International Conference on Scaling Up of Health Programs in Low-Income Countries, December 3-6, 2008, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Announcement by BRAC

Currently, many developing nations are not on pace to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015. The national scaling up of successful health programmes is a powerful strategy which could help faltering countries accelerates their progress. It is our hope that a conference on scaling up will focus the international health community’s knowledge and efforts and help put us on track to reach the MDGs. Global leaders in the field will speak in special sessions.

The conference will take place in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It will consist of plenary, breakout and poster sessions, with the number of attendees limited to approximately 120. Conference outputs will include on-line publication of all papers presented, edited special supplements in high-impact journals and an edited book based on selected papers.

Modest support for travel and living expenses will be available for presenters from low-income countries.

Abstracts

Abstracts must be limited to 250 words and must follow the following outline: problem statement, methods, major findings, conclusion and learning. Potential topics include:

• Case studies of successful (and unsuccessful) scaled up programs in health and non-health activities: what works and why
• Civil society organizations/NGOs role and experiences in scaling up development programs
• Challenges of scaling up in urban areas
• Challenges of scaling up in poorest areas of Africa and South Asia
• Capacity development in public health such as the training and use of community health workers
• Use of new technologies such as mobile phones, Internet and hand-held computers (e-health)
• Strengthening health system through scaling up
• Role of the private sector
• Monitoring and evaluation in scaling up efforts
• Financing as a constraint and as an opportunity
• Any other issues related to the theme of scaling up health and other development programs
• Future directions: What we need to do differently?
  

Submit your abstracts by email to:

abstracts@brac.net

After the abstracts are reviewed, successful author(s) will be contacted for full papers. They will also be informed whether their papers are accepted for presentation in plenary, breakout or poster sessions.

Timeline
Abstract submission deadline: July 31, 2008
Decision on acceptance: August 31, 2008
Full paper deadline: October 15, 2008
Conference: December 3-6, 2008