The Global Health Governance Programme are hosting a guest seminar with our Visiting Research Associate Mitsuru Mukaigawara on the 22nd November at 10am entitled “Tobacco control, political economy and international organizations.”

Nobody doubts tobacco’s harmful effects in this day and age. After enactment of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005, two international organizations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, have implemented both in-country and international projects to control tobacco epidemics globally. However, such efforts were actually a major turnabout which happened in the early 1990s. How did these two organizations make tobacco a political and development agenda? The presenter discusses the development and current status of tobacco control focusing on the two classic international organizations, and presents challenges and opportunities relating to them.

Mitsuru Mukaigawara is the Chief Medical Resident and Clinical Fellow in Infectious Diseases at Okinawa Chubu Hospital in Okinawa, Japan. Pursuing parallel interests in global health and diplomacy, he has previously worked for the Global Influenza Programme at the World Health Organization, and contributed to create the evidence base for the diagnosis and prevention of influenza across the globe. He has published widely from general medicine to global health, whose research has been covered in peer-reviewed journals including JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Cardiology, to name a few. He is interested in the roles of international organizations in reducing global inequity in health. He holds an M.D. from Tokyo Medical and Dental University. He is a recipient of the Outstanding Resident Award from the University of Hawaii-Okinawa Chubu Hospital Postgraduate Medical Education Programme (2014-2016).

Title:- Orienting food policy to improve nutrition: the challenge and opportunity of global policy legacies

Malnutrition is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. Improving nutrition will require the creation of healthy environments, in which healthy foods are more affordable, available and accessible. The challenge, particularly for low and middle income countries, is this: food environments have been shaped by long-standing policy agendas in economic sectors that govern the food supply. These sectors include Trade, Finance, Agriculture and Commerce – and each of these sectors is subject to powerful global agendas, led by institutions such as the World Trade Organization and World Bank. This seminar will draw on policy analysis research and interviews with economic policy makers in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and at the global level, to consider the challenges and opportunities presented by these policy legacies for nutrition.

Bio – Dr Anne Marie Thow

Dr Anne Marie Thow is Senior Lecturer in Health Policy at the University of Sydney. Her research uses theories of public policy making to explore facilitators and barriers to best practice public health nutrition policy globally, with a particular focus on the interface between economic policy and nutrition. Anne Marie currently collaborates on research in Asia, Africa and the Pacific, designed to strengthen nutrition policy making, and regularly consults with international agencies regarding nutrition policy. Prior to her PhD, Anne Marie worked for the Governments of Australia and Fiji on nutrition policy issues. She trained in nutrition and has a Masters in Public Policy and Economics.

This talk is FREE to attend but numbers are limited. Please register here:-

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-health-guest-seminar-dr-anne-marie-thow-tickets-37059378599

Seminar title: Hazardous drinking among adolescents: lifestyle, context or structure

There are approximately 1.9 billion young people aged 10 to 19 years in our world today, the largest generation of adolescents in human history. They are testament to hard-won gains addressing diseases of poverty and undernutrition in early childhood. This seminar examines challenges at the next frontier, particularly alcohol and injuries, the largest contributors to deaths and disability in adolescence. The roles of health care, social policies, and industry influences will be critiqued highlighting the promise of digital technologies and brief interventions, as well as risks of ‘lifestyle drift’ replacing efforts addressing the structural determinants of harmful drinking by young people.

Bio: Professor Shanthi Ameratunga, a paediatrician by training, holds a Chair in Public Health at the School of Population Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She directs an international research programme in trauma and injury with projects funded by the Health Research Council of NZ, the Wellcome Trust, and the WHO, supporting a cadre of emerging public health researchers in less-resourced settings and generating over 250 publications.    

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-health-guest-seminar-professor-shanthi-ameratunga-tickets-37449595749

The Global Health Governance Programme and Centre for Medical Anthropology are co-hosting a guest seminar with Dr Darryl Stellmach on the 4th September at 9.30am here in the Usher Room.

Darryl is a Post-Doctoral Associate in medical anthropology, food and nutrition security at the University of Sydney. On a part-time basis, he also works with the public health research unit of Médecins Sans Frontières-UK (MSF), overseeing the introduction of anthropological methods and analysis to MSF field programs. Darryl’s research focuses on the social and political life of epidemics, food security and nutritional crises.

This talk will attempt to summarize, i), how anthropologists have been perceived and used in recent health emergencies, ii), what current initiatives are underway to integrate anthropology and social science knowledge into emergency response and iii), what future roles and potential challenges anthropologists and other social scientists might take up as they move into a more institutional engagement within global health emergencies.

The talk is FREE to attend but numbers are limited. Please register here:-

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-health-guest-seminar-darryl-stellmach-tickets-36742791679

Professor Devi Sridhar will present a talk in Heidelberg, Germany entitled "The Global Response to Ebola: Mistakes made and lessons learned."

Professor Sridhar will present a one-off talk entitled:-

"Global Cooperation in Health: Explaining Shifts Using Principal-Agent Theory"

http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/wiso/awi/forschung/seminar_econ_pol.html

Marlee Tichenor presented at the Oxford University China-Africa Network's (OUCAN) China-Africa Global Health Conference. Discussing Chinese investment in health initiatives in Senegal, she presented on the panel, "Development, Diplomacy and Security: The Many Faces of Health in Sino-African Relations."

Professor Martin McKee will be visiting our team and giving an exclusive one-off seminar. This event is invite only. See more about Professor McKee here :- http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mckee.martin

Governments, NGOs and corporations collaborate across the world on campaigns to respond to global health issues such as AIDS, Ebola, SARS and malaria. But how do you regulate these PPPs (private-public partnerships)? The Edinburgh academic and her co-author, Chelsea Clinton, analyse the accountability, effectiveness and sustainability of the biggest campaigns. Chaired by Oscar Guardiola-Rivera.

How is European Aid money used in the fight against Ebola and what is the World Bank's approach pandemic preparedness and to development in general? Come to this event to get some first, tentative answers.

Devi Sridhar spoke at the 5th Edinburgh Tropical Medicine Day.

In this talk, Marlee Tichenor will discuss the question of legitimacy and evidence with regards to antimalarial treatment. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the current front-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria recommended by the World Health Organization. Due to fears about the spread of artemisinin resistance in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of malaria cases and deaths occur, the WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria mandate the use of combination therapies rather than monotherapies to protect the usefulness of the pharmaceutical agent. In this global public health space where fear of losing pharmaceutical effectiveness drives much of the recommendations that the WHO promotes to fight malaria, Marlee investigates the modes of legitimization behind two “alternative” forms of producing anti-malarial treatments. 

Felix Stein gave a seminar ‘A closer look at management consultants in healthcare’

Felix Stein led a Wikipedia edit-a-thon training session

Marlee Tichenor gave a one off seminar “Three things you didn’t know about Malaria.”

Janelle Winters spoke at the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology and Edinburgh Infectious Diseases one day symposium: Global Challenges in Infectious Disease:  Showcasing social science research in Edinburgh

Rosalind McKenna - Program Officer, Governance for Health, Public Health Program, Open Society Foundations gave a talk to the project team

Micheal Head - Project lead (and co-applicant) on the Research Investments in Global Health study (ResIn) gave a talk to the project team

Our first Project Team Away day was held in the Raeburn Room at Old College and included talks from all members of our Core Team on their plans for 2017.

See video for details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VvsZBEyoHE

Mirja Channa Sjoblom from the World Bank gave a talk to the team