WHAT COMES AFTER THE MDGs?
CAN OUR PRIORITIES IN RESEARCH FOR HEALTH AND EDUCATION MATCH THE NEW CHALLENGES IN A GLOBALISING WORLD?
With 2015 approaching, there is an urgent need to critically examine the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and discuss how to update them to reflect the changing reality of global health. Health workers and systems face more challenges today than ever with the pace of the simultaneous growth of the world's population and its aging subgroups, the changing burden of disease and the challenge to provide access to new types of medicines and treatment in developing countries, all which puts more pressure on fragile health systems.
The situation will change considerably towards 2030. Identifying new development goals after 2015 requires in-depth knowledge of the current and future health problems, thorough understanding of the emerging trends and visions for future priorities. Health research can play an important role in this process. Therefore, it is critically important to re-think the requirements for research and capacity development in view of the emerging public health needs and ask:
- Are we doing the right kind of research?
- Are we basing our education on the right kind of research and evidence?
- Are we training people with skills and capacities that respond to the future needs?
These questions will be addressed by international experts, researchers, research managers, policy makers, civil society representatives and donors during a two-day conference. The aim of the conference is to discuss how to ensure that developing countries benefit from the lessons learnt from high-income countries in developing their research and education systems as well as setting their own research priorities.
The conference is organised by Enreca Health in partnership with World Diabetes Foundation, Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED), Global Doctors, and Universities Denmark's Platform on Human Health and Platform on Stability, Democracy & Rights.
The conference is open to anyone interested in this topic. Please register here before 15 April 2011. Please note that you are not registered until you have received a confirmatory mail from the organisers.
