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Launched in 2009, the International Health Policies Network (IHP Network) is an initiative of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp (ITM), run by the Health Policy and Financing Unit. Currently it is part of the Belgian component of the 2017-2021 DGD (FA IV) framework, under Outcome 2, “Belgian and global policies for better health are supported through collaborative knowledge production, management and advocacy”.

Activities

In line with the “Switching the Poles” vision of ITM, the aim of the network is to primarily boost the influence of scholars from the Global South on the global health policy agenda, with a focus on young health policy & systems researchers. The main activities include:

  • Knowledge Management: The IHP newsletter – “your weekly International update on Health Policies – aims to provide a trusted comprehensive weekly digest of global health policy news, global health governance updates, key global health & HPSR publications, including in global health areas such as infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health rights, UHC, HRH, … etc. IHP focuses in particular on the issues that have an impact on health in low- and middle-income countries.
  • Policy Support via knowledge management. The IHP knowledge management activities provide tools and information to a number of actors to become more effective change agents in their countries and at regional/global level. ­­­
  • Switching the poles and advocacy: by providing a platform for young voices (often from the South) to challenge the mainstream (still Northern-dominated) discourse and advocate for a progressive SDG health & planetary health agenda.
  • Capacity Building: IHP focuses on the capacity building of young researchers, mainly health policy and systems researchers (including Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH)), via blogs, featured articles, IHP internships, EV residencies, support with correspondence & coverage from global health events and the field, and facilitation/ assistance with letters, comments and viewpoints on other platforms and journals.

The weekly International Health Policies (IHP) newsletter and featured articles/editorials are the key outputs of the Network and support the knowledge management and networking pillars of the Network.

While agreeing that labels such as ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’ are fast losing their relevance in today’s world, the IHP Network also aims to boost synergies with actors and networks from Africa, Asia and Latin-America with a similar agenda and values. They are key stakeholders in the EV4GH programme, often playing an active role in supporting young researchers from the Global South in developing their skills and capacities, sharing their work and experiences across platforms as well as at the HSR symposia.

Members of the IHP Network are encouraged and supported towards networking opportunities, at global and regional conferences, workshops or networking events.

The International Health Policies Newsletter

The International Health Policies newsletter, “your weekly International update on Health Policies”, is the flagship activity of the IHP network and provides a curated listing of the week’s key global health (policy) news, events and publications. Every Friday, the newsletter highlights and synthesizes the main knowledge on issues like global health governance, UHC, antimicrobial resistance, infectious diseases, Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs), Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), planetary health, … The newsletter also presents featured articles by a network of young and more experienced global health practitioners, mostly from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Making the most of the IHP Newsletter

The newsletter has four main sections:

  1. The introduction (by the editorial team)
  2. A featured article (by a contributor from the Global South, usually)
  3. the ‘Highlights of the week’ section – i.e. the key news and publications of the week
  4. the remainder of the newsletter is divided into thematic sections (such as Infectious diseases & NTDs, NCDs, Human Resources for Health, etc.).

The sections follow each other in the pdf and email versions of the newsletter. On the website, the introduction is featured on the homepage, with the latest feature article and blogs accessible from the links on the right side of the page. The listings can be accessed through the menu above. If you’re on a smartphone, scroll below the introduction for the articles and blogs, and use the menu feature (top right) to access the listings.

If you’re short of time, the “Highlights of the week” section is essential.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here, if you haven’t already.

Want to contribute?

We welcome contributions in the form of feature articles and blogs (500-800 words). Guest writers can write a comment piece reflecting on a ‘hot’ topic, trend or event in global health, or can highlight a health issue that they feel is being neglected on the global health (policy) scene. Young writers can also propose an article on the links between their PhD research and the global health agenda, provide timely comments on a conference or other global health event they recently attended, … in other words, there are plenty of options for a possible contribution.

While the newsletter focuses on writers from the Global South, we also welcome contributions from people based in the North. If you wish to contribute, please contact Kristof Decoster (ITM) at ihpnetwork@itg.be. Also use the same email account if you want to suggest articles or other publications which you consider relevant for the weekly newsletter.

Disclaimer

The Editorial board reserves the right to feature articles and blogposts that appear on IHP on other blogs and platforms (in accordance with agreements with partner blogs). Credit will always be given on these sites to the original author and to the IHP website, where the post appeared first, and vice versa (i.e. posts that appeared first on other sites and are then cross-posted on IHP, will give due credit to the platform where they appeared first).