Announcing an International Symposium on Mobility and Health - October 2007

It has been a year since regional workshops on Mobility and Health were held in Mexico, Uganda and Indonesia. The main aim of these workshops was for the 25 researchers participating in an international networked research programme on Mobility and Health to come together to develop a common research framework to explore the links between mobility and health for poor communities in rural areas.  The researchers -7 in Latin America, 8 in Asia and 10 in Africa are exploring these links from a variety of perspectives, including; the impact of rural roads on health in Burkina Faso and Nepal, the challenges of water transportation in the Peruvian Amazon and the Ugandan islands in Lake Victoria. All the abstracts are available at www.mobilityandhealth.org/case/case_list.php.

The majority of the researchers have now submitted their first draft reports which are currently under review by the coordinating team, consisting of the IFRTD Secretariat, Swiss Tropical Institute, Skat and SDC. The research findings and reports will feed into an International Symposium which will be organised to gather all 25 researchers and the core team together. Here they will share and synthesise research findings and start to develop an advocacy strategy to ensure that the research leverages change. The International Symposium will be partially aligned with the next Annual Forum of the Global Forum for Health Research to be held in Beijing from 29^th of October to the 2^nd of November, 2007.

At the last Global Forum for Health in Cairo IFRTD participated in a panel on Transport and Health and introduced IFRTD’s Networked Research Programme on Mobility and Health. This year we will present the findings by organising a panel that brings together the transport and health sectors to debate these findings in general and access in particular (in line with this year’s theme). A 2-day synthesis and strategy workshop is planned for the Mobility and Health researchers on 27^th and 28^th of October. This will be followed by a half day international panel within the Global Forum for Health’s programme on October 31^st to stimulate dialogue between the health and transport sectors on the research results. This is a unique opportunity to encourage cross-sectoral debate and future collaboration between health and transport professionals from Africa, Asia and Latin America.  The international panel will be followed by a half-day workshop in the afternoon of October 31^st to develop an advocacy strategy and ways forward.    

Overall objectives of the International Symposium:

• To share and synthesise the findings of the case studies and research.
  
• To identify the priority policy messages from the research findings.
  
• To develop an advocacy strategy that will ensure the research leverages change.
  
• To provide lessons learned of the process of networked research.
  
• To initiate a dialogue between the transport and health sector on how they can work together.
  

While the researchers synthesis workshop is a closed event the International Panel and advocacy workshop are open for all interested.

For more information please contact:
Marinke van Riet
Email:  Marinke.vanriet@ifrtd.org

or visit http://www.globalforumhealth.org/

More information about IFRTD's networked research approach is available at: http://www.ifrtd.org/new/res/networked_research_manual.htm