Hosted by the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, the Policy Insights Lecture Series is a cross-faculty collaboration with the Queen Mary Global Policy Institute and the Mile End Institute.
These sessions will be dedicated to the presentation of policy case studies, policy research methodology and relevant topics within the field of policy studies. This collaboration has our university community at heart, and has been designed to bring postgraduate students, academics and policy makers together, offering a space for reflection, sharing of ideas and practices around policy research, implementation and impact.
Over one hour, Queen Mary academics and guests will explore cutting-edge policy cases from the perspective of researchers, policy makers and stakeholders over contemporary policy themes.
Our starting point will be an introduction to the series with policy research tools followed by themes related to Global Health and the current climate emergency.
The introductory session is aimed at broadening the understanding of our student community on the concepts of policy and policy making. We will discuss the different terms that can be used to refer to policy and what policy means as intent and practice.
Attendees will reflect on how policies affect us and how we can influence them from different standpoints by looking at different global, international and national level health policies and how these have evolved over time.
The session will give an idea to students on how policy and research is linked in real world and how it creates an avenue to make contribution to better global health.
Dr Haleema Masud, Lecturer at Global Health Unit, Centre for Public Health and Policy will share findings from her PhD research, Reducing the affordability of tobacco products in Pakistan: A political economy analysis. This research analysed existing policies regarding tobacco pricing and affordability and made a case for introduction of policy reforms (analysis of policy). Building on that, research explored challenges and opportunities for introducing such reforms (analysis for policy) and informed which policy reforms could be both technically sound and politically feasible in the Pakistani political economy context.
Goret Pereira Paulo will explore the case of the urban mobility research center at FGV, which supports public policy design and evaluation and has partnerships with several municipalities and states in Brazil.
More information will be announced soon.
As we approach COP28, it is likely that drug prohibition and the Drug War will be absent from the discussions.
In October 2023 the International Coalition on Drug Policy Reform and Environmental Justice published the report: Revealing the Missing Link to Climate Justice: Drug Policy. The report encourages dialogue with and within the climate justice movement to make the connection between drug prohibition as a clear yet underestimated barrier to climate justice.
In this panel and workshop students and staff will hear from:
The panel will present an overview of the issue and its history, review key evidence of these three mechanisms and discuss the complexity of the inclusion of key stakeholders and elevating voices who have suffered most at the hands of this war.
Additionally attendees will be invited to engage in a creative exploration of how to bring these connections and issues to a wider audience. If you have any questions about attending or its content, please contact Jennifer Randall on jennifer.randall@qmul.ac.uk
Corruption and rent-seeking are now identified major barriers to Universal Health Coverage and SDGs health targets by many actors, e.g. the Global Network for Anti-corruption, transparency and accountability in health (a network comprising WHO, UNDP, World Bank and many governments, @GNACTA4Health). This session will discuss cutting-edge thinking and evidence around definitions and conceptualisations of health sector corruption and rent-seeking in the context of the current debates around harms and implications of corruption. It will highlight our key findings on nature and institutional and political drivers of absenteeism, informal payments, and failure of citizen complaints mechanisms in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania. It will then consider how to move towards viable solutions – e.g. changing incentives, redesigning structures and moving towards politically-grounded and feasible anti-corruption strategies. The session will include a presentation and interactive groupwork.The session reflects findings of two research programmes:• SOAS ACE The Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) research consortium, funded by the FCDO• Accountability in Action ‘Understanding and eliminating health sector corruption impeding UHC at district level in Nigeria and Malawi: institutions, individuals and incentives’, funded by the Health Systems Research Joint Initiative, with funding from the UK FCDO, UK MRC and Wellcome, with support from the UK ESRC.Prof Dina Balabanova is a Professor in Health Systems and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with over 25 years of experience in research on governance, effective delivery models (e.g. noncommunicable disease) and health systems strengthening. She has led research exploring structural and social drivers of health sector corruption in LMICs, and politically-feasible solutions. She co-founded the Thematic Group on Accountability and Anti-corruption for SDGs, and is a steering group member for the WHO-led Global Network for Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability (GNACTA) in Health Systems.
All Queen Mary postgraduate students with an interest in policy are invited and we welcome also suggestions of speakers and themes for the incoming series in 2024.
If you have an interest in pursuing a future career in policy – or would like to understand how your research can influence policy making, come and join us!
Do you have a policy theme that you feel needs discussing, or would you like to hear from an expert in the field? If so please get in touch with us via qmgpi@qmul.ac.uk
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