News & Events

The team undertaking research on cervical cancer in Indonesia is currently finalising data collection in our first site - Yogyakarta. Since March 2019 we have collaborated intensively with local hospitals, clinics, CBOs and cancer survivors to develop an in depth understanding of the regional health system response to cervical cancer.This will be extended in 2020 when we move the project to the second site – Jakarta, where we will seek to understand how proximity to the central government and greater health system resourcing also impacts on the cervical cancer response.In addition to our work on the ground in Indonesia, the team has been presenting and collaborating with other cancer researchers in the UK, including co-convening an expert panel at the Association of Social Anthropologists Conference (3-6 September) at the University of East Anglia, and presenting papers at a specialist workshop at the University of Manchester.

Professor Ajay Mahal queries the economics of health sector interventions at various scales.Suppose that an experimental evaluation or a small pilot project demonstrates that a health intervention – say, the training of community health workers in roles that task shift from nurses in rural settings – is highly cost-effective. Can it be assumed that if this intervention were to be replicated ad infinitum in a province or a country, it would yield close to proportionate, or better still, more than proportionate increases in outcomes relative to costs? In other words, is the intervention ‘scalable’?

On December 5 and 6, the Global Health Alliance Australia convened the first WHO Collaborating Centre Forum at the Sidney Myer Asia Centre. This constituted the inaugural activity of the Network for the Australia-Based WHOCCs, a new initiative funded by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and hosted by the Alliance.65 attendees represented the WHO Collaborating Centres, Australian and Victorian Governments, The University of Hong Kong and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The Forum and Official Launch of the Network was met with great praise and there is now an unprecedented level of goodwill, relationships and momentum towards the evolving Network whilst its prescribed role and planned activities are consolidated. See attached photo of WHOCCs on Day 2.

Estimates of people with a disability in India vary from 2-15% which means that a minimum of 26.8 million people have a disability. In September, representatives from the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MSJ&E), Govt. of India (GOI), Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), New Delhi  and the NOSSAL Institute for Global Health met in Delhi for a 6 day national workshop to finalise the Co-design of a Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) course.There is an urgent need to recruit and effectively train Indian CBID workers who are equipped with appropriate levels of competency to respond to the needs of people with disability and to assist them in their rehabilitation and inclusion in the community.The course will follow an empirically validated and innovative CBID Competency based framework which will be accredited by the RCI. It will be rolled out across India through RCI’s approved training institutes and the District Disability Rehabilitation Centres.  We wish to thank the Melbourne Disability Institute for their support for this project and associated research.

On Friday 25th October 2019, the Nossal Institute joined the Indonesia Forum in co-convening the one-day symposium Health Security in Indonesia: Interdisciplinary and Regional Perspectives. Three expert panels engaged in an interdisciplinary dialogue on health security in Indonesia looking at current and emerging challenges. Throughout the day the group explored the broader conceptual parameters of health security and its relevance to global health research agendas. Insights from current research in both urban and rural contexts in Indonesia highlighted the complexity of issues faced, and the ways in which societal and environmental transitions are driving both emerging and sustained health security threats in the region. The dialogue involved sharing examples of interdisciplinary research methodologies that engage with health security as a product of the intersections of human and animal health systems, and the natural systems in which these are embedded. Discussions of inequity, and particularly inequities in health system coverage and capacity, were also crucial to conceptualising priorities for research and action seeking to promote health security in the Indonesian context.

Regulation by Competition and Health-Seeking Behavior for Women's and Children's Health Services Among Informal Providers in Bangladesh

Although disproportionately at-risk, people with disability and older people have long been excluded from humanitarian response. While this is starting to change with new commitments, such as the Charter on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, thereis still uncertainty about how best to ensure people with disability and older people are fully included in responses to conflict and disasters.Nossal’s Disability Inclusion team, in partnership with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund and Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, are conducting a Gap Analysis on the Inclusion of People with Disability and Older People in Humanitarian Response. Gaps in current evidence will be identified through a comprehensive literature review, interviews with humanitarian professionals, and consultations with people with disability and older people who have experienced a humanitarian response.A range of stakeholders, including Organisations of People with Disability and Older People’s Associations, are contributing to the design and delivery of the Gap Analysis. The findings will inform future research, policy and practice on the inclusion of people with disability and older people in humanitarian response.Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund supports organisations and individuals to identify, nurture and share innovative and scalable solutions to the challenges facing effective humanitarian assistance.

Nossal Institute joined representatives from the International Consortium for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ICSRHR) to brief Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNFPA delegates and Australian parliamentarians in Canberra.  The briefing covered priorities for sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Pacific and Asia.

A five-day short course equipping participants with an overview and practical guidelines to address child health issues among disadvantaged populations and in low resources settings.

The Nossal Institute have been working in disability in India for the past 10 years in partnership with the Public Health Foundation of India, CBM India, the Emmanuel Hospital Association and CHGN Uttarakhand Cluster.  This research has utilised the Rapid Assessment of Disability tool and has focussed on researching Community Based Rehabilitation programs and Disabled People’s Organisations. Building on this extensive work, the Nossal, with the support of the Melbourne Disability Institute, was instrumental in the development of an India-Australia bilateral MoU on disability. This was signed in December 2018 when the President of India visited Melbourne.

A five-day short course equipping participants with the skills to critically analyse barriers to participation in contemporary health and development practice, so that they will better understand the imperative and complexity of inclusion.

Disability data clinic hosted following research into the use of the Washington Group questions on disability in development and humanitarian programming.

Launched globally in July, this course will develop skills and confidence in policy makers, managers and clinicians working in health systems to analyse system problems and take decisive, evidence-based actions to strengthen their system.

International evidence on the role of built environments in physical activity and obesity

A Nossal Institute team has been awarded the prestigious 2019 Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence in Educational Programs.

A West African Ebola outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people has helped inspire two courses that aim to minimise the impact of such epidemics globally.