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Grant Opportunities from the Gates Foundation and its partners

Dear Colleagues:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its funding partners in the Grand Challenges family of grant programs are inviting innovators to apply for three new grant opportunities:
Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions, is now accepting grant proposals for its latest application round. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for profit companies.
Proposals are being accepted online until May 15, 2012 on the following topics:
New Approaches for the Interrogation of Anti-malarial Compounds – NEW
Aid is Working. Tell the World – NEW
Design New Approaches to Optimize Immunization Systems
Explore New Solutions in Global Health Priority Areas
Protect Crop Plants from Biotic Stresses From Field to Market
Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions are available at: www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.
Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development has launched its second call for innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in poor, hard-to-reach communities around the world. In this round, the Saving Lives at Birth partners will fund transformative approaches that cut across three main domains: (i) science & technology; (ii) service delivery; and (iii) demand-side innovation.
The deadline is April 2, 2012. Details on how to apply for a grant can be found at www.savinglivesatbirth.net.
Grand Challenges Canada is seeking proposals for Rising Stars in Global Health, a program looking for emerging innovators from developing countries with bold ideas with big impact to address real-world global health challenges.
The deadline is March 23, 2012. Details and application instructions are available at http://bit.ly/sFPYsT.
We are looking forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world and from all disciplines. If you have a great idea, please apply. If you know someone else who may have a great idea, please forward this message.
Thank you for your commitment to solving the world’s greatest health and development challenges.
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.

Expression of Interest on Policy Mapping and Analysis on Rural Retention Policy

The Asia Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH) has been initiated since 2005 and was
officially established in 2006 in response to international recognition of the need for global and regional action
to strengthen country capacity for health (HRH) planning and actions.

The 6th AAAH Annual Conference during November, 9th-11th, 2011 in Cebu, the Philippines, serving as
a regional platform for HRH knowledge sharing, brought a better understanding on HRH situation in 16 AAAH member countries.

Having discussed in the conference, a number of challenges in HRH development were raised into attention. In
2010, 7 out of 16 AAAH countries had a number of health workforces (HWF) below the World Health
Organization (WHO) benchmark of 2.28 per 1,000 populations, in addition to critical shortage, mal-distribution
between rural and urban area was still pronounced in most countries.

Though, most AAAH countries has established HRH strategic plans in increasing HRH in remote and rural areas,
there is a lack of thorough assessment whether the interventions or strategies on promoting rural retention work and identification of areas for policy or operational improvement are needed.

In the summary session of the 6th AAAH Annual Conference, realizing these problems, there is a need for investigating and generating better understanding on a number of common challenges in the region. The AAAH
member countries will report the progress and result of the research findings in the next AAAH Annual
Conference in Bangladesh, in December 2012.

Possible activities to be conducted under the call Activities conducted under this program are likely to focus on the country situation, which comprise;

1. Critically describe and provide a brief assessment of various existing policies on rural retention with reference, but not limited, to the sixteen WHO global recommendations on rural retention of health workers in
the country
2. Establish WHO and/or criterion to prioritize the rural retention policies and prioritize three most critical policies for further in-depth assessment In-depth assessment on the three priority policies
3. Provide a policy brief on rural retention policies as well as their evolution and future challenges

Eligibility to apply
Team of researchers who is eligible to apply this Expression of Interest (EOI) has to;

1. Work in the AAAH member countries
2. Have expertise in health policy and system research
3. Have ability in both qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis and writing up
Engage with or access to policy makers involved in the development or implementation of rural retention policies

Selection process
Application form and pre-proposal can be requested at secretariat@aaahrh.org. All applications must be
submitted to the AAAH secretariat via email by March 16th 2012, 12.00 pm (Bangkok time) in the header of the
email please put ?EOI: Rural Retention Policies (country name)?. The AAAH secretariat will notify all applicants
of receipt of their application.

Applications will be selected and reviewed by a group of technical experts approved by the AAAH steering committee.

Applicants will be notified as to whether or not they have been selected for participation in the proposal development workshop tentatively during 22-26 April 2012 in Bangkok.

Expression of Interest on Policy Analysis on Public and Private Role in Health Professional Production/ Employment

The Asia Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH) has been initiated since 2005 and was officially established in 2006 in response to international recognition of the need for global and regional action
to strengthen country capacity for health (HRH) planning and actions. The 6th AAAH Annual Conference during November, 9th-11th, 2011 in Cebu, the Philippines, serving as a regional platform for HRH knowledge sharing,
brought a better understanding on HRH situation in 16 AAAH member countries. Having discussed in the
conference, a number of challenges in HRH development were raised into attention.

In 2010, 7 out of 16 AAAH countries had a number of health workforces (HWF) below the World Health
Organization (WHO) benchmark of 2.28 per 1,000 populations, in addition to critical shortage, mal-distribution
between rural and urban area was still pronounced in most countries. Besides that, a substantial growth of private sector in term of HRH production and employment is in an increasing trend. The HRH situation in AAAH members, reported by the AAAH secretariat in the 6 th AAAH Annual Conference showed that doctors in Myanmar, India, Nepal and Bangladesh were more concentrated in private health facilities than public health
facilities, likewise, nurse also concentrated more in private health sector in Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and Bangladesh. In HRH production, there have been mushrooming of private health professional
schools in many countries e.g. of the total 34 medical schools in the Philippines, only 4 are public, and Nepal
had around 90% of new graduates from private medical/nursing schools in 2010 for which there is no
government bonding obligations for young graduates to serve rural and disadvantaged areas. To ensure these
graduates trained in public and private colleges serving the public interests and contributing to the health systems development, there is a need for better understanding of policy dynamics in both public and private health sectors.

In the summary session of the 6th AAAH Annual Conference, realizing these problems, there is a need for investigating and generating better understanding on a number of common challenges in the region. The AAAH
member countries will report the progress and result of the research findings in the next AAAH Annual
Conference in Bangladesh, in December 2012.
Possible activities to be conducted under the call Activities conducted under this program are likely to focus on the country situation, which comprise;
1. Mapping of public and private health education institutes, trends of production capacity, resources and
financing, teaching staffs where data allows;
2. Assessing and comparing various contextual environment in which public and private health professional
schools are operating where data allows; this includes
a. policy environment
b. economic environment of private health professional education services
c. labour market and demand for health personnel from domestic market, regional and international market which pose demand for doctors and nurses
d. regional trade agreements which facilitate international migration across borders
e. regulatory environment on approval of curriculum and training institutes and quality assurance obligation
public and private employment dynamics;

Eligibility to apply
Team of researchers who is eligible to apply this Expression of Interest (EOI) has to;
1. Work in the AAAH member countries
2. Have expertise in health policy and system research
3. Have ability in both qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis and writing up
4. Engage with or access to policy makers involved in the HRH and Health Systems Policies and Development

Selection process
Application form and pre-proposal can be requested at secretariat@aaahrh.org. All applications must be
submitted to the AAAH secretariat via email by 16th March 2012, 12.00 pm (Bangkok time) in the header of the
email please put ?EOI: Public and private role in HRH (country name)?. The AAAH secretariat will notify all applicants of receipt of their application. Applications will be selected and reviewed by a group of technical experts approved by the AAAH steering committee.
Applicants will be notified as to whether or not they have been selected for participation in the proposal development workshop tentatively during 22-26 April 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.
source: www.aaahrh.org