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Young (and occasionally less young) researchers, mostly from LMICs, present their views on global health issues.
On 23 October, an ITM symposium, titled ’40 years after Alma Ata, Primary Health Care in 2018 and beyond, In South and North’ took place in Antwerp. The event was of course a dwarf in the company of the two Primary Health Care (PHC) conference giants, Alma Ata and Astana respectively. We know our place, do not be mistaken. No hubris at pla...
On 23 October, 150 international experts gathered at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp for a symposium to take stock on progress on the way to ‘health for all’. Some elephants were spotted in the room. Might one of them be a doctor? Prof Bart Criel, the initiator of the symposium, rightly pointed out that the Alma-Ata Dec...
Roopa (center) and Renzo (far right) with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (2nd from left), UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman (2nd from right) and other youth delegates during the 30th-anniversary conference of the Alma Ata Declaration in 2008 It has been 40 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Alma-Ata, which reaffirmed...
Dissonance: Def. 1. n. A harsh, disagreeable combination of sounds; discord, 2.n. Lack of agreement, consistency, or harmony; conflict (The Free Dictionary). This is the sentiment that stayed with me after having participated in the 5th global conference on Health Systems Research in Liverpool and directly afterwards, the 10th World Health Sum...
I first thought of this issue on the 11th of October, so I got slightly delayed, but I know (from personal experience) that there is a recovery period needed for many IHP readers post that wicked Health Systems Global party in Liverpool. So I bet you won’t mind the delay. Being also a victim of flu, I’m hard at work trying everything besides...
Both of us recently attended the World Health Summit (WHS) organized in Berlin from 14-16th October, as some of the “over 2000 delegates and 300 speakers from around 100 countries”. The WHS celebrated its 10th Anniversary this year, among others with the launch of a “Global Action Plan for healthy lives and wellbeing for all” in which 11...
Every HSR symposium I’ve attended so far was different – the location certainly has something to do with that. Liverpool was in many ways – with exception of the visa issues for too many people, unfortunately (which were beyond the organizers’ control) – a great host. Having said that, I also learned a lesson last week: that, increasin...
Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) is an innovative multi-partner blended training program for young, promising and emerging health policy & systems researchers, decisionmakers and other health system actors with an interest in becoming influential global health voices and/or local change makers. EV4GH coaches “Emerging Voices” to par...
A group of young special guests in Liverpool…Who are they? Since September 28, 2018, the city of Liverpool has been stormed by a group of young people coming from across five continents. I am not talking about the academic return of students who traditionally at this time of the year make alive this vibrant student city; nor do I speak of th...