4th PHASA Conference 2008

 

 

 

The 4th Public Health Association of South Africa ( PHASA) Conference will be held from 2-4 June

2008 at the Southern Sun Cape Sun, Cape Town, South Africa

 

 
 

2008 Conference

 

The 2008 Conference marks the thirtieth anniversary of the WHO/UNICEF Conference on Primary Health Care held in Alma Ata, USSR (now Kazakhstan). Primary Health Care (PHC) remains the strategy of WHO for achieving Health for All and is the philosophy informing South Africa’s health policies. There is currently renewed interest globally in PHC and the potential of this approach to address continuing health and health care challenges, not least in addressing the major problems of HIV, TB and malaria. PHASA is dedicating its 2008 Conference to PHC in recognition of the above and in the hope that research presented and ensuing discussions will assist in defining more precisely the role of Public Health in developing PHC to implement South Africa’s bold health policies.

 

Conference goals:

 

As an African public health association, PHASA

  • is committed to strengthening local and regional capacity in public health skills

  • intends to use the conference both as a regional networking exercise and as a formal skills-building exercise

 

Conference theme:

 

The theme of the conference, in keeping with the 30th anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration, will be: “Making Alma Ata principles a 21st century reality: What will it take?” The theme will enable critical review of the progress that Southern Africa has made in terms of providing health care for all.

 

The three conference tracks will be:

  1. Evidence for action and evidence of action, epidemiology, health informatics, qualitative research and policy choices,
  2. Health in context, which looks at issues around environments, communities and households.
  3. Necessity and invention, novel approaches and successes in primary health care.
  
     
  Conference dates: 2-4 June
     
  Workshops: 2 June 2008
     
  Conference: 3 & 4 June 2008
     
  Keynote speaker: Dr Sundararaman from India
     
  Conference Venue: Southern Sun Cape Sun, Cape
Town, South Africa
     
  Website: http://phasa2008.mrc.ac.za
     
 

 

 

As is evident from the chosen tracks we hope to generate a lively discussion around the opportunities and challenges facing health in the 21st century. In this regard, HIV/AIDS and TB strategies will feature in various tracks of the conference. Prominence will also be given to discussions about the public health benefits of improving access to the basic determinants of health such as water, sanitation and food. The conference will open and close with an internationally recognised plenary speaker.

 

Workshops:

 

Seven exciting workshops will be held on 2 June 2008, the details of which are as follows.

  1. Your Life or your Liberty. When is it legitimate to limit Human Rights for the Public good?
  2. Significant differences or Significant others? Reconciling Qualitative and Quanitative research traditions in Public Health.
  3. Lies, damn lies and statistics? Epidemiology for journalists.
  4. “If you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own”. Media advocacy and Public Health.
  5. HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health: Understanding and claiming rights
  6. Getting the evidence right. Practicing evidence-based Public Health
  7. Task-shifting: second-rate care or opportunity for health systems?
  
     
 
 

Guest Speaker: Dr T Sundararaman

 

Dr Sundararaman is Executive Director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC) in New Delhi. Funded by the government of India, the centre provides technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to support the rural health sector reform process.

 

Trained as a physician at the Jawaharlal Insititute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, Dr Sundararaman is an active public health practitioner, committed to improving the health of the poor. He is also a founder member of the People’s Health Movement in India, the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry science forums, the All India People’s Science Network and the Public Health Resource Network that provides resource support and builds capacities of public health practitioners.

 

Dr Sundararaman headed the programme design and programme implementation of the Mitanin programme, India’s largest ongoing community health worker programme with an outreach to all

 

 

 

58,000 habitations of Chhattisgarh state (population : 20 million people).

 

The Mitanin programme has resulted in an infant mortality rate decline, with little change in the utilisation of hospital based services; household and community-level health care practices, however, changed dramatically. An important change has been observed in the huge increase in the percent of mothers initiating breastfeeding in the first 24 hours after birth. ORS use and health-seeking behaviour for Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) have also improved.

 

The improvements are due to the work of Mitanins as well as improvements of all outreach services as a consequence of large scale social mobilisation and strengthening of the health sector. Most importantly, it has brought back credibility to the role of community participation in health sector reform and has given the whole health sector reform process a renewed confidence and dynamism as well as public visibility and grassroots support.
 
 
 

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