Seminars & Forums

Monash Global Health runs a series of seminars in conjunction with the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct (AMREP).

Forums

HEALTH AND THE CITY

World Health Day 2010 will focus on urbanization and health. With the campaign "1000 cities - 1000 lives", events will be organized worldwide calling on cities to open up streets for health activities. The conference will be held on World Health Day, Wednesday April 7, 2010 at Ormond Hall, Melbourne and will have two inter-related themes:

* Implications of urbanisation for the health of poor and disadvantaged populations

* Multi-faceted approaches to improving maternal health in low-income settings

Speakers, panelists and participants from South Africa, China, India and around Australia will discuss and exchange ideas about how urbanisation affects the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, particularly women and children. According to the World Health Organization, more than 50% of the world's population is living in cities, and this proportion continues to grow. Urbanisation affects the health of people in many complex ways in terms of infectious disease transmission, the role of people's living environments, and the rapidly increasing prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases and their associated risk factors. At present, more than one billion people live in urban slums and the World Bank forecasts that by 2035, cities will become the predominant sites of poverty.

Keynote speakers include: Professor Guo Yan, Peking University and former WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health; Dr Kiran Martin, Asha, India; Mr Murray Proctor, AusAID; and Professor KR Thankappan, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, India. Other speakers will include Ms Jill Gallagher, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation; Ms Sue Ndwala, World Vision; Mr Todd Harper, VicHealth; and Professor Geoffrey Setswe, School of Health Sciences, Monash South Africa, and Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa.

This conference is organised by Monash University and the Burnet Institute, on behalf of the AMREP Global Health Consortium, with support from 'Compass' the AusAID-funded Women's and Children's Health Knowledge Hub and VicHealth. This conference is free to all participants. Please register your details with Emma Frean: Emma.Frean@med.monash.edu.au

Monash University and the Burnet Institute will also host a workshop on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at the Burnet Institute, Melbourne. The one-day workshop will focus on action to address the social determinants of urban health and health equity globally. The main aim is to identify the critical environmental, social and physical urban issues that can be acted upon to improve health equity.

The morning session will introduce key issues in research and evidence for action on the social determinants of health, specifically in urban settings, to improve urban health equity. Speakers include Dr Katrin Engelhardt, University of Munich, Germany; Professor Lyndsay Neilson, University of Canberra; Professor Geoffrey Setswe, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa; Professor Paul James, United National Global Compact Cities Programme, RMIT; and Mr Mark McGillivray, Alfred Deakin Research Institute. The afternoon debate and dialogue will provide an opportunity to discuss implications for policies and action on social determinants of health and health equity.

This workshop is free to all participants. Places are limited, so please register with Emma Frean: Emma.Frean@med.monash.edu.au 

Seminars

To view a list of delivered seminars, please refer to the Seminar Archives.