Commitment: This is a full‐time 8‐10 week summer internship based in the VillageReach Headquarters in Seattle, Washington, USA. The internship is designed for the summer months of June‐August, but there is flexibility for the exact starting and ending dates.

Stipend: The internship has a $3,500 stipend to support living expenses.

Deadline for Application: May 13, 2010.

To Apply: Send resume and cover letter to Info@villagereach.org with the subject line “HSG Summer Intern.”