March 15, 2013: The High Level Dialogue on Health in the Post 2015 Development Agenda was hosted by the governments of Botswana and Sweden in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF on March 4-6 in Gabarone, Botswana. The convening culminated the six month long global thematic consultation on health in the post-2015 development agenda. Our president, Sania Nishtar was one of the 47 delegates invited to the High Level Dialogue on Health. Her views on the subject can be viewed here on the Heartfile blog. Post 2015...
February 27, 2013: The World Health Organization hosted a meeting of the Informal Consultation Group (ICG) of Experts on NCD on February 11-12 in the WHO Headquarter in Geneva. The meeting was held to review progress made in global initiatives for NCD prevention and control, to solicit inputs on WHO’s draft global action plan for NCD prevention and control 2013-20, and to discuss the possibilities and opportunities of NCD integration into the post-2015 UN development agenda. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar participated the meeting as a member of the ICG group of...
February 26, 2013: On February 25th, Heartfile Health Financing and Janum Network signed a Memorandum of Understanding on improving financial access to healthcare for patients suffering from obstetric fistula. Several commitments have been agreed upon by the two NGOs; the MoU can be accessed...
February 19, 2013: World’s renowned experts, eminent scientists and academics have contributed towards the latest series of the Lancet, Series 4 on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), launched on February 11, 2013. The Series builds on the High Level Meeting on NCDs convened by the United Nations in 2011 and on its previous series in 2010, 2007 and 2005. The Series, coordinated by Robert Beaglehole, aims to bring more evidence in the public domain, as the post-2015 agenda planning is underway. It also proposes cost-effective interventions to accelerate progress to avert millions of deaths, worldwide, by 2025. In this Series, our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar co-authored a viewpoint, ‘Improving responsiveness of health systems to non-communicable diseases with Prof. Rifat Atun of Imperial College, London as the lead author. This paper focuses on developing health systems in response to non-communicable diseases in the midst of challenges incurred by...
February 15, 2013: While the public support for polio eradication has intensified, so have the challenges in this effort. Our latest piece,'Pakistan’s Polio Tipping Point' on February 14, 2013 in response has appeared as ‘visionary voices’ in the world premier Project...
February 7, 2013: We are pleased to announce the launch of Heartfile's eForum, (#HeartfileBlog) with commentaries, resources and updates on Pakistan-relevant health and population issues. In addition to being a discussion portal and serving as an archive, this forum will also serve as a sounding board for issues to be identified, which Heartfile subsequently plans to frame for deeper discussion through Webinars and its policy analysis stream of work. The eForum is a re-launch of the Pakistan Health Policy Forum, which was created in 2000 and is now being recalibrated to exploit the benefits of online connectivity and social media. The eForum Moderator, Mariam Malik can be contacted for further details in this...
January 29, 2013: Our President Sania Nishtar attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 in Davos from January 22 to 26. Amongst other things, she was a panellist in the session "Religion and Politics" and spoke about the impact of religion on development. She was also the official Rapporteur for the session on “the Future of Health”. Official rapporteurs was a new role introduced by WEF at their annual meeting this year to capture select sessions, building upon high-level topic expertise of the rapporteur. Her insights on the session and conversation with the session moderator webcast by WEF can be viewed here. Additionally, she was a discussion leader on another event at the Forum which focused on human...
January 18, 2013: The Emerging Markets Symposium this year was themed Gender Inequality in Emerging Markets, held on January 11-13, 2013 at the Egrove Park, Oxford UK. It was hosted by Green Templeton College. Each year, the Symposium brings together authoritative and influential leaders in public and private sectors from all around the world. This intensive three-day meeting concluded with actionable recommendations. With 49 participants, a number of sessions were held, one of which was on Women’s Leadership, chaired by Madeline Kunin. Speakers at this session included Baroness Goudie, Serra Kirdar Meliti, Mona Lena Krook and our president, Dr. Sania...
January 3, 2013: With the recent wave of healthworker assassinations in Pakistan, the polio eradication drive continues to face challenges, and risks the 2012 gains. Our viewpoint, also trending on Twitter has simultaneously been published in the impact section of the Huffington Post and The News International. Your Comments on the viewpoint are welcome through the Heartfile...
December 31, 2012: The Lancet and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington co-hosted the launch of the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 on December 14, 2012. The meeting featured a series of panel discussions on the subject. The fourth session of the launch, centered around comparative risk assessments was chaired by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar. Panelists included Prof. Srinath Reddy, Sir Richard Peto, Prof. David Leon, Stephen Lim and Majid Ezzati. The podcast of the full meeting can be viewed here and for highlights of the session, you can visit the Heartfile...
December 17, 2012: As Pakistani Drug Regulatory arrangements continue to face challenges, we publish our views on the issue and warn of a failure if systemic impediments are not appropriately addressed. Our viewpoint has simultaneously been published in the Huffington Post on December 10, 2012 and in The News International on December 05, 2012. Comments on the viewpoint are welcome through the Heartfile...
November 27, 2012: The British-Pakistan Foundation held a Roadshow on November 16th, 2012, to raise awareness within the UK Pakistani Diaspora about the ‘third sector’ activity in Pakistan in terms of civil society contribution towards the development agenda in Pakistan and to present successful health sector examples to the diasporas. Asif Rangoonwala, Chairman BPF made the opening remarks for the panel, which was moderated by Suniya Qureshi, BPF Executive Director. The panel included Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan, Representative RSPN; Saquib Hameed, Executive Director LRBT; Moazzam Malik, Director West Asia DFID; Dr. Mohammed Iqbal, Representative APPSUK, Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Representative Medic Liverpool FC and our president Sania Nishtar, who showcased the work of...
