INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE (ICC)

The Information and Communications Committee produces the overall Communications Plan for the Section, which focuses on integrated communication through coordination with other parts of APHA and the organization’s leadership. The overall purpose of the committee is to leverage the work of various Section committees and its members and foster a broader base of support, understanding and recognition of global health issues, opportunities, challenges and accomplishments. Each Section committee is encouraged to appoint a representative to serve on the Communications Committee. The Section chair appoints the chair of the Information and Communications Committee.

The Web site and e-mail are the primary communications tools for the Section, to disseminate information relevant to the Section and about global health issues and actions. They will also alert members to postings of new material. The Web site contains the Section manual, the Leadership Team roster, news items, advocacy opportunities, APHA resolutions sponsored by or pertaining to our Section, and much more.

The ICC is also responsible for preparing the Section newsletters with input from the Section Leadership Team and the various Section committees and working groups, and sending it for publication on the APHA and IH Section Web sites. For further information on the newsletters, please see Part VI of the IH Section Manual.

Eckhard Kleinau, DrPH, MD, Chair, E-mail ekleinau@masimax.com

Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd, PhD, Co-chair, E-mail: ippolitj@cpc.paho.org

Members: Tom Hall, Ray Martin, Stacey Succop, Fran Tain, Morgan Taylor

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

The IH Membership Committee is responsible for active recruitment for our Section.  Committee members encourage IH Section members to recruit new members from their universities, organizations, and associations involved in international and global health.  The Committee also works with overall APHA Membership Committee to expand membership. 

In 2007, the Membership Committee has worked with APHA to contact each new IH Section member and to encourage him/her to become involved actively in the Section.  The Committee has also contacted each lapsed member to encourage him/her to not only rejoin APHA, but to become more actively involved in the IH Section when they rejoin.  To follow up on this outreach, the Chair has personally responded to new members and addressed their specific interests and provided contacts and resources to encourage their active involvement.  Committee members have visited George Washington and other universities to encourage students and faculty to join APHA and become involved in the IH Section. 

Working with the Global Health Fellows Program, current Fellows have been contacted to encourage them to join the IH Section. The Membership Committee has met with the Global Health Council to support effort to develop groups of interested international professionals to address international health policy, advocacy and programmatic issues in cities around the United States.  The Membership Committee plans to help staff the IH booth at the APHA Annual Meeting in November. 

--Rose Schneider, RN, MPH, E-mail: RoseSDC@aol.com   

ADVOCACY COMMITTEE

The Advocacy Committee established five priorities for action during 2006-2007:

• Ensure that U.S. international aid policy is aimed at advancing a humanitarian agenda as its top priority.
• Build a health workforce capacity in low-income countries. 
• Advance international Maternal Child Health.
• Promote universal health care coverage.
• Promote aid harmonization by supporting the three ones (one plan, one coordinating body, one monitoring and evaluation system).

With regard to promoting the humanitarian agenda, we worked on advocating for substantial increases in the PEPFAR reauthorization budget, petitioned the G8 nations meeting to keep their promises to advance health to impoverished people, advocated for the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor in Libya who were imprisoned (and eventually released), and joined Health GAP in responding to the World Bank’s 10-year strategy on health.  Further, we played a role in opposing the USAID proposed “Partner Vetting System” that would have collected a massive set of personal information on all USAID contractors, at home and abroad. Michele Forzley attended a hearing on behalf of the IH Section on this matter. The vetting system is now on hold, with a pilot program moving forward only in the West Bank/Gaza area.

To promote workforce strengthening, we worked with Physicians for Human Rights to promote the Africa Health Capacity Investment Act. The “Durbin Bill,” as it has become known (S. 805 sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin), passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Sept. 11.  Two IH Section members (Wendy Johnson and Amy Hagopian) lobbied a member of Congress who serves on the House Foreign Affairs committee, who then become a primary sponsor of this bill in the House.

To promote maternal and child health abroad, our Section’s chair-elect, Miriam Labbok, worked with the MCH and Food and Nutrition Sections on developing a resolution for APHA consideration at the upcoming meeting, “A Call to Action on Breastfeeding: a Fundamental Public Health Issue.”  You can find it on the 2007 proposed policies page of the APHA Web site, item C-3.

Universal coverage is a major APHA priority, and we applauded APHA Executive Director Georges Benjamin in his statement to the press on August 28 reflecting on new U.S. Census Bureau data that 47 million Americans are now uninsured.  We further supported efforts to pass an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. 

On promoting aid harmonization and the Three Ones, the Section is sponsoring a scientific session, “Accountability and Aid Effectiveness: What has Happened to the Spirit of the Paris Declaration?” Dr. Elvira Beracochea is organizing and moderating that session.

--Amy Hagopian, PhD, E-mail: hagopian@u.washington.edu

GLOBAL HEALTH APHA CONNECTIONS COMMITTEE

Charge - Responsible for strengthening relations, partnership, and coordination with APHA Sections and Committees in the field of global/international health, namely, MCH, Population Family Planning and Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, International Human Rights Committee, and Trade and Health Forum, and organizing communication and choosing liaison members with other Sections.

Goal - Assist the International Health Section in forming the APHA Global Health Consortium*.

Work Plan for 2006-2007:

• Invite and establish liaisons from IH Section to other Sections of APHA.
• Invite and establish liaisons form other Sections of APHA to the IH Section.
• Facilitate communication between all members of the Committee through regular conference calls and e-mails.
• Develop action items to facilitate formation of APHA Global Health Consortium, and implement and evaluate them.
• Hold networking opportunities through business meetings twice a year (at GHC and APHA) and a social hour annually (at APHA).

Actions taken

• Connected with chairs and co-chairs of APHA Sections, SPIGs and Caucuses to nominate their members to serve as liaisons to the IH Section.
• Coordinated with members of IH Section to serve as liaisons with other Sections of APHA, SPIGs and Caucuses.
• Developed a list of chairs of APHA Sections, SPIGs and Caucuses and shared with all members of the GH APHA Connections Committee to facilitate communication.
• Held monthly conference calls. Shared information, elicited ideas and feedback, developed action items with enthusiastic participation by members! 
• Conference call summaries shared with members of GH APHA Connections Committee and IH Section leadership.
• Presented a report on the Committee’s work to the IH Section at the Mid-year Meeting of the IH Section at the Global Health Council Annual Meeting on June 1, 2007.

Upcoming Events (All are invited to both events!)

Global Health APHA Connections Committee Business Meeting

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007

11:00 a.m. – Noon

Room 157, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

Global Health APHA Connections Committee Social Hour

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Room 156, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

*APHA Global Health Consortium

International Health, a specialized Section of APHA, invites members who belong to other APHA Sections and are interested in international and global health to come together and work toward common goals. The proposed Global Health Consortium (GHC) is different from a secondary section or a forum. While a secondary section is chosen by individual members based on their interest, a forum is 75 or more members coming together based on their interest in one specific topic.  In contrast, the proposed GHC is a collection of Sections that have substantial interest in global health. 

The purpose of the GHC is to harness the experience and expertise of members belonging to different sections to focus on global health issues and effectively address them. This inter-sectoral group, when formed, will allow for APHA sections to present a united front in addressing policy, fiscal, political, and programmatic issues that have an impact on international and global health.

--Gopal Sankaran, MD, DrPH, Co-Chair, E-mail: gsankaran@wcupa.edu

--Michele Forzley, Co-Chair, E-mail: mforzley@comcast.net

STUDENT ASSEMBLY OPPORTUNITIES COMMITTEE
The Student Assembly Opportunities Committee has been working to revamp the Student Assembly Alumni Database. These database is meant to not only allow the Student Assembly to keep track of their past members, but to also provides current and potential students access to possible careers in the public health field. To increase participation of Student Assembly alumni and to ensure the success of the Alumni Database it is vital for alumni to complete an informational form online. For further information contact Jennifer Cremeens, MSPH at E-mail: jlcremeens@bama.ua.edu
-- Jennifer Cremeens, MSPH