Editorial: nothing to add (at this time)

Dear reader,

Some days before the end of 2013, I guess that most of the things that have to be said this year are said, and the same counts for the things to be written. There is nothing to be added by the MMI secretariat at this time, so let me immediately hand over the stage to the members of the MMI Network and their news and updates below. However, as a result of a consultation with the Board, I can already confirm the dates and venues of most of the formal Network meetings in 2014:

  • Thursday, 6 February in Basel: Board (only) meeting
    Milestone for review of MMI Network policy
  • Saturday, 24 May (in the week of World Health Assembly)
    MMI Assembly in Geneva
  • Thursday, 21 August in The Hague: Board (only) meeting
    Milestone for development for MMI Strategy 2015+
  • October/November: Network meeting with symposium
    If you are interested to host this meeting and to link it with a planned event of your organization, please let us know until the end of this year.

For now I thank you all for your support and collaboration and wish you a quiet Christmas break (if you have any)!

Thomas Schwarz, Executive Secretary
Medicus Mundi International Network

 

MMI Network: News and resources

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Network news: Cordaid
2013 Cordaid Healthcare Award: the winner

The Dutch Lion Heart Foundation won the Cordaid Healthcare Award 2013. Cordaid awarded a prize of € 10.000 to the organization that showed outstanding implementation of innovative approaches to promote the health of young people. The Lion Heart Foundation received the award for a project in Sierra Leone during the Global Health Conference this December 3rd in The Hague.

> www.cordaid.org/en/topics/healthcare/healthcare-award/#announcement

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Network article: Wemos
Good governance for global health

“Public health is strongly influenced by the effects of globalization, which range from free trade to climate change to population growth. Many of the health challenges facing us today are not simply domestic issues, but transcend national boundaries, meaning we should no longer be focusing on purely domestic solutions. Tackling those challenges will require effective cooperation, policy and governance at the worldwide level. Many health problems still lack any such supra-national policy. At the same time, the World Health Organization’s leading role has taken an increasing back seat in recent years.” (read more)

> www.wemos.nl/Eng/wemos_projects_financing_for_health.htm

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Network article: medico international
Global health in crisis: The creeping disaster

“The news reaching us from Greece is shattering: ‘Growing numbers of suicides due to the greatest economic crisis since 1929’, ‘Chronically ill lacking access to medicine’, ‘Doubling in the number of HIV infections’. They remind us of the link between socioeconomic factors and people’s health. Austerity policies in times of crisis have been proven to cost human lives. Disasters such as wars, famine or floods are going to have a far more tragic impact among a world population shaken by financial crisis – if the right to good public healthcare for all is not given priority.” (read more)

> www.medico.de/en/themes/health/documents/global-health-in-crisis/1265/

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Network publication: EPN
Implementing standard operating procedures, guidelines and standards

The 2013 edition of EPN’s Pharmalink is now available online. Read about how implementing standard operating procedures, guidelines and standards can improve the quality of your services. Whether you work in a hospital, a drug supply organization or production unit, you have tools, materials, and last but not least colleagues, customers, people to interact with. To get things right is always a challenge. How do we design our processes, how do we organise ourselves? Who is responsible for what? The tasks to implement quality management systems appear huge and sometimes overwhelming. The examples in this edition of Pharmalink give proof that the efforts are worth to be taken.”

> www.epnetwork.org/Publications/Pharmalink-EN

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Network report: Cordaid/Memisa
Health care approach successful in Congo Brazaville

In Congo Brazzaville, Cordaid and Memisa Belgium introduced performance-based financing (PBF) in health care in 2012. They did so at the request of the Congolese government. PBF changed a lot of things, not only for the medical staff and patients in dozens of health centers, but also for the Congolese Ministry of Health. But it worked out well. So much so that the Congolese government has decided to sign performance based contracts with health care providers and administrators throughout the country for a total sum of 100 million dollars. “We have learned a lot from Cordaid,” said Dr. Bernice Nsitou Mesmer, medical doctor and coordinator at the Congolese Ministry of Health.

> www.cordaid.org/en/news/government-takes-over-cordaid-approach/

 

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Network publication: Health Poverty Action
Report on the Health Worker Shortage

Health Poverty Action launched a new report on the ‘brain drain’ of health workers from poor to wealthy countries. This brain drain threatens to undo recent improvements in global health and is about to get a lot worse. Key report covers: The impact of the global crisis in human resources for health; the impact of health worker migration on global health inequality; the reasons health workers migrate and what can be done about it; the responsibilities of wealthy countries in recruiting international health workers; specific examples of the impact on Mozambique, Somaliland, Uganda and Ethiopia.

> www.healthpovertyaction.org/news/new-report-health-worker-shortage/

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Network conference report: action medeor
International conference on local pharmaceutical production

Bonn, 21 February 2013. Insufficient access to essential medicines is a common health burden in developing countries and was topic of an international pharmaceutical conference in Bonn, Germany, organized by MMI Network member action medeor together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Main topics were the chances of local production and its impact on access to health with different stakeholders, particularly from Africa. The conference documentation is available now.

> medeor.de/en/action-medeor-en/events/840-international-conference-on-local-production.html

 

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Network resource: DWA Cuamm
TuBerculosis News

TuBerculosis News (TBN) is a project born in October 2012 with the idea to raise the public awareness about the leading cause of death among curable infectious diseases, tuberculosis. The initiative, thanks to the multidisciplinary approach and social networks, aims to have an important role in gathering and dissemination of news on the subject, trying to offer a comprehensive overview of all aspects related to the one of the major public health challenge. Information and awareness, therefore, will represent the basis for an innovative monthly newsletter that will propose a selection of the most important news, providing an easy access educational resource. (MMI Network member involved: DWA Cuamm)

> www.educationglobalhealth.eu/en/focus/tuberculosis-news

 

International Health Policy: MMI Updates

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Inspirations in 140 characters:
Tweets of the Month

  • “Money alone does not buy better health. Good policies that promote equity have a better chance” – Margaret Chan
    ‏@HealthNetTPO
  • If there’s one thing the world is NOT doing at the moment, it’s converging!
    ‏@andrew_harmer
  • David Evans of WHO nails it at #gh2035: Compulsory Public Financing is the key to #UHC and global convergence
    @yates_rob
  • More than 35 million people are HIV+ globally. Governments must tackle poverty and discrimination which perpetuates vulnerability @HealthPoverty
  • Global Health 2.0 needs to incorporate lessons of HIV/AIDS and “exceptionalize” all health challenges & move beyond biomedical health sector
    @MartenRobert

 

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Universal health coverage
Health systems strengthening
Health services, health financing

See also below: Health beyond 2015

Twitter: #UHC

 

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Health policy and systems research

 

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Human resources for health
Migration of health professionals

Twitter: #HRH, #healthworkers #healthworkerscount, #3GFHRH

 

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Access to medicines and vaccination
Medical research and development

 

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Diseases and diseases control
Health conditions
Health through the life-course

 

 

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Women’s and children’s health
Sexual and reproductive rights and health

 

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Equity and human right to health
Social determinants of health
Poverty and social protection

 

Twitter: #SDH, #HIAP

 

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Global health governance and policy

 

Twitter: #globalhealth #healthgovernance

 

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World Health Organization
WHO reform and financing

 

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Development, aid, NGOs and international institutions

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Health and Economic Development
Global Health 2015: Lancet Commission Report

 

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Health beyond 2015
MDGs and SDGs

 

Twitter: #health2015 #post2015 #globalhealth

 

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