Global Health Council 37th Annual Conference: Dateline 2010: Global Health Goals

Climate Change, Food Security, and Household Health: The Right Metrics for the Right Country-Level Policy Choices The triple shock of food price hikes, soaring energy prices, and a global financial meltdown could be an early indicator for looming food insecurity and threats to household health. WHO estimates that 150,000 deaths already occur annually in low-income countries due to the effects of climate change on crop failures and malnutrition, and on the increased incidence and severity of floods, diarrheal diseases, and malaria. Emerging trends in household health, food security, and climate change will create newer challenges for human health that need to be understood and contextualized to inform country-level health policy decisions; despite global efforts, data show that progress toward Millennium Development Goals is slow and uneven, with outcomes for the most vulnerable sometimes worsening. Join us for a keynote overview of these emerging trends, followed by table discussions on information and policies needed to enhance country-level decision-making, led by experienced thought leaders in the field.
http://www.icfi.com/

USAID's Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Project will host an Auxiliary Session, Crossing the Divide: Reaching the Poor with Commercial Health Networks and Franchises on Monday, June 14th from 2-4pm in the Diplomat Ballroom. In recent years new business models have emerged that have allowed commercial health networks and franchises to better meet the health needs of those residing at the base of the economic pyramid. This panel discussion will showcase a range of examples and highlight challenges, results and lessons learned.

This symposium, a collaboration of the Global Health Council, Conference Co-chair Dr. Sheila Tlou, the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will bring together nurses, midwives and all those working in maternal health. The interactive dialogue will focus on two issues: 1) What do nurses and midwives in developing and developed countries want from each other? 2) What educational opportunities (or lack thereof) exist for midwives from other countries in the United States, and what student clinical placements exist globally for U.S. midwifery students interested in global health careers? We welcome the participation of attendees from the ACNM conference at this symposium.

Increase in Service Delivery through Increased Awareness for Positive Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Behaviors The USAID-funded PAIMAN project has made a major contribution to improving MNCH in 24 districts of Pakistan through evidence-based communication, advocacy and mobilization strategies, through a package of community-based obstetrical and neonatal services, and by provision of 24/7 referral services. PAIMAN has established a network of religious scholars (Ulama) that disseminates MNCH messages through Friday sermons. In addition strong mass media component that includes a drama series: Paiman, two music videos, seven television commercials, a series of PAIMAN TV magazine shows, a radio magazine show and two documentaries on puppet shows and the Ulama intervention. At the same time a package of community-based obstetrical and neonatal services were offered through developing a new cadre of CMWs, orientation of TBAs on clean delivery practices, and arrangement of emergency transport system. Referral health facilities have been upgradated and and human resource issues were addressed through innovative solutions. As shown by the information generated through a renewed HMIS, PAIMAN's innovative strategies have tremendously improved the utilization of MNCH services by women and children across Pakistan.
http://www.paiman.org.pk/

This roundtable session will take place in the Diplomat Ballroom, organized by theme/topic and/or key health issue. Each presenter sits at a table with a small group of participants to discuss a program or research topic. During the 1 hour 45 min. session, each presenter will give his/her presentation twice so participants will have the opportunity to attend two roundtable presentations. The session will flow as follows: presenter has 20 minutes to present, followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer period; the participants have the opportunity to change tables and then the process starts over again for the second time. Most presenters are selected from the competitive abstract process.
Key Health Issues in the Diplomat Ballroom include:
1. Capacity Building
2. Infectious Disease
3. Sanitation
4. Service Delivery
5. Violence and Injury

Join the Geneva-based communications staff of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in a special session of the Council's Global Health Communicators Working Group @ Conference. Sabine Niewiadomski and Jeremy Bogen will talk about the Global Fund's new focus on social media and how they are deploying it against AIDS, TB and malaria, focusing on their new campaign Born HIV Free that was launched May 19 and how you can use social media in your global health communications work.
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_100521

Presenters Discuss:
the role and responsibility of donor organizations in the global battle against drug resistance, how donors have tackled resistance in the past and what changes are needed to ramp up current efforts by the larger donor community (Global); government sectors and policy issues that contribute to antimicrobial resistance (Global); the challenges of antimicrobial resistance as it relate to incentives of patients, physicians, hospitals, agricultural producers and other actors and current efforts to develop effective policies at a national and global scale to manage this life saving, limited, resource; and potential roles of private sector organization in the global battle against antimicrobial resistance (Global).

PRIDE (Primary Healthcare Revitalization, Integration and Decentralization in Earthquake-affected areas) provides technical assistance to the Departments of Health in two districts in Pakistan devastated by the 2005 earthquake: Bagh District in AJ&K and Mansehra District in NWFP. The project is working in all 126 government primary health facilities in Bagh and Mansehra, which serve around 2 million people. PRIDE is committed to better health outcomes for the people of Bagh and Mansehra districts through improved health systems, health services and community participation. The project particularly seeks to address the ongoing tragedy of some of the worst maternal, newborn and child health indicators in South Asia. PRIDE is a $30 million project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is implemented by a consortium of international partners including the International Rescue Committee, Jhpiego (a Johns Hopkins afflilate) and Management Sciences for Health.
RSVP to Deirdre Russo at drusso@jhpiego.net.

Presenters Discuss:
the gender related risk factors associated with rape, that rape prevention must be an essential part of the national development agenda, requiring a comprehensive national strategy to address the gendered nature of rape and South African masculinities (South Africa); men's use of and attitudes toward violence against women, and the economic, social, and gender factors that are associated with violence and that violence prevention requires a comprehensive strategy that takes into these factors and how they shape Brazilian masculinities (Brazil); and the role that childhood violence plays in men's perpetration of partner violence, risk behaviors and support for gender equality during adulthood and the program and policy implications of the findings (India).

Presenters Discuss:
components of a toolkit that assesses reproductive health needs, practical applications of the toolkit in two countries, selected findings, and how they inform program planning (Global, Thailand, Rwanda); how research can inform evidence based family planning services in refugee camps (Congolese Refugee Camps in Rwanda); utilization of and barriers to family planning among IDPs in North Darfur (North Darfur, Sudan); and planning for effective implementation of maternal and newborn mortality reduction strategies in a post conflict country using experiences from the 2008 Sierra Leone EmONC needs assessment survey (Sierra Leone, West Africa).