 Message from HEARD's Director, Prof Alan Whiteside I have just three weeks of sabbatical left. It has been good to be in the northern hemisphere through a spring, summer and now an autumn. HEARD's Gender and HIV and AIDS Project Gender and gender inequalities are a central aspect in the transmission of HIV throughout the world, particularly in southern and eastern Africa South African Work-Family Symposium The South African Work-Family Symposium where employers can gauge their own progress on work-family policy against other players in the industry will take place on 30 November in Cape Town. Increasing African Capacity Central to HEARD's Capacity Building agenda, the Young Researchers Initiative (YRI) aims to provide support to young researchers based in eastern and southern Africa to produce high quality, accessible research on HIV/AIDS. At Last, Progress in Developing an AIDS Vaccine According to recent media reports, an experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut risk of infection. HEARD's Director, Prof Alan Whiteside was invited by OUPblog to post his views on this recent development which he says this will lead to new investment and energy in the development of vaccines. OUPblog is Oxford University Press' blogosphere for learning, understanding and reflection. A New HEARD Research Agenda on XDR-TB In response to the emergence of drug resistant TB in South Africa, HEARD has set up a research project to explore the reasons for the high levels of hospital transmission of XDR-TB.   | Newsletter Issue 1 October 2009 
I have just three weeks of sabbatical left. It has been good to be in the northern hemisphere through a spring, summer and now an autumn. I have a shed where I sit waiting for a muse of creativity to dance delicately into my brain. Sitting here has allowed me to observe the seasons and the garden has been magnificent although at the moment it is terribly dry. Despite the general view of England as a constantly damp isle we have not seen rain for at least six weeks. The last few weeks have been busy for me - I have not been at a Board Meeting or Donor Meeting as colleagues in Durban have, instead I have been to Berlin and Den Hague. The meeting in Holland was to wrap up The AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI) research project convened by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael' and the US Social Science Research Council. HEARD part funded one study because we wanted to know what was going on in local government. The final report and other information are on the web at http://asci.researchhub.ssrc.org/rdb/asci-hub. The trip to Berlin was to do a talk to a sub-group of the German Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and also to GTZ - one of the main German aid giving bodies. Berlin is such an interesting city. One of the striking things is how little of 'The Wall' is left, and what there is, is rotting, with concrete falling off and steel reinforcing rods exposed. I also met an editor from Argo books on the plane - and then found their website - www.argobooks.de to be most interesting. We are extraordinarily privileged to travel and meet such out-of-the-ordinary people. It was clear from all these meeting and discussions that HEARD is an influential organisation not just in Southern Africa. One of the challenges is to make sure what we research and write is read and used. |
