10th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health. “ECTMIH brings together scientists and experts from Europe and from all over the world, including many delegates from low and middle income countries. This biennial event is patronised by FESTMIH, the Federation of European Societies of Tropical Medicine and International Health. In 2017, the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) and the Belgian Platform for International Health (Be-Cause Health) will join hands with FESTMIH for the festive 10th edition. Building on the successes of previous meetings, it will consolidate ECTMIH’s standing as Europe’s leading conference and networking event in its field. The splendid venue of the newly opened Elisabeth congress centre features historical buildings, state of the art technology and the fabulous Antwerp Zoo as break-out garden. Situated at the doorstep of the iconic Central Station, it gives direct access to the rich cultural, historical and gastronomic heritage of Antwerp.” (Source: ECTMIH website).

The MMI Network and its working group on Effective Health Cooperation (MMI EHC) have been actively involved in ECTMIH 2017. We are particularly happy to see that our proposal to integrate a track on international health cooperation was implemented.

Monday 16 October 2017: Health cooperation beyond aid? Engaging Belgian actors on global health with regards to the relevance, legitimacy and effectiveness of our work in an SDG era. ECTMIH pre-event

Our Belgian colleagues of “Be-cause health” invited the MMI Network to co-organize an ECTMIH pre-event on the topic we have addressed, in our working group on Effective Health Cooperation, over the last two years. The pre-event took place on Monday afternoon, 16 October 2017, from 13-16 hrs, at the ITM Antwerp.

“A changing nature of health cooperation and the increasing prominence of global health in international politics affects how we (could) define international health cooperation.  The sustainable development (SDG) agenda requires in itself a transformative change of working to attain the health goals.  In addition, governments and policy-makers take a paradigm shift from international to global health, and seem to put (health) cooperation beyond aid.

This event will bring together researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and influencers to exchange insights on how they are adapting their work to a changing environment, and reflect on how changes in their approach is influenced by shifts in (health) development cooperation. Two panels will reflect on the following:

Part I: Relevance, legitimacy and effectiveness of (health) development cooperation in an SDG era? Heterogeneous approach to health cooperation, Introduced  by Thomas Schwarz, MMI and moderated by Tim Roosen, Be-cause healh/ITM

Part II: Linking health cooperation to a broader foreign policy –  a transformative approach to health? Introduced by Lies Steurs, Ghent University and moderated by Remco van der Pas, ITM”

  • Preliminary programme of the ECTMIH pre-event.

Monday 16 October 2017: Complementary MMI Network events

MMI Network members who participated in ECTMIH pre-event co-organized by our Network also joined us for an open MMI Board meeting (10-12 hrs), an informal lunch gathering (12-13 hrs) with representatives of Be-cause health and the ITM Antwerp and Network dinner in a restaurant in town.

The MMI Board meeting focused on a dialogue within the Board and with interested Network members about the financial foundations and perspectives of MMI and how members can contribute to sustaining the Network.

Enquiries: MMI secretariat

Tuesday 17 October 2017: Health cooperation beyond aid. ECTMIH session organized by MMI, with lecture of the winner of the MMI essay contest

Our application for an organized session on “Health cooperation beyond aid” jointly submitted by MMI and Be-cause health was accepted by the scientific committee of ECTMIH 2017. The session took place on Tuesday afternoon, 15:30 hrs (session 6OS6):

“Funding for international development aid is under pressure. Post-fact & post-truth policy framing overshadow evidence-based policy making. Humanitarian, development and security objectives have become blurred. Current global health challenges are of a transnational, universal, nature and not only a matter anymore of bridging the gap between developed and developing countries. This requires a re-assessment of how international health actors transform themselves to engage in a strategic way with a new global health agenda.”

Speakers from a variety of organisations provided an initial input to this question. One of the speakers was Natalie Sharples, the winner of an essay contest organised by MMI. This was followed by a lively debate with the audience.

Visibility partnership of the MMI Network and some members at ECTMIH 2017

MMI Network and some of its members could be “visited” in a marketplace booth throughout the ECTMIH week: i+solutions, Medicus Mundi Switzerland, Memisa  and Wemos, having reacted to our call sent out in summer, shared with us the Network’s booth.

health sector