Emerging Voices

The Institute of Tropical Medicine promotes ‘Health care for all’ in its mission statement. However, achieving universal health coverage is easier said than done. Although progress has been made, innovative perspectives are certainly welcome.

The global health scene is still largely dominated by Northern stakeholders. We want to encourage “Emerging Voices” from developing countries to participate actively in international academic conferences and to raise their voice in the scientific debate.

That's why we are organizing our essay competition. We want to give junior or 'emerging' voices from the South the opportunity to present new ideas on how to progress towards universal health coverage.

The authors from the best essays will be invited to Antwerp to participate in an intensive training workshop (2-10 November 2010) before presenting their work at the ITM colloquium.

They will also be encouraged to participate in the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (Montreux, Switzerland, 16–19 November, 2010).

A certain number of travel grants will be awarded for those who need it.

Take a look at the essay competition rules for more information on how to participate.

Senior researchers

Although emphasis is placed on emerging voices, the format of the conference will allow contributions from some other researchers, irrespective of age or country of origin, who wishes to support or challenge views presented by emerging voices.If you are interested, submit your abstract through the Colloquium secretariat. No grants will be allocated for this.

Universal health coverage

Access to the most appropriate health care and technology for all people at the lowest possible price. It's something every health scientist and specialist should strive for.

Many bottlenecks exist that prevent people from accessing health care services.

Universal health coverage usually involves three dimensions:

• The proportion of the people who have access to a service.
• The number and kinds of services offered.
• The household cost associated with these services.

Improving any of these brings us nearer to universal coverage:

• Introducing a new technology that would save time, money or lives.
• Implementing a health sector reform.
• Engaging communities to take care of their health capital.

References on universal health coverage

• Universal coverage, beyond the numbers - A concept note from ITM, compiled by Bart Criel & Werner Soors ; October 2009
• Advancing and sustaining universal coverage, WHO, World Health Report 2008, chapter 2
• The Global Malaria Action Plan, Roll Back Malaria
• Health care for all and People’s Health Movement
• Who Is At The Receiving End Of Our Innovation? Rafael van den Bergh Young Voices in Research for Health 2009.
• All for universal health coverage, Laurie Garrett PhD, A Mushtaque R Chowdhury PhD, Ariel Pablos-Méndez MD ; The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9697, Pages 1294 - 1299, 10 October 2009 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61503-8