Jobs and Announcements

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) School of Public Health presents the 38th Short Course School in a series of Winter and Summer Schools held at UWC since 1992. These courses expose health and health-related workers to the latest thinking in Public Health and enable them to discuss and exchange ideas on improved planning and implementation of Primary Health Care in the changing environment of the developing world. To date, some 12,000 participants, mainly nurses and middle level managers have attended these courses, from all over South Africa and many other African countries. As many of these courses are also used as the teaching blocks of the UWC Master of Public Health degree, the highest academic and practical standards are maintained. Most courses are one week long to allow busy health workers to receive continuing education with minimal disruption of their services. Selection of subjects reflects the main public health priorities. This year UWC are offering courses covering a wide range of management, programme development and policy and planning issues. The cost of courses is kept to an absolute minimum, to allow for the fullest participation.

The Public Health Association of South Africa invites the local, regional and international public health community to Johannesburg, South Africa for their 13th annual conference. The theme of the 2017 conference is “A Global Charter for the Public’s Health”: Implications for Public Health Practice in South Africa. Last year, the conference considered public health practices in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. This year the conference will critically reflect on the WFPHA/WHO collaboration “A Global Charter for the Public’s Health” and its implications for public health in South Africa. The conference will examine the four enabling functions of the Charter, viz. governance, capacity, information and advocacy. There will be conversations on how these four enabling functions can be strengthened in South Africa and discussions on critical current issues like globalisation and decolonisation in relation to public health.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies is a unique programme offered by PLAAS at the University of the Western Cape. It is the only programme in the land and agrarian studies field at a South African university. Two PhD bursaries are available as part of the IDRC-funded project “Researching Obesogenic Food Environments”, which is led by Profs David Sanders and Rina Swart at the UWC School of Public Health in partnership with the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) and with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. PLAAS is an excellent platform for academic teaching and learning in land and agrarian reform, poverty and natural resources management. Established PLAAS researchers, involved in socially relevant and innovative research, are also course coordinators. The application of teaching and learning takes place through contact time with coordinators, self-learning through extensive reading and analysis, together with writing assignments. Applicants with extensive work experience (at least ten years) in land and agrarian issues, and with good writing abilities, without an undergraduate degree, may apply to be considered on the basis of recognition of prior learning (RPL).

The position is being offered in the context of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche's (ANR) co-funded project, “Self-Accomplishment and Local Moralities in East Africa” (SALMEA). The selected candidate will serve as a full member of the project and will be fully integrated into the team's activities. Possible research topics are therefore varied and may cover a wide range of issues related to violence, kinship (including family formation and identity), religion, and wealth (including land ownership) in Eastern Africa. The PhD candidate will be attached to IMAF (Institut des Mondes Africains) in Aix en Provence. Based in Paris and Aix en Provence, the institute brings together scholars with an interest in Africa who are affiliated with the CNRS, IRD, EHESS, EPHE, the University of Paris 1, and Aix Marseille University. The successful candidate will be allowed to write his/her doctoral dissertation either in French or English. He/she will be enrolled at the Aix Marseille University Doctoral School. The candidate must have obtained, or be close to obtaining, an MA or an equivalent degree in a relevant field (demography, history, geography, anthropology, political science etc.). The candidate is expected to demonstrate sufficient skills in both French and English so as to adapt quickly to the working and research environment in Aix and in East Africa. Selection will involve a two-stage process, starting with the consideration of submitted application, and followed by interviews with selected candidates on July 1st 2019.