From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Sun Aug 11 23:01:44 1996 Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 23:01:43 -0600 (MDT) From: Martha Gimenez To: ppn@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Getting together in New York Dear PPNers, I imagine some of you will be attending the ASA meetings in New York next week-end. I would like to take advantage of that opportunity to get together with you and discuss the future of PPN. Vilna Bashi and I will be meeting for breakfast at 8:30 AM, Sunday August 18th. We will meet by the ASA registration desk and will wait there for a while to see if anybody joins us. We will then go to have breakfast at the ASA cafe, that place the ASA usually provides near or inside the book exhibits. I am sure those of you who go regularly to the metings know what we mean. If you don't find us there by the desk, look for us in the cafe. I look forward to meeting you and would appreciate your input to work towards helping PPN become active again. In solidarity, Martha E. Gimenez PPN Founding Editor From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Mon Aug 12 14:47:05 1996 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 14:47:03 -0600 (MDT) From: Martha Gimenez To: ppn@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: meeting in NY Dear PPNers, several of you wrote to me privately stating they could not meet for breakfast. I realize I did not say in my message where I could be reached. I will be at the Hilton from the 16th through the 19th, so those who would like to meet me could call me or leave messages. Look forward to meeting you. Martha E. Gimenez PPN Founding Editor From rcincotta@usaid.gov Tue Aug 13 08:21:53 1996 Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 08:21:50 -0600 (MDT) To: From: "Richard Cincotta" Subject: Summary: EWC Summer Seminar on Population, 1996 X-Incognito-SN: 643 X-Incognito-Format: VERSION=2.01a ENCRYPTED=NO Forwarded to: Internet[ppn@csf.colorado.edu] cc: Comments by: Richard Cincotta@G.PHN.POP@AIDW -------------------------- [Original Message] ------------------------- SUBJECT: Summary of the 27th Summer Seminar on Population at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, May 29 - June 30, 1996 1. Fifty-five participants from 17 countries recently participated in the 27th Summer Seminar on Population at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Participants were selected from an extensive list of candidates. They represented positions of responsibility in governments, universities, population programs, and research institutions throughout Asia and the Pacific, as well as Africa and the United States. USAID support was vital for carrying out this activity. In addition to core support, various missions selected and sponsored individual participants. Complementing this USAID funding were substantial contributions for participant costs from UNFPA, WHO, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and national government agencies of the region. The four-week seminar consisted of four workshops: Workshop 1: Design and Measurement in Youth Sexuality Research; Workshop 2: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Policy Research in Population, Health, and Environment; Workshop 3: Communicating Population and Health Research to Policymakers; and Workshop 4: Health Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region. Highlights from each workshop follow: 2. Workshop 1: Youth Sexuality -- Due to the increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Asia Region and continued concern about adolescent pregnancies, the demand for reliable findings on the sexual behavior of young people has generally expanded much faster than the capacity to conduct the necessary research. Designed to help fill this critical research need, the youth sexuality workshop focused on the most challenging methodological problems related to sampling designs and measurement issues. Sixteen participants held lively debates on the uses of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, exploring the strengths and shortcomings of these approaches for the collection and analysis of field data. Advocates of various approaches came away with a new recognition of what other methodologies have to contribute. Participants reported on current research in India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Based on ideas from the workshop, other participants are designing new studies for Indonesia, Tanzania, and Vietnam. 3. Workshop 2: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) -- Until recently, GIS required expensive computer facilities and highly specialized expertise, but today, powerful software is available for use on personal computers, making GIS more accessible to researchers and policymakers alike. This workshop introduced 10 researchers to a variety of GIS applications with a focus on interdisciplinary research and policy-oriented studies. The workshop combined a systematic introduction to GIS concepts and tools, practical computer exercises, and individual application projects carried out by each participant. Participants learned how to use spatial data integration functions to merge data from different disciplines, to produce working maps tailored to address particular research questions, and to use spatial operations to analyze policy questions. 4. Workshop 3: Policy Communications -- In this era of expanding populations and limited budgets, survey and research data should play a key role in guiding policy decisions. In a fruitful new collaboration, the East-West Center and the Population Reference Bureau worked together to provide 14 researchers and policy specialists with state-of-the-art skills for bridging the gap between research and population and health policy. Moving beyond simple dissemination, the workshop emphasized long-term planning and communications strategies to ensure that research findings have policy and program impact. From research design to the sixty-second sound bite, the workshop explored all aspects of the research-to-policy process. Participants identified barriers to using research in policy development, determined the policy relevance of their own research projects, and developed a variety of skills to reach policy audiences. Facilitators and invited experts challenged participants by taking them through a series of policy case studies and simulated briefings. Other exercises included practicing media interviews, writing press releases and policy memoranda, developing oral presentations, and creating effective graphics to convey policy messages. 5. Workshop 4: Health Policy -- Cosponsored by the Department of Health- Taiwan and the East-West Center, this workshop addressed issues of efficiency and equity in the delivery and finance of health care in the Asia-Pacific Region. Participants spent two weeks in Honolulu, Hawaii, and two weeks in Taipei and Taichung, Taiwan. These venues were particularly appropriate as Hawaii is the only state in the USA with an employment- based, mandated health insurance program, in place since 1974, and Taiwan implemented a National Health Insurance Program in 1995, achieving 95 percent coverage with a universal employment-based system. Fourteen participants from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam studied Hawaii's and Taiwan's health care systems from primary care delivery, through tertiary care facilities and finally to the highest levels of health policy making and financing. The Workshop included a combination of theoretical lectures, site visits, and policy discussions. Topics included national health care expenditures, health insurance theory, the insurance problems of adverse selection and moral hazard, benefit-cost analysis, privatization policy, smoking policy, AIDS policy, control of communicable diseases, design of national health insurance and payment systems, maternal and child health programs, family planning programs, medical education and human resources, and immunization policy. Participants prepared and presented country reports addressing the priority health policy issues in their respective societies. 6. Just completing its 27th year, the Summer Seminar on Population is one of the East-West Center s most important professional development activities. The 1996 session marked the Center s first collaborative training effort with the Population Reference Bureau and the Department of Health-Taiwan. We wish to thank all contributing missions for providing participant support and for helping to make this Summer Seminar such a success. 7. Encouraged by the enthusiasm of this year s participants, we have begun planning the 28th annual Summer Seminar on Population, to be held in June 1997. Again, we will conduct four workshops. These will focus on (a) HIV/AIDS prevention and care in reproductive health settings in Asia and the Pacific, (b) Population census 2000, (c) Communicating population and health research to policymakers, and (d) National health insurance design. As in 1996, workshops will be conducted in collaboration with the Population Reference Bureau and the Department of Health-Taiwan, and there are plans for additional collaborations. We look forward to your continued support in helping us to maintain this important forum for training, exchanging information, and strengthening institutional partnerships throughout the Asia-Pacific region and the world. From rcincotta@usaid.gov Wed Aug 14 13:27:24 1996 Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 13:27:17 -0600 (MDT) To: , From: "Richard Cincotta" Subject: Tentative Titles/EWCPOP Summer Seminar 1997 X-Incognito-SN: 643 X-Incognito-Format: VERSION=2.01a ENCRYPTED=NO Forwarded to: Internet[POPENV-L@INFO.USAID.GOV] Internet[ppn@csf.colorado.edu] cc: Comments by: Richard Cincotta@G.PHN.POP@AIDW -------------------------- [Original Message] ------------------------- TENTATIVE TITLES: 1997 Summer Seminar on Population *** East-West Center Program on Population *** Summer Seminar on Population, 1997 (participants are developing country scholars and professionals) List includes workshop title and contact. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP 1: HIV/AIDS prevention and care in reproductive health settings in Asia and the Pacific: Tim Brown (tim@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu). WORKSHOP 2: Population census 2000: Griffith Feeney (gfeeney@hawaii.edu). WORKSHOP 3: Communicating population and health research to policymakers: Sidney B. Westley (westleys@ewc.hawaii.edu). WORKSHOP 4: National health insurance design: Gerard Russo (russo@hawaii.edu).