Paris

9 July 2015

UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board calls for advisor, not observer seat for science at leaders’ policy-making table; recommends science test for pending policy decisions

Investing up to 3.5% of a nation’s GDP in science, technology and innovation – including basic science and education – is a key benchmark for advancing sustainable development effectively, leading experts say.

In papers released July 9 in New York, international scientists advising UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon say closing the gap between developed and developing countries depends on first closing international science, technology and innovation (STI) investment gaps.

According to the UN SG’s 26-member Scientific Advisory Board: “While a target of 1% of (Gross Domestic Product) for (research and development) is perceived high by many governments, countries with strong and effective STI systems invest up to 3.5% of their GPD in R&D.”

“If countries wish to break the poverty cycle and achieve (post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals), they will have to set up ambitious national minimum target investments for STI, including special allotments for the promotion of basic science and science education and literacy.”

The Board also recommends specific investment areas, including “novel alternative energy solutions, water filters that remove pathogens at the point-of-use, new robust building materials from locally available materials, nanotechnology for health and agriculture, and biological approaches to industrial production, environmental remediation and management.”

Instituted by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on behalf of the Secretary-General, the Board is comprised of experts from a range of scientific disciplines relevant to sustainable development, including its social and ethical dimensions.

The Board contributes to a process concluding this fall to replace the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, agreed by nations in 2000 for achievement in 2015, with a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through which progress in improving quality of life around the world will be tracked through 2030.

Among other highlights of the papers presented at UN Headquarters:

The Board recommends a dedicated seat for science at an influential new world leaders’ forum created to promote and monitor sustainable development – the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development – saying science needs to be engaged “formally in the HLPF as an advisor rather than an observer.”

“This could be accomplished by creating a formal seat for science on the HLPF, and/or by involving the UNSG’s Scientific Advisory Board and organizations such as the National Academies of Sciences, UNESCO, ICSU, Future Earth, regional scientific bodies, and others.”

The High-level Political Forum meets every four years at the level of Heads of State and Government under the auspices of the General Assembly, and annually under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council. The Forum adopts negotiated declarations.

The Board also suggests engaging scientific bodies in reviews of pending policy decisions against scientific evidence.

“The UN Scientific Advisory Board, ICSU (the International Council for Science), National Academies of Science, and other bodies and networks, in collaboration with UNESCO and the UN system, would run a rigorous process of scientific review and assessment identifying possible risks and opportunities related to key political decisions.”

In addition, the Board calls for an annual Global Sustainable Development Report – a flagship UN publication like the Human Development Report – that monitors progress, identifies critical issues and root causes of challenges, and offers potential ways forward.

The report would synthesize and integrate findings from a wide range of scientific fields and institutions, developed with strong inter-agency support involving a suggested consortium of UN agencies working on sustainable development.

Needed to support long-term thinking: A better educated, informed world

Creating and engaging a better informed and educated public, it adds, would help establish policies that serve humanity’s long-term wellbeing over decisions that favour short-term economic and political interests.

The success of STI “will depend on the efficiency of the science-policy-society interface,” involving stakeholders from governments, civil society, indigenous peoples and local communities, industry and business, academia and research organizations.

“Such an active cooperation of multiple stakeholders will need more than the occasional by-chance interaction of different groups of society. It will require institutionalized architecture that brings together all affected actors to ensure linking scientific information and data as well as findings, scientific assessments and evidence-based advice with both policy and society.”

“Broader societal understanding and support of key scientific findings would make it more likely for science-based actions and evidence-based solutions to also be supported and promoted by decision-makers at all levels.”

The Board underlines that science, technology and innovation can be “the game changer” for the future development efforts.

“It can contribute to alleviating poverty, creating jobs, reducing inequalities, increasing income and enhancing health and well-being. It can assist in solving critical problems such as access to energy, food and water security, climate change and biodiversity loss.”

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The papers in full:

• Science, Technology and Innovation: Critical Means of Implementation for the SDGs
  http://bit.ly/1HfvAz6

and

• Strengthening the High-Level Political Forum and the UN Global Sustainable Development Report
  http://bit.ly/1eFxuPG

Scientific Advisory Board of the United Nations Secretary-General

The Scientific Advisory Board was created in 2013 at the request of the UN Secretary-General to further inform the debate on sustainable development. The Board is composed of 26 eminent scientists representing all regions and many scientific disciplines relevant for sustainable development: the engineering, political and natural sciences are represented as well as for example oceanic, climate and biodiversity research. In addition, all members of the SAB have extensive and manifold experience with international scientific cooperation as well as the science-policy-society interface.

Board members are appointed in their personal capacity, and not as representatives of their respective States or of any other entities with which they may be affiliated. They will serve on a pro bono basis for a period of two years, with the possibility of renewal for one subsequent two-year term at the discretion of the UN Secretary-General.

Members of the Board

The SAB held its 3rd meeting in Malaysia on 25-26 May, co-chaired by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The meeting was hosted by the Malaysian Government and the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT).

Example coverage:

Reuters / Thomson Reuters, UK “Investing in science can be ‘the game changer’ for development: experts,” click here
InterPress News Service, Italy, “Science and Technology a Game Changer for Post-2015 Development Agenda,” click here, German, click here
SciDev.net, UK, “Developing nations urged to spend big on science,” click here
Bernama, Malaysia, “UN Secretary-General Thanks PM Najib For Successful UN-SAB Meeting In May,” click here

Coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

25 May 2015

Innovative ‘flocked swab’ improves diagnosis, treatment of deadly childhood diarrheal diseases; results could prompt rethink of how to manage second leading cause of death among children under 5

With Canadian government funding, medical scientists have created and demonstrated a new tool that could dramatically lower the tragic annual toll of 760,000 infants and children killed, and millions more stunted, due to severe diarrhea.

Using an inexpensive innovation in specimen collection, the Canadian-led team diagnosed previously unrecognized pathogens that had caused the severe diarrhea of over one-third of children in a group of southern Africa hospitals.

With a grant from federally-funded Grand Challenges Canada, McMaster University researchers designed and tested in Botswana a specially-designed “flocked swab” for collecting samples from children admitted to hospitals with severe diarrheal disease — the second-leading cause of death of children under five in developing countries.

The flocked rectal swab eliminates the wait and biohazard involved in obtaining and transporting a bulk stool (feces) sample from an infant or child. This efficiency enabled implementation of a randomized clinical trial evaluating same-day diagnosis and treatment for a broad number of pathogens — the first study of its kind anywhere.

Published by the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, the study documented that over one-third of 671 babies hospitalized with severe diarrhea – including 17 of 26 (65%) who ultimately died – were infected with a treatable pathogen, infections that had gone unrecognized at the hospital and therefore generally went untreated.

Because so many of these severely ill children had treatable conditions, the researchers clinically tested whether same-day rapid diagnosis followed by timely, appropriate therapy would lead to improved outcomes.

Children randomly chosen for rapid testing using the flocked swab and appropriate treatment were 55% less likely to have diarrhoea recur, compared with children not chosen, and they had a clinically significant height gain after 60 days. This measure of growth is an important indicator of children’s ability to reach their full developmental potential.

Led by David Goldfarb, MD (formerly of McMaster University, now at the University of British Columbia), along with Jeff Pernica, MD (McMaster) and collaborators Isaac Quaye, PhD (University of Namibia) and Margaret Mokomane (University of Botswana), the researchers witnessed dramatic health changes as a result of the rapid test-and-treat strategy.

And the ‘treatment gap’ revealed in their Botswana research uncovers a major opportunity to make a big long-term impact in child health worldwide, they say.

“The simple fact is: Diagnostics save lives,” says Dr. Peter A. Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada. “If health workers can quickly and accurately pinpoint the cause of a child’s illness, timely help can be administered, preventing many deaths and improving many lives.”

“The flocked swab offers a shining example of the sort of ‘Bold Idea with Big Impact’ in global health to which Grand Challenges Canada has been devoted since 2010. These are early days and results from an innovation are fully seen only in the long term but we believe the global health potential of this innovation could be very large over time.”

* 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal disease worldwide each year; 760,000 child deaths *

According to the WHO, nearly 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal disease occur worldwide every year, illnesses that kill about 760,000 children under five years old. Other profound health consequences for children include physical and cognitive stunting and severe malnutrition.

Says Dr. Pernica: “For many of the leading causes of severe diarrhea in children, there are effective low-cost treatments available. The issue, however, is that up until recently it was not possible to determine the specific pathogen causing illness in a timely manner.”

“For this reason, the standard of care for child diarrhea across the developing world has been to ignore what might be the specific pathogen and only provide antibiotics if blood is present in the stool. This may well be contributing to the high mortality observed in African children with severe diarrhea; in Botswana, 4% of such children died in hospital, and in other sub-Saharan countries, the death rate is over 7%. Furthermore, most of those who survive will experience some degree of growth faltering and the possibility of cognitive developmental delay.”

Phase two of the work in Africa involves quantifying more precisely the difference this diagnostic breakthrough achieves.

Says Dr. Goldfarb: “Further demonstrating significant improvements in outcomes would necessitate an entire rethinking of how this very common condition is managed around the world.”

* Data inspires Botswana to fast-track Rotavirus vaccination programme *

Thanks to the group’s research, valuable information acquired at a national level about the specific germs causing child diarrheal disease facilitated Botswana’s fast-tracking an immunization programme and the development of rapid antibiotic treatment protocols.

Botswana’s anti-Rotavirus programme, addressing the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children, has vaccinated over 100,000 children and is credited with an overall 55% decrease in the mortality rate among infants at four hospitals during the first Rotavirus season after the vaccine roll-out.

Further analysis two years after the vaccine introduction shows a 32% decrease in all-cause infant diarrhea mortality, and a 26% decrease in all-cause infant diarrhea hospitalizations.

* Simple new device helps save kids *

Resembling an oversized Q-tip® but with a furry 3.2-cm (1.25-inch) tip of nylon fibers attached perpendicularly to the end of a plastic stem, the flocked swab designed in Canada for this new diagnostic purpose and manufactured by Copan Italia, began with a proof-of-concept grant in 2011 from Grand Challenges Canada. (Download photo at http://bit.ly/1KcKAB5; credit: David Goldfarb, Jeff Pernica; video (2011): http://bit.ly/1Ag6KPn)

Unlike cotton swabs common in many homes, the flocked swab is like a soft brush with no absorbent core so the entire biological sample stays close to the surface, facilitating diagnostic tests. (Download photo at: http://bit.ly/1bWwIMt, credit: Copan Italia)

Produced at scale, a swab costs as little as 25 cents.

In a study, published in November in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, the innovators showed that a specimen obtained using the specially-designed flocked swab was 16% more likely than matched stool samples to reveal two leading, treatable bacterial pathogens causing diarrhea – Shigella and Campylobacter.

The flocked swab, the researchers add, will benefit health care systems worldwide but especially in low-resource settings where incorrectly and ineffectively treated diarrheal disease wastes precious medical resources.

The device will be used in Canada for the first time in the Gastroenteritis Surveillance Project in Nunavut, where acute gastrointestinal infections are at least two to four times higher than other Canadian regions.

Says Dr. Pernica: “Stool collection and transport generally would be unfeasible in such a setting. Flocked swabs, therefore, will be crucial to enabling this surveillance. Enrolment has begun in five communities and is planned for seven remote communities in all across the territory.”

* Celebration: Grand Challenges Canada turns five *

The Flocked Swab is one of 20 innovations being showcased at a Grand Challenges Canada 5th anniversary event: “Celebrating Legacy, Celebrating Partnerships & Results, Celebrating the Future,” (Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Thursday 28 May, 6 – 9 pm).

The May 28 event will feature presentations by innovators in mental health, early childhood development, maternal, newborn and child health and many other areas.

GCC is funded by the Canadian government, which has designated maternal newborn and child health as the nation’s top international development priority.

Says Dr. Singer: “Thanks to the Government of Canada’s support, we have grown to an organization that has supported this and roughly 700 other innovations in 70 countries, all helping to reinforce Canada’s leadership in the area of global health.”

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For more information, visit grandchallenges.ca and look for us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About Grand Challenges Canada

Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting Bold Ideas with Big Impact® in global health. We are funded by the Government of Canada and we support innovators in low- and middle-income countries and Canada. The bold ideas we support integrate science and technology, social and business innovation to find sustainable solutions to health challenges – we call this Integrated Innovation®. Grand Challenges Canada focuses on innovator-defined challenges through its Stars in Global Health program and on targeted challenges in its Saving Lives at Birth, Saving Brains and Global Mental Health programs. Grand Challenges Canada works closely with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) to catalyze scale, sustainability and impact. We have a determined focus on results, and on saving and improving lives.

http://www.grandchallenges.ca

Example coverage by:

Toronto Star, New swab could curb deadly diarrhea problem, click here

United Press International, USA,  New swab reveals treatable infection in one third of babies, click here

Agencia EFE, Spain, Bastoncillo médico reducirá mortalidad infantil por diarrea, click here

Hamilton Spectator, Canada  Mac researchers develop diarrhea diagnostic technique; Taking samples with ‘flocked swab’ could save kids’ lives, click here

EuropaPress newswire, Spain, Un tercio de bebés con diarrea severa tiene una infección tratable sin diagnosticar, click here

Africa Science News Service, Kenya, New medical tool to save infants, children, click here

Xinhua, China, Diagnostic tool unveiled to boost war against cholera in Africa, click here

BBC World Service to Africa

South Africa Broadcasting Corp., Channel Africa

Coverage summary in full, click here

News release in full: click here

19-Dec-2014

Canada Funds 23 Bold New Ideas for Global Health

Ultra high-speed gaming laptops and a sensor that lets computer gamers battle foes in the virtual world proved early stepping stones on the path to a quick, inexpensive way to create fittings for artificial legs needed by child amputees in the developing world.

And, with a new grant from Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, scientists will field test their innovation at a children’s hospital in Uganda early next year.

The $112,000 CAD grant to Christian Blind Mission (cbm Canada) of Stouffville, near Toronto, Ontario, is one of 23 announced today under the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Global Health program, which supports unique, transformative ideas for addressing health challenges in developing regions.

In all, almost $2.6 million CAD in funding will support projects based in 10 countries and implemented in 17 countries. Each of the innovators will receive a grant of $112,000 CAD to develop their innovations. If their ideas prove effective, the innovators will be eligible for additional Grand Challenges Canada scale-up funding of $1 million CAD.

Building on extensive research and development led by Dr. Matt Ratto at the University of Toronto, the cbm Canada project uses a 3D printer to make a precision-fitted plastic socket to connect a child’s residual limb and a standard artificial leg provided by aid agencies.

Step one requires a precise digital image of a child’s limb: early efforts involved a $200 Xbox scanner accessory used in computer gaming, which follows a player’s physical movements to put him or her in the action. Now, a next-generation “Sense” scanner, rotated in an arc around the leg stump for 45 seconds, is used that, in tandem with inexpensive Skanect software, recreates the residual limb virtually.

The next breakthrough was enabled when Dr. Ryan Schmidt of Autodesk Research enhanced a software program he created (while he was a University of Toronto student) called Meshmixer. His adaptation enabled project leaders to create the socket virtually and quickly, using the powerful graphics card in a high-end portable gaming laptop. A 3D printer then produces the custom-fitted socket using about $3 of cornstarch-based PLA plastic.

Since the entire process requires under six hours, the prosthetic sockets can be replaced easily and cheaply as a child amputee quickly grows. By comparison, producing a socket in Uganda today currently involves five to six labour-intensive days and the use of plaster of Paris molds dried in the sun, often resulting in ill-fitting sockets, the discomfort of which discourages their use.

Under the management of Mitch Wilkie, Director of International Programs, and Emily Kere, Senior International Programs Officer, both at cbm Canada, the project team will experiment with both plastic materials and techniques for 3D printing the wall of the socket to provide the greatest strength and durability with the least weight and material.

They will also evaluate the potential use of Canadian custom-made 3D printers that may be better purposed for this application in the developing world. Most importantly, the team will incorporate good development principles by ensuring disability inclusion, gender equity and environmental sustainability within the project’s scope.

$200 hand prostheses for amputees in Guatemala

Meanwhile, another $112,000 CAD grant to the University of Victoria in British Columbia will also exploit the potential of 3D printing, producing fully functional artificial hand prostheses for amputees in Guatemala for just $200 each, including material and fabrication costs.

The project is based on a prosthesis design developed 15 years ago by innovator Nikolai Dechev, which recently became financially viable with the advent of high-quality, inexpensive 3D printers.

Presently, state-of-the-art, functional artificial hands cost $12,000 (for basic models) to $70,000 (for the most technically advanced models). In this work, body-powered (cable-driven) prostheses of similar functionality can now be 3D printed in plastic in 20 hours.

Tests will be conducted next summer at a clinic in Guatemala with a small number of existing artificial hand users before being expanded by the end of 2015 to a larger group of amputees inexperienced with the appliance.

“I thank the Government of Canada for its commitment to innovation and development in global health,” said Dr. Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. “With this support, Grand Challenges Canada is able to identify and nurture bold ideas from talented innovators, making the developing world a healthier and safer place.”

The full list of grantees includes:

• University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada: Selenium Fortified Table Salt to Treat Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh (http://bit.ly/1ukQOlm)
• University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada: Modular Biomaterial Technology for Water Security and Health in Developing Nations (http://bit.ly/1yPUHFh)
• Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada: Adaptive Design International: constructing a global social network for creating low-cost custom adaptations for children with disabilities (http://bit.ly/1wy0JLK)
• University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada: Delivering Clean Potable Water Using Smart Nano Materials Derived from Sustainable Resources (http://bit.ly/12tM46L)
• University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada: 3D Printing and Deployment of Upper-Limb Prostheses in Developing Countries (http://bit.ly/12tM46K)
• University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada: A safe, affordable and re-usable women’s personal hygiene kit that empowers women to be the decision-makers regarding menstrual hygiene management, reproduction and the prevention of HIV in low-resource settings (Kenya) (http://bit.ly/1yPUK3V)
• The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada: Community REcovery Achieved Through Entrepreneurism (CREATE): A new paradigm for recovery from serious mental illness in low-resource settings (Kenya) (http://bit.ly/1vOPZH5)
• PathCore Inc., Toronto, Canada: Training and Diagnostic Tools for Reducing the Cancer Burden in Nigeria (http://bit.ly/12tM6LH)
• Christian Blind Mission International, Toronto, Canada: 3D PrintAbility: Leveraging 3D Printing Technology for Prosthetics Production in Developing Countries (Uganda) (http://bit.ly/1wy0LDu)
• ChipCare Corporation, Canada: Combining a unique diagnostic platform for decentralized blood testing with a two-way communications network for data capture, and the training and supervision of community-level health workers (Kenya) (http://bit.ly/1ukQLGk)
• International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh:Evaluation of electronic nose as the point of care test for tuberculosis diagnosis among slum dwellers of Dhaka City, Bangladesh (http://bit.ly/1vOQ25R)
• Vía Cocina – Food Train, Colombia: Behaviour change solutions to non-communicable disease challenges: empowering low-income Colombians to commercialize and consume healthy products via social enterprise micro franchising (http://bit.ly/1yPUHFg)
• Egerton University, Kenya: Mycotoxins Under Arrest: Healthy Synergy of Drying and Storage Devices (http://bit.ly/1yPUK3W)
• Impact Capital Advisors Limited, Kenya: Building a scalable franchise of affordable, safe and stimulating daycares serving vulnerable pre-school children and mothers in Nairobi’s slums (http://bit.ly/1yPUK3X)
• Moi University, Kenya: Development of a Community-Embedded Family Therapy Intervention in Kenya: A faith- and village-based approach (http://bit.ly/1ukQLGl)
• Edon Consultants International Limited, Kenya: Happy Smiles-Healthy Bones: tackling bone deformation due to high-fluoride water (http://bit.ly/1wy0LDt)
• Dignitas International, Malawi: Disrupting Vertical Health Systems: Moving to integrated care for HIV and non-communicable diseases (http://bit.ly/1ukQOlp)
• Eco Med LLC, Mongolia: Immunotherapy of atherosclerosis (http://bit.ly/1vOPZH7)
• African Centre for Innovation and Leadership Development, Nigeria: E-vouchers for veggies: reducing nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through video games and storytelling to promote behaviour change (http://bit.ly/1wy0JLL)
• The University of Agriculture, Pakistan: Rhizosphere engineering through biostimulation of Quorum quenching bacteria for controlling bacterial diseases in vegetables (http://bit.ly/1vOPZH6)
• The Education Enrichment Foundation, Pakistan: Mobile Payment-Enabled Health Insurance (http://bit.ly/1yPUK3T)
• Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania: Fighting insect-borne diseases and enriching urban agricultural land by using molasses: a common by-product from sugar factories (http://bit.ly/1ukQOln)
• National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand: Ultrathin, Light-Weight and Disposable Nanofibrous Filters for Tuberculosis Prevention (http://bit.ly/1wy0Jvx).

For more information, visit grandchallenges.ca and look for us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About Grand Challenges Canada
Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting Bold Ideas with Big Impact® in global health. We are funded by the Government of Canada; we support innovators in low- and middle-income countries and Canada. The bold ideas we support integrate science and technology, social and business innovation to find sustainable solutions to health challenges — we call this Integrated Innovation^®. Grand Challenges Canada focuses on innovator-defined challenges through its Stars in Global Health program and on targeted challenges through its Saving Lives at Birth, Saving Brains and Global Mental Health programs. Grand Challenges Canada works closely with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) to catalyze scale, sustainability and impact. We have a determined focus on results, and on saving and improving lives.
www.grandchallenges.ca

News release in full, click here

Example coverage by

Global News,Canada, click here

The Province, Vancouver, click here

Daily Mail Online, India edition, United Kingdom, click here

The Hindu, India, click here

The Standard, Kenya, click here

Agencia EFE, Spain, via Yahoo!, click here

Entorno Inteligente, Venezuela, click here

模具联盟网, China, click here

Coverage summary, click here

20-Jun-2014

Calling global mental health problems “acute and urgent,” 37 leading medical authorities from 11 countries have published a joint declaration calling for basic mental health care in Africa.

The experts also call for global mental health objectives to be included among the United Nations’ post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, for a special UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on Mental Health by 2017, and for efforts to end the stigma and human rights violations inflicted on mental health patients.

Published in the journal Global Health Action, the declaration was authored by 13 experts and others from eight countries including South Africa, Togo, Kenya, Mozambique, India, Sweden and Canada.

Adding their names to the declaration: 24 more authorities, from Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt, Sweden and South Africa, site of a February meeting focussed on the mental health situation in Africa.

While action is needed worldwide, the experts say, nowhere is that need greater than in Africa, where mental health disorders account for “a huge burden of disease and disability, and where in general less than 1% of the already small health budgets are spent on these disorders.”

African and other member nations of the World Health Organization have adopted a Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan, the authors say, and “Africa now has an historic opportunity to improve the mental health and wellbeing of its citizens, beginning with provision of basic mental health services and development of national mental health strategic plans (roadmaps).”

On 24 and 25 February 2014, a group of people with a common interest in mental health met at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa at a roundtable meeting to address the topic: Mental Health Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa: Moving to Implementation.  Participants included representatives of persons with psychosocial disabilities, NGOs, policymakers, academics, research funders, service providers and others — from throughout Africa, Sweden, Canada, the US, Germany, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Mental, neurological, and substance use disorders constitute a very high burden of disease globally, and depression is the leading cause of disability throughout the world,” says lead author Prof. Abdallah Daar of the University of Toronto, lead author of the paper and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board.

“A growing body of scientific evidence shows that much can be done for treatment, at moderate additional costs, and with significant economic benefits to countries, while at the same time reducing suffering and improving, and often saving, the lives of those who are affected.”

At a global level, the paper notes, the 194 member states of the WHO (including those from Africa) have adopted the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan (MHAP) with the objectives of advancing the mental health agenda in the world. This plan is supported by technical tools like the mhGAP Intervention Guide for non-specialist health settings, to assist in scaling up services. In Africa, these provide important opportunities for country-led intervention.

“We believe that action is urgently needed, not just by governments and other groups as set out below but also by international donors who contribute to health budgets and influence health policy, the mental health professional community, medical and public health schools, research institutions, and research funding bodies.”

The group says an African National Mental Health Strategy and Plan (Roadmap) should, among other things, establish “parity in resources for mental and physical health alike”; integrate mental health care services into primary health care and provide resources for training, supervision and support for personnel dealing with the issue.

As well, the plans need to take a “life-course” approach, “recognizing that there are different needs at different stages in life such as pregnancy, infancy, childhood and older age, and that investment in early intervention can reduce later disability.”

Targeted action is required to address specific needs of women, the very poor, the homeless, and other groups, many of them “historically neglected.” “Such specific focus is necessary because these groups may have different risk factors, disease prevalence, and help-seeking behaviors.”

Among other recommendations, national strategic plans should

• Be “person-centered and holistic, providing psychological and social care as well as improving access to biomedical services;
• Respond to the mental health consequences of violence in society, especially against women and children;
• Provide evidence-based and culturally appropriate care; and
• Pay particular attention to the link between mental health and other health and development priorities like HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health:  “Integrating mental health into other health and development initiatives provides an opportunity to improve outcomes in other sectors, while allowing efficient investment in mental health through these other programs.”
• Ensure availability of essential mental health medications and basic services; and
• Develop robust legislation against inhumane practices, such as institutionalization, imprisonment, isolation, discrimination in access to public goods, and other violations of human rights.

Some countries — such as South Africa and Ethiopia — have made progress in developing national mental health policy frameworks and strategic plans, offering  other African countries a useful model to adopt, complemented by the WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan.

The public may sign a petition based on the declaration at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/declaration-on-mental-health-in-africa-moving-to

* * * * *

News release in full, click here

15-Jun-2014

Study in Uganda shows under-18s most vulnerable to cholera, typhoid, acute diarrhea, other water-related health risks rising with climate change

United Nations University will help pioneer a fresh trail in global health research, exploring links between the planet’s health and human health at an institute in Kuala Lumpur generously supported by Malaysia.

As the world’s post-2015 development agenda takes shape, including new sustainable development goals (SDGs), the UNU International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) has been assigned a new mandate focused on several key issues of universal concern, including:

• Health impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change. The work will include identifying potential adaptation strategies and options to mitigate harm
• Physical and mental health hazards posed by the world’s rapid ongoing urbanization and how to optimize city development for better health
• Health problems due to trans-boundary pollution, including fossil fuel-related air pollution causing millions of premature deaths, especially in Asia.The recent report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscored the threat climate change poses to Earth’s life-support systems, including:
• Changes in infectious disease patterns, and the mental health consequences of trauma, loss, and displacement from resource conflict or floods and drought due to extreme weather events and the loss of habitable (especially coastal) land
• Declines in regional food yields
• Freshwater shortages

Endowed by Malaysia with $40 million, UNU-IIGH funding is supplemented by support from sources worldwide.

“Our goals include advancing a detailed understanding of the specific risks ahead and underlining for the public and policy-makers alike the wealth of positive health-related co-benefits available from action on climate change,” says UNU-IIGH Director Anthony Capon.

For example, a study co-authored by UNU-IIGH and published in March (at http://bit.ly/1hHmxOp) identified Uganda’s under-18 population as the most vulnerable of all age groups to water-related health risks rising with climate variability — including cholera, typhoid, acute diarrhea, and dysentery.

The study warns that changes in climate worldwide and the variability of intensive rainfall patterns and flash flooding threaten more pandemics of such waterborne diseases and exacerbation of the incidence of infections, such as those borne by ticks.

Risks, opportunities in urbanization

Similarly, Dr. Capon adds, the rapid, ongoing urbanization of the world presents both risks and opportunities for human and environmental health.

“Cities concentrate people and economic activity and, therefore, they also concentrate resource consumption and waste production. This means that the way cities work can affect the health of people and planetary systems.”

He adds: “During the next 20 to 30 years, the UN estimates 2 to 3 billion will be added to the population of the world’s urban areas, more than 1 million people every week. Most of this population growth will be in medium-sized cities in low- and middle-income countries. This global urban transition offers an unparalleled opportunity to improve urban development and thereby protect the future health of people and ecosystems.”

“It’s imperative that we integrate our thinking about the health of people and our planetary systems and trends in order to clearly anticipate and mitigate problems ahead,” says Prof. Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor to Malaysia’s Prime Minister, co-chair of MIGHT, and Chair of a major new UN body on biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES.net).

“Though advancing slowly, threats to human health posed by such phenomena as climate change, biodiversity loss and haphazard urbanization are profound, and achieving and acting with broader perspective is fundamental. Helping the world create new insights into and address these concerns is a critical new assignment for UNU-IIGH and Malaysia is proud to host and support this work.”

Says Malaysian Minister of Education II Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh: “UNU-IIGH is an important example of Malaysia’s increasing contributions to global development in low- and middle-income countries. As well as UNU-IIGH, we are pleased to host UN University’s finance and human resources centre here in Kuala Lumpur.”

Adds the Minister: “With the increasing number of dengue cases occurring around Malaysia and outbreaks such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome — Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) and avian influenza, as well as the emerging crisis of non-communicable diseases (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, tobacco epidemic) and health issues related to rapid urbanization and global environmental change, it is critical that Malaysians avail ourselves of the expertise of UNU-IIGH, which has been working to further so many important global health initiatives around the world.”

Solid research foundation

A national of Australia and New Zealand, Dr. Capon notes that the foundation for meeting UNU-IIGH’s new planetary and human health-focused assignment rests on solid research capabilities and results established in the institute’s first seven years.

Among several other IIGH contributions to peer-reviewed health science to date:

• Factors underpinning water availability in a developing country: A 2012 study documents the relationship of several variables on water availability and management in Uganda — a matter of growing concern throughout the developing world.
• Child intelligence and nutrition: A 2013 study in Iran involving almost 500 children identifies child nutritional and iodine deficiency as “the most important factors related to child’s intelligence,” and urges food fortification, especially iodization of salt, a program for which was halted by war
• Arsenic-contaminated groundwater in Cambodia: Studies in 2013 (http://bit.ly/1hHmHVR, and http://bit.ly/1kQVwXO) show that, of 616 individuals from three provinces in Cambodia’s Mekong River basin, on average one in six people — and in one province one in three — had high levels of arsenic in their bodies, attributed to both contaminated wells and food, specifically contaminated fish and cattle. Authors add that “the association between arsenicosis and the use of Chinese traditional medicine also needs further investigation.”
• Mercury and DDT in Cambodian diets: Other studies in Cambodia (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653513003159 andhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389411008375) document dangerously high levels of mercury ingested via fish and elevated cancer risks from DDT in fish and vegetables.
• Improving health care in developing world through e-learning: A 2013 study underscores the importance of e-learning strategies to keep health care personnel abreast of technological developments, and how UNU-IIGH is contributing to that end.
• Lung problems in paint factories: A 2013 study documents lung problems among paint factory workers while a 2009 study looks at the effect of naphtha exposure on the lungs of workers in Malaysian tire factories.
• Health and auto pollution in Amman, Jordan: A 2012 study, recommends limiting local traffic density after assessing the air quality impact of a 7% annual increase in the number of registered cars in the city over the previous decade, 32% of them old models.
• Medical ethics and cancer: A 2013 commentary, meanwhile, addresses the troubling question of how to balance the desire to prolong life for certain cancer patients in Malaysia when treatment leads to extremely painful side effects.
• Health risks and school children: A 2011 study captures the relationship between asthma in early teenaged students and exposure to allergens, moulds and mycotoxin in Malaysia schools, while a 2012 study looks at the relationship between low levels of lead in the bloodstream of young Malaysia pupils and their cognitive and physical development.and
• Improving life’s quality for blood disorder patients: A 2009 study investigates the blood disorder thalassaemia, which requires continuous transfusions and creates the side effect of iron-overload in the patient’s blood. There is an expensive remedy for the side effect, however, and the study measures the quality of life improvement of thalassaemia patients on desferrioxamine treatment.

Assisting developing countries

UN Under Secretary-General David Malone, Rector of UN University, notes that “a major focus of UNU-IIGH is on helping developing countries to enhance their capability to deal with threats to human health, and to facilitate innovation and the dissemination of information.”

Later this year, he adds, Dr. Zakri will become Chair of the UNU-IIGH Board of Advisors, succeeding the founding chair Dr. Abdallah Daar of Oman. Both men are members of the UN Secretary-General’s new 26-member Scientific Advisory Board.

Says Dr. Malone: “The Government of Malaysia is an exceptionally generous supporter of UN University. We are thankful also to all those who have steered this institute through its earliest stages of growth, especially my friend and colleague Dr. Daar and founding Director Tan Sri Dato’ Mohamed Salleh Mohamed Yasin of Malaysia. They have guided UNU-IIGH to a firm, valuable presence in the important arena of global health.”

As outgoing Advisory Board Chair, Professor Daar, based at the University of Toronto, adds his praise of the UNU-IIGH, noting the institute has recruited excellent research fellows and gradate students from many countries.

“The affiliation of UNU-IIGH with universities in Malaysia is one of its key strengths, as is the great support it receives from the national government,” says Dr. Daar. “It has delivered major, urgently needed public health training programs in developing countries like Yemen, and pioneered the development of free software and regional training programs for case-mix and health care information systems. It has also put environmental health on the regional agenda with its major studies in neighboring countries like Cambodia, examining the impact of environmental toxins such as arsenic in the water supply.”

Tony Capon and Zakri Abdul Hamid elaborate on an important dimension of UNU-IIGH’s new focus on human health and planetary change — how to address the rising epidemic of obese and overweight people — in an commentary at http://bit.ly/1kv8xlo.

About UN University

Established in 1973, United Nations University (UNU) is a global think tank and postgraduate teaching organization headquartered in Japan. The mission of the UN University is to contribute, through collaborative research and education, to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples and Member States.

In carrying out this mission, the UN University works with leading universities and research institutes in UN Member States, functioning as a bridge between the international academic community and the United Nations system. Through postgraduate teaching activities, UNU contributes to capacity building, particularly in developing countries.

About UNU-IIGH

The UNU International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) was founded in 2007 with a US $40 million endowment from the Malaysian Government. Based in Kuala Lumpur, it is one of 13 UNU institutes and programs located in 12 countries.

The mission of the UNU-IIGH is to build knowledge and capacity for decision-making about global health issues.

UNU recently joined the International Council for Science (ICSU) as a co-sponsor of a new 10-year global interdisciplinary science program on Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment – A Systems Analysis Approaches. The ICSU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (also based in Kuala Lumpur, at the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia) has already developed a regional implementation plan for this program and is supporting several research and capacity building initiatives in the region.

In coming years, this urban health programme will be rolled out progressively around the world and is expected to attract substantial research funding from foundations and other research funding agencies. UNU-IIGH contributions will include capacity building in systems methods for population health research; development and evaluation of metrics for healthy urban development, particularly those relevant to low and middle income countries; and leadership training for city planners, elected officials, public health workers and others.

Earlier this month, UNU-IIGH hosted its first intensive course on urbanization and health using systems approaches that attracted 31 participants from 18 countries across that Asia-Pacific and African regions, including Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Yemen, Morocco, Ghana, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda.

About the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology

MIGHT is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee under the purview of the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Built on the strength of public-private partnership with more than 100 members, both local and international, from industry, government and academia, MIGHT is dedicated to providing a platform for industry-government consensus building in the drive to advance high technology competency in Malaysia.

News release in full: click here

Example coverage:

The Star, Malaysia: click here

AZO Cleantech, USA: click here

Coverage summary: click here

29 April, 2013

59 creative, out-of-box health innovations devised in 13 low- and middle-income countries, plus 43 from Canada, share $10.9 million in seed grants and a single goal: Reduce debilitating disease, save lives in developing countries

Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, today announced 102 new grants of $100,000 each for bold new global health ideas. Of these, 59 grants went to innovators in 13 low- and middle-income nations worldwide to pursue bold new imaginative ideas to tackle health problems in resource-poor countries.

Grants of $100,000 each were also announced for 43 Canadian-originated projects to be implemented in a total of 49 countries throughout the developing world.

The full global portfolio of 102 creative, out-of-the-box ideas, selected by independent peer review from 436 applications, include:

• An instant test strip to diagnose deadly diseases like Ebola and dengue à la litmus paper
• A vaccine for smokers against nicotine’s addictive effect
• A glucose meter cell phone attachment for diabetics
• A tool kit to save newborn lives
• Engineering gut microbiome bacteria to defend against waterborne diseases like cholera and thyphoid
• Teaching old drugs new tricks in the fight against HIV
• Saving mothers and children with affordable, needle-free anemia-screening
• Using mobile phones to monitor maternal and child health in rural Nepal
• * A fast track to safer pesticides via super-computer
• Tapping local businesses in Tanzania: Malaria drugs on wheels
• Reading ultrasound images of rural patients via cyberspace
• …and many others.

News release in full: click here

Sample coverage: Toronto Star, click here, Vancouver Sun, click here, CBC, click here, Daily Mail (UK / India), click here

Coverage summary: click here

22 Nov. 2012

Grand Challenges Canada awards 68 $100,000 seed grants to innovators worldwide

Some 51 innovators in 18 low and middle income countries and 17 in Canada will share $7 million in Canadian grants to pursue bold, creative ideas for tackling health problems in resource-poor parts of the world.

Among the Canadian-based projects: researchers will mimic rocket technology to propel coagulant nanoparticles into the bloodstream and stop maternal bleeding, a major cause of death in the developing world; test a high-tech Burn Survival Kit that includes a low-cost silver nanotubule dressing making treatment affordable; and develop an HIV infection detector that works in fewer than 5 minutes.

Out-of-the-box projects based overseas include a new trading system in Kenya: seeds and fertilizers for proof of child vaccinations; a $100 kitchen reno to reduce indoor pollution and problem pregnancies in Bangladesh; cultivating disease-fighting prawns in Senegal; creating wealth from human waste in cholera-troubled Haiti; and anti-diarrhea kits for infants hitching a ride on Coca-Cola’s distribution chain to get essential medicine to “the ends of the Earth.”

Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, announced the 68 $100,000 grants under its Stars in Global Health program, which fosters affordable, breakthrough ideas to improve health in developing countries.  Successful projects may apply for $1 million scale-up grants.

The projects will be implemented worldwide:

• 38 in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana (4), Kenya (10), Nigeria, Rwanda (2), Senegal (2), Tanzania (2), Uganda (8), Zambia (4), Zimbabwe and South Africa),
• 23 in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh (3), China, India (9), Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan (4), Vietnam),
• 5 in Latin America / Caribbean (Haiti (3), Guatemala, Nicaragua); and
• 2 in the Middle East (Jordan, Tunisia)

Interviews with the innovators and program officials are available.

For fully detailed grant descriptions, project contact information and links to video interviews and photos: http://bit.ly/RCRm5Y.

Full release: click here

Example coverage: Washington Post, click here; CNN International, click here; Toronto Star, click here, The Guardian, click 1) here and 2) here

Coverage summary, click here

About Grand Challenges Canada

Grand Challenges Canada supports bold ideas with big impact in global health. Funded by the Government of Canada, GCC funds innovators in low and middle income countries and Canada.  Hosted at the Sandra Rotman Centre, GCC works with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and other global health foundations and organizations.

10-Oct-2012

On World Mental Health Day, Grand Challenges Canada funds a burst of 15 innovative projects spanning the globe — Asia, Africa, Caribbean

Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, today announced a landmark $19.4 million in support of 15 innovative, pioneering projects designed to improve mental health diagnosis and care in developing countries, many of them nations ravaged by conflict and disaster as well as poverty. The projects were selected through competitive scientific peer review from among 97 ideas submitted in response to a Grand Challenge to propose innovations that increase access, improve treatment, and address stigma for people with mental health disorders in developing countries.

Globally close to 450 million people have mental health disorders; more than 75% of that number live in developing countries. And, according to the World Health Organization, 85% of developing world patients with serious mental disorders receive no treatment at all.

“Mental health disorders are a leading cause of suffering and disability everywhere, but the problem is especially acute in the developing world,” said Dr. Peter A. Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada. “There is very little funding for mental health innovations in low- and middle-income countries, where mental illness is the most neglected of many neglected diseases. It’s a terrible denial of human potential.”

“Canada has a long and proud tradition of fostering innovation to improve the lives of people living in some of the most desperate situations, ” said the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance for Canada. “Global Mental Health is a significant challenge which, left unaddressed, could undermine the health, social and economic futures of developing countries.”

15 projects in 14 low and middle income countries will test bold new ideas for addressing mental health issues, where patients are often severely stigmatized – even chained or locked up in the absence of understanding or care.

News release in full, click here

Example coverage by: Agence France Presse, click here; by the InterPress News Service, click here; by the BBC, click here

More coverage links and summary, click here

16-Dec-2011

Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invest almost $32 million in the discovery and development of new and improved diagnostics at point-of-care

Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have teamed up on an unprecedented global effort to discover and develop affordable, easy-to-use tools to help developing country health workers rapidly diagnose diseases in rural communities. The expected result: more timely and appropriate treatment of illnesses in poor countries, potentially saving countless lives.

“Imagine a hand-held, battery-powered device that can take a drop of blood and, within minutes, tell a healthcare worker in a remote village whether a feverish child has malaria, dengue or a bacterial infection,” says Peter A. Singer, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. “More rapid diagnosis of malaria alone could prevent 100,000 deaths a year. We believe this and other life-saving opportunities are within our reach.”

The five research areas of this Grand Challenge break the diagnostic problem down into its component parts: Draw blood (or other biological sample) and prep it for analysis, analyze the sample to identify disease, develop the technologies to obtain and transmit data and receive back results, and ensure the device will work in the field where there is often no electricity or refrigeration.

“The project is analogous to software developers creating new apps for smart phones and tablet computers,” says Rebecca Lackman, PhD, Grand Challenges Canada Program Officer for Diagnostics. “Researchers have accepted the challenge to create novel sampling and testing systems that can be plugged into a standardized analyzer that can test for malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and a variety of tropical diseases. The ‘Integrated Innovation’ approach means they will also investigate the social and business innovations needed for successful product delivery and use.”

“This initiative is unique in many respects: it will allow health workers to identify multiple diseases and pathogens from one patient specimen; plug-and-play platforms will allow best-in-class components to be developed and integrated in a diagnostic device; and we are creating a common application platform; thereby, reducing both commercialization costs and regulatory issues, making it more attractive for industry to invest in diagnostics for global health.”

Example coverage: The Associated Press, click here; Agence France Presse, click here, EFE (Spanish), click here

Coverage summary, click here

Full news release, click here