Online Course Announcement: The Struggle for Health and Access to Affordable Medicines
(with a focus on Middle East and North Africa)
Six week course starting from November 10, 2020
The International People’s Health University (IPHU) of the People’s Health Movement (PHM) and the Third World Network, announces “THE STRUGGLE FOR HEALTH AND ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE MEDICINES”, a short online training course for young public health professionals including health activists for six weeks from November 10th.
(Update- classes every Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:00pm Cairo Time).
Curriculum:
The course to be held online would be an introduction to the issues of access to medicines and will commence with a broad overview of the context of access to medicines in particular the political economy of health, structure of the pharmaceutical industry, medicines related policy and regulation and then deal specifically with matters of intellectual property and access to medicines.
The overview curriculum will include:
- The struggle for health and organised health activism,
- Social determinants of health, comprehensive primary health care, the political economy of health,
- Current approaches to pharmaceutical research and development; understanding the pharmaceutical industry and the regulation of the pharmaceutical supply chain
The intellectual property and access to medicines curriculum will include:
- WTO and its Trade Related Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement)
- Affect of Intellectual property Rights on access to medicines
- Deployment and utilisation of flexibilities provided for in WTO’s Trade Related Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to make medical products more accessible
- Public health sensitive TRIPS flexibilities such as compulsory licensing, parallel importation, patentability criteria, opposition systems, exemptions for least developed countries (LDC);
- TRIPS-plus provisions and implications for access to medicines; Free Trade Agreements
- The breadth of factors determining equitable access to medicines and safe and effective treatment and the significance of intellectual property issues in this scope.
Objectives:
IPHU short courses are designed to enable younger public health professionals mainly from Middle East and North Africa including health activists to make new connections, share experiences and study together with an aim to the People’s Health Movement and the wider movement for health equity globally.
The course is planned for young health activists and practitioners working on the issues of health, access to medicines and human rights and particularly including those involved or wishing to be involved in the People’s Health Movement (PHM). While many applicants will have a university degree or equivalent, it is not a prerequisite.
To participate in the course, you will have to complete the application form. Organisers will review the applications and select participants for the IPHU course.
Priority, with respect to enrolment, will be given to:
- Younger people motivated to get involved in PHM (and who have endorsed the People’s Charter for Health);
- Primary health care, public health practitioners and those working towards issues of Access to Medicines;
- People with a track record as health activists within the PHM, in particular, people who have been actively involved in organizations which are part of the PHM.
- Applicants from low as well as middle income countries.
A total of 30-40 participants will be selected. The enrolment policy aims to achieve:
- Geographical mix with a priority towards Middle East and North Africa
- Gender balance,
- Diversity of involvements: community based organizations, health care agencies, NGOs, universities, government officials, etc; and
- Diversity of skills, records of activism, interests, experience, and educational backgrounds.
Essentials to Apply: Access to reliable computer and internet access
Duration: 6 weeks
Sessions Per Week: 2 Sessions (two hours each)
Mode of Study:
Online Course with 2 contact sessions of 2 hours each and with an expected commitment of another 4 hours to complete the course work every week. So, a total of 8 hours every week is required to attend the course.
The selected students will also be able to access classes and study material through the moodle being specially created for the purpose of this IPHU. The course will involve: pre-reading and exercises; lectures, small group discussions and film screening.
Language
The course will be conducted in English and Arabic wherein some of the resource persons would teach in English and some others in Arabic. And, the course will have the provision of English-Arabic-English simultaneous translation to deal with the language barrier.
Registration Fee and Scholarship
It is our endeavor to provide students with scholarships to attend the six week online course. In this regard, the registration fee of 20 USD will be waived off for all those who are selected to attend the course.
The IPHU approach to learning
- Start with the struggle for health
- Teach and learn in partnership
- Knowledge is imbued with purpose
- New ideas must be used
- Activism is an ethical commitment
- Learn new ways of being (as well as new facts and theories)
- Refresh, enquire, research
- Nurture leadership: judgment which inspires confidence; integrity which creates trust and the courage to take risks
- Learn to listen to learn; learn to teach; teach to learn
- Steer our own learning; grow the skills and habits of life-long learning
- Build our community of activists
- Stay with the struggle for health
Faculty
Faculty members will be a mix of academics and health activists of rich experience, from within the region and beyond.
Last date for applying for the Course: Extended to October 20, 2020 (previously 10th october)
The organisers will inform the status of applications by 26th October