Category: Section Announcements

Conference Call to Discuss Closing of Global Health Council

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Section Announcements

Dear IH Section Members,

As some of you may already know, the Global Health Council has recently announced that it will be closing its doors and cancelling its 2012 conference in Washington, DC. The leadership of the IH section has been discussing how best to respond to this news. Below is a message from Peter Freeman, our Advocacy/Policy Committee Chair, which outlines ways in which you can have input in this discussion. Please consider joining the conference call or at least providing him with your feedback. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pffreeman [at] gmail [dot] com.

Hi all –

I spoken with Vina and Malcolm to start discussing the steps APHA is looking to take regarding the close of GHC and the ways in which the association can respond.

Vina informed me that APHA is in the process of a setting up a series of 2 discussions:

  1. The first discussion will be internally for APHA staff only, to gather their thoughts/ideas on what GHC’s role was in the international health community, what roles make strategic sense for APHA to absolve, and our association’s current capacity (and potential growth trajectory) to take on these roles.
  2. The second discussion will happen after APHA’s staff-only one, and may include interested representatives from other APHA sections (IH isn’t the only one that’s weighed in on this) as well as representation from GHC. This discussion will invite the IH section leaders; APHA recognizes the importance of everyone’s voice but having too large a group on the call may not be productive.

In light of this second call, Malcolm and I thought it would be a good idea for our section to have our own brainstorming call prior to APHA’s group call. This way, we can make sure our section’s ideas/thoughts/concerns are collected in an organized fashion; we will have these typed up and sent to whomever represents our group on the APHA group call.

Malcolm and I have scheduled this call for Wednesday, May 9th at 1 p.m. EST for 90 minutes. A prior e-mail mentioned a call on Monday, May 7th; Malcolm and I agreed to not hold the call on Monday and instead hold it on Wednesday, May 9th. I have been assured by Vina that the APHA group call will not be happening before this.

The call-in information is:
1-877-393-3856 (U.S. callers)
1-719-867-7624 (toll number and for international callers)
Participant passcode: 373785

If you are planning on attending, please let me know; an RSVP is not required, but it will help me be aware of who to expect come next Wednesday.

If you are unable to make the call, please e-mail me your thoughts/concerns/ideas around this. I have received the feedback that some of you have sent via e-mail already; thank you for sending that and I promise it will be incorporated into notes from this call.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Conference Calls and Radio Shows of Interest

by ihsection, posted in MDGs / SDGs, Section Announcements, Trade and Health

Our very own Mini Murthy and Elvira Beracochea are co-hosting a radio show on the MDGs! The inaugural episode aired last week, but you can listen to it in the archives and tune in for future episodes. They will be on every Thursday at 12 p.m. EST. More information can be found below.

Millennium Development Goals: Progress and Challenges

A NEW AND EXCITING PROGRAM DEBUTS THIS WEEK ON AV RADIO
PROGRAM: Millennium Development Goals
TOPIC OF DISCUSSION: Millennium Development Goals: Progress and Challenges
PLEASE JOIN THIS WEEK’S DISCUSSION LIVE BY PHONE OR SKYPE
WHEN: THURSDAY, MARCH 15TH, 2012
TIME: 12: 00 P.M. to 1: 00 P.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME
TO PARTICIPATE BY PHONE: CALL THIS NUMBER DURING SHOWTIME: (760) 283-0850
TO JOIN BY SKYPE ADD: AFRICANVIEWS (CALL IN DURING SHOWTIME)

TOPIC’S BACKGROUND:

In 2000, 189 nations made a promise to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations. This pledge became the eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs provide a framework for the entire UN system to work coherently together toward a common end. UNDP, global development network on the ground in 177 countries and territories, is in a unique position to advocate for change, connect countries to knowledge and resources, and coordinate broader efforts at the country level. In September 2010, the world recommitted itself to accelerate progress towards these goals.

The declaration established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and time-bound targets by which progress can be measured. With the 2015 deadline looming, how much progress has been made? And is the pace of progress sufficient to achieve the goals? The MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.

In our inaugural episode we hope to give a brief over view of the progress and challenges made from the year 2000- 2005 and focus on Sub Saharan Africa to review the progress made with reference to MDGs 1 and 4.

Join us as we explore this very important topic on MDGs.

HOST: DR. PADMINI MURTHY
Padmini (Mini) Murthy is a physician and an activist who did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine in various countries. She has a Master’s in Public Health and a Masters in Management from New York University (NYU). Murthy has been on the Dean’s list at NYU stein hart School of Education and named Public service scholar at the Robert F Wagner Graduate School at New York University. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist.

CO-HOST: DR. ELVIRA BERACOCHEA
Elvira Beracochea, MD, MPH, has more than 25 years of experience that encompass her work as physician, public health and international development expert, human rights advocate, epidemiologist, health policy advisor, researcher, health systems and hospital manager, consultant, professor and coach. She has worked in over 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the South Pacific. Dr Elvira is committed to helping realize the right to health and the right to development and to improving the effectiveness of development assistance. For this reason, in 2005, she founded MIDEGO, an organization with an urgent rights-based mission: accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approved by the United Nations in the year 2000.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
The Millennium Development Goal is a weekly discussion on AV Radio based on the Millennium Declaration, adopted by all 189 United Nations Member States in 2000, promised a better world with less poverty, hunger and disease; a world in which mothers and children have a greater chance of surviving and of receiving an education, and where women and girls have the same opportunities as men and boys. It promised a healthier environment and greater cooperation-a world in which developed and developing countries work in partnership for the betterment of all.

LISTEN TO THIS RADIO PROGRAM ARCHIVES AT: http://www.africanviews.org/index.php/av-radio/av-radio/AV-Radio/womens-education_c1021_m157/

Next month, APHA’s Trade and Health Forum will be holding an open Educational Session on Tobacco and International Trade Agreements. It will take place on April 12 at 2:30 PM Pacific/5:30PM Eastern.

The first 30 minutes of the call will be an educational session about recent activity pertaining to alcohol and tobacco in trade agreements and the question of “carve outs”. Donald Zeigler, PhD, Director of Prevention and Healthy Lifestyles at the American Medical Association (AMA) will lead the session. Dr. Zeigler has been active in the Trade and Health Forum, representing the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Section of the American Public Health Association and has been interested in trade and health issues for almost a decade. He was instrumental in getting the AMA to adopt policy on trade and has worked with other medical specialty societies to adopt policy, as well. The AMA recently called on the US Trade Representative to carve out tobacco and alcohol from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
The second 30 minutes of the call will be dedicated to Trade and Health Forum business. You are welcome to join for the full call, and we welcome your input.

To dial in, please call (605) 475-4850 and use the following access code: 810329#. If you have questions, please direct them to Natalie Sampson (nsampson@umich).

Very best,

American Public Health Association’s
Trade & Health Forum Leaders

IH Management Call Schedule for this Year

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Section Announcements

As some of you IH members may already know, the section leadership (composed of elected leadership and committee and working group chairs and co-chairs) hold bi-monthly conference calls to discuss section business and any other pertinent issues that relate to the section or our work over the course of the year. The schedule of calls for this year has been determined and will be as follows:

  • Tuesday 27 March at 1:00pm Eastern time
  • Tuesday 22 May at 1:00pm Eastern time
  • Tuesday 24 July at 1:00pm Eastern time
  • Tuesday 25 September at 1:00pm Eastern time
  • Tuesday 23 October at 1:00pm Eastern time
If you would like to raise a question, suggestion, or concern, please contact a member of leadership (you can find a list of members in elected positions and their contact information here, and chairs of committees and working groups here) and ask him or her to raise it during one of the calls. Don’t be shy – we are here to serve you!

Annual Meeting, Day 3: Governing Council Action and Section Goals

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Guest Blog, Section Announcements

Apologies for the delay in posting this, but it has taken us all a little while to regroup after the Annual Meeting.

The major event every year on Tuesday of the Annual Meeting is the Governing Council session.  The IH section was, as always, active and vocal in this year’s session.  Nominations Committee Chair and Governing Councilor Amy Hagopian provides a great summary of this year’s session:

The governing council meetings this year were the usual mix of deadly dull and rivetingly interesting. On Saturday we had a lively candidates’ forum, hearing from the six candidates for executive board and the two candidates for chair-elect. The governing council is the electoral body for these positions (although we did vote on a proposal this year to allow the full APHA membership to vote for chair-elect….um, that failed). The candidates for these positions were very high quality this year, and it was hard to choose! Our section was very happy with the results of the election, which took place on Tuesday: Adewale Troutman for chair-elect; and 3 winners for executive board, Lisa Carlson, Durrell Fox and Paul Meissner.

Tuesday’s full-day governing council meeting opened with a riveting (not) discussion of detailed bylaws changes. We did vote on changes to the membership categories, which will favor members who join during their student years and transition into “new professionals.” We voted on the theme for the 2013 conference, and chose (by 54%): “Think Global, Act Local: Best Practices Around the World.”

We adopted 23 resolutions on a variety of policy matters, including six sponsored by the International Health Section:
B1: Improving Access to Higher Education Opportunities and Legal Immigration Status for Undocumented Immigrant Youth and Young Adults
B2: Improving Housing for Farmworkers in the U.S. is a public health Imperative
C1: Prioritizing non communicable disease prevention and treatment in global health
C3: Call to Action to Reduce Global Maternal, Neonatal & Child Morbidity and Mortality
C7: Highlighting the health of men who have sex with men in the global HIV/AIDS response
D1: APHA Endorses the World Health Organization’s Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel

We also approved two policies supported by the IH section:
B6: Reducing PVC in Facilities with Vulnerable Populations (sponsored by our friends in the Occupational Health Section)
LB2: Opposing the DHS-ICE “Secure Communities” Program (in support of immigrant rights)

The governing board also made some changes to the policy submission process. Some highlights:
1) Late-breakers now must be submitted 10 days before the conference
2) There are no longer two categories of policy submissions (short resolutions vs. policy statements); now all policies should be about 10 pages with plenty of evidence and background

Further, we accepted the report of the ad hoc “Policy Working Group,” which worked for two years to discuss how to manage policy resolutions that can be characterized as largely based on qualitative data or are values-based.

And, finally, there was a fun “wild card” vote on a statement to support the Occupy movement. It passed, 76% to 24%:
“The Occupy Wall Street movement is now active in more than 1,000 cities in the US and has related protests around the world. APHA supports its call for greater social equality, social justice, reducing income inequality, and its demand that corporate crime be investigated and prosecuted. We ask members to identify opportunities to build on the energy and enthusiasm of the nationwide Occupy movement and its synergies with public health.”

The governing council meetings are always open to the general membership at the annual conference. Next year, stop in and watch for a while–it’s always interesting! Even during the bylaws conversations!

The section also held its third and final business meeting, during which members discussed the section goals that emerged from the most recent Strategic Plan and ways to implement those in a concrete way.  The leadership will continue this discussion in more detail during the next conference call, which (as always) is open to any member who wishes to call in.

IH Section Members: Sign up for the International Welcome Booth at the Annual Meeting!

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Section Announcements

Dr. Georges Benjamin, former Executive Director of APHA, has kindly agreed to allow us to host a Welcome Booth for our overseas colleagues. This will be the third year we will be hosting the Welcome Booth. The booth will be located in the registration area at the Washington Convention Center.

The Welcome Booth is a great place to meet, greet, and help our colleagues from overseas. For some attendees, this may be their first visit to the United States, while for some others this may be their first APHA Annual Meeting! You know that navigating one’s way to various sessions/meetings dispersed among several venues is not an easy task. This is where you could help by volunteering an hour or two each day at the Welcome Booth.

You will get to meet old friends and make some new ones! This is an excellent networking opportunity for everyone.

Please visit the Doodle poll and do the following:

1. Provide your full name (first and last name).
2. Select the days and times when you are available to volunteer.
3. Save your selection before closing the browser.

Please make your selection by 12 p.m. EST on Friday, October 28, 2011. Thank you!