[afro-nets] Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, 2-7 March 2008, Kampala (3)

["Eric Friedman" <EFriedman@phrusa.org>]

Dear All,

As had been previously posted to this listserv, the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) will be holding the first Global Forum on Human Resources for Health early next year, in Kampala, Uganda, March 2-7, 2008.  I strongly encourage you to register for the Forum, and if you have health workforce-related lessons, perspectives, and experiences to share, to consider submitting an abstract.  Abstracts are due at the end of the year, December 31, 2007 (please note that the deadline has been extended from December 1, which had been posted on this listserv earlier).  Registration is due a month later, by January 31, 2008.  I encourage early registration.   There will be some funds available to support travel expenses for the Forum.

A mix of activities should make the Forum a valuable experience for all participants, including panels, skills-building workshops, and an "HRH capacity marketplace," where different organizations will be able to share their work and help develop the connections and networks that can help individuals and countries overcome barriers in their efforts to strengthen the health workforce.  The Forum will also be an important opportunity to talk to policymakers about what they are doing - and what they need to be doing - to strengthen the health workforce to as to dramatically improve people's health.   For more on the Forum, please see the GHWA website at: http://www.ghwa.org/

The Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative (HWAI), which is the civil society-led network of the Alliance, is planning to hold several skills building workshops that we anticipate will be of particular interest to civil society and health workers, in particular on advocacy, on incorporating human rights into health workforce plans, and on macroeconomic literacy.   Other likely skills building workshops should also be of much interest, such as on using the Global Fund to support health systems strengthening and scaling up to universal access to HIV services.

I encourage you to share this information with colleagues, including NGOs and health workers, who might be interested in attending the Forum. A large part of the success of the Forum will depend on what sort of energy in creates towards moving from serious global attention to the health workforce crisis to where we need to be: serious global action. A strong civil society voice at the Forum and beyond is integral to making that happen.

The Forum will also introduce the Roadmap (Global Action Plan) on Human Resources for Health.  That Roadmap is presently being developed, and should be a guide to what governments and other actors need to do to address the health workforce crisis, a basis for holding various actors accountable for taking the actions necessary to address the crisis, and an impetus for action.  If you are interested in providing feedback to GHWA on what this Roadmap should contain, please let me know, and I can send you additional information.

More information on registration and on the call for papers is below.

Peace,

Eric

Call for papers:

http://www.who.int/entity/workforcealliance/forum/GHWA_Forum_Call_For_Papers/en/index.html
Deadline: December 31, 2007

Registration:
http://www.who.int/entity/workforcealliance/forum/GHWA_Forum_Registration/en/index.html
Deadline: January 31, 2008

Call for papers

A call is now made for submission of abstracts for presentation during the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health. The abstracts should present experiences, lessons learnt and/or other intriguing new information that contribute to the achievement of the forum objectives and should be developed under any of the following Forum Themes:
*   Leadership 
*   Education, Training and Skill mix 
*   Migration and Retention 
*   Financing 
*   Management 
*   Partnerships and linking up for action 

Once abstracts have been received, they will be subjected to review by the Forum Programme Team and the respective authors will be advised on the outcome. It is, therefore, essential to comply fully with the deadline provided below and the need for provision of detailed contact addresses of the principal/corresponding author of each abstract. 

Authors have a choice of either making oral presentation of their work during the breakout sessions on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th March, 2008 or presenting summaries of their abstracts during the multi-day non-stop poster presentations. Abstracts accepted for presentation will be included in the final 2008 Forum programme, a publication that will be distributed to all registered participants. 

SPECIFIC GUIDELINES

*   Abstracts should be structured with clear titles. 
*   Should provide names of all authors, their position titles, institutional affiliation and email addresses. Indicate the name of the corresponding author with full contact information. 
*   Abstracts should outline key information on the presentation including context, objectives, methods, new findings, conclusions and/or lessons learnt. 
*   Abstracts must be original contributions. 
*   Abstracts should be submitted in either English or French, and be limited to 300 words. 
*   During submission, authors should indicate the theme under which the paper has been prepared and their preference for presentation (oral or poster presentation). 

How to submit?

Abstracts should be submitted to the Forum Organizing Committee (FOC) via email by 31 December 2007. 

Submit your paper by email mailto:ghwaforum@who.int>

--
Eric A. Friedman
Senior Global Health Policy Advisor
Physicians for Human Rights
1156 15th Street, NW, Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20005 USA
Phone: +1-202-728-5335 ext. 303
Fax: +1-202-728-3053
E-mail: mailto:efriedman@phrusa.org
Website: http://www.physiciansforhumanrights.org