News

October 6, 2015: Our President, Sania Nishtar recently moderated two events at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian. Panelists at the session on The Future of Healthcare included Minister Subramaniam of Malaysia, Daljit Singh of Fortis Healthcare in India, Prof. Thomas Insel from the National Institute of Mental Health, USA and Ron Gutman from Healthtap. Dr.Sania Nishtar was also the facilitator at another session on “Gender parity”. Both these sessions are part of the World Economic Forum’s global transformation and challenge stream of work.

Dr. Sania Nishtar was also the facilitator at another session on “Gender parity”. Both these sessions are part of the World Economic Forum’s global transformation and challenge stream of work. Her views as a moderator can be accessed here: http://www.heartfile.org/blog/4199

Our President Sania Nishtar recently moderated two events at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian

September 29, 2015: The global premier of the documentary based on Sania Nishtar’s book, “Choked Pipes” and her work subsequent to that in Pakistan, was held in New York on September 22 as a side session of the United Nations’ 70^th General Assembly. The event was hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation and was oversubscribed. The screening of the documentary was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Michael Myers, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation. Panelists included Prof. Linda Fried, Dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Nata Manabde, Executive Director of the WHO office at the UN headquarters in New York; Director of the film, Randall Wright and Sania Nishtar. The documentary highlights an alternative third health systems model, which along with the existing Beveridge and Bismarck systems can help achieve Universal Health Coverage in Mixed Health Systems. Prof. Fried referred to the model as a ‘stealth reform’ in terms of its ability, both to provide universal health coverage as well as overcome existing distortions of mixed health systems. Complete Documentary video link

 The global premier of the documentary based on Sania Nishtar’s book, “Choked Pipes” and her work subsequent to that in Pakistan, was held in New York on September 22 as a side session of the United Nations’ 70th General Assembly

Dr Sania Nishtar resumes her role at Heartfile

September 28, 2015: The World Bank hosted the Pandemic Financing Stakeholders Meeting in Washington on September 21 and 22, 2015. The meeting was convened “to examine options for strengthening global financing for pandemics to help countries and global partners respond more effectively to disease outbreaks”. The meeting considered a range of existing and new instruments for financing pandemic response and its discussions are meant to feed into the UNSG’s High-Level Panel and other ongoing reviews of the global pandemic financing and response. Our President, Dr Sania Nishtar gave the opening speech on the “Current State of Global Financing for Pandemic Response – Overview and Gaps” at the event.

Dr Sania Nishtar gave the opening speech on the “Current State of Global Financing for Pandemic Response – Overview and Gaps” at the Pandemic Financing Stakeholders Meeting in Washington hosted by The World Bank on September 21 and 22, 2015.

September 18, 2015: A sneak preview of the documentary based on our President, Sania Nishtar’s Oxford University Press-published book Choked Pipes, was held at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on September 11, 2015. The ‘sneak preview’ was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Andrew Jack from Financial Times. The panel included Prof. Sir Andy Haines, Prof. Martin McKee of European Public Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Joseph Kutzin, Co-ordinator of Health Systems Financing, and our President Dr.Sania Nishtar of Heartfile. As described by Rockhopper TV, the creators of the documentary, “In this landmark documentary, Dr Sania Nishtar—one of the leaders of a new movement in Global Health proposing the reform of entire health systems—leads award-winning director Randall Wright on a journey through the health system of her native Pakistan, where 73% of the population have no financial health coverage”. The documentary has been made by Rockhopper TV, who have been involved in making award-winning broadcast documentaries, for TV channels as diverse as the BBC, PBS, Showtime, ITV, Discovery, National Geographic and national broadcasters around the world.Click here to view the Trailer

A sneak preview of the documentary based on our President, Sania Nishtar’s Oxford University Press-published book Choked Pipes

August 28, 2015: The Ending Childhood Obesity Commission recently held its PAHO regional consultation in Mexico on August 26 and 27.  The meeting was organized by the World Health Organization PAHO regional office and was attended by countries from the region. This consultation is the third in a series of regional consultations, the Commission is holding globally to seek regional perspectives on the issue. The meeting was chaired by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar, who co-chairs the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.

July 31, 2015: The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health released its seminal report on June 16 in New York. The report, Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch, provides the “first ever comprehensive examination of evidence showing how the health and well-being of future generations is being jeopardised by the unprecedented degradation of the planet’s natural resources and ecological systems”. It calls for “immediate global action to protect the health of human civilization and the natural systems on which it depends”. Subsequent to the global launch, other launches were held in Los Angeles and South Africa while still others are planned in Chile, China, Kenya, Australia, Abu Dhabi and Malaysia, each hosted by a respective commissioner. The Pakistan launch was held in Islamabad on July 24 and was hosted by Dr. Sania Nishtar, one of the 15 commissioners on the Planetary Health Commission. Details about the launch can be accessed here.

July 17, 2015: The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, launched its report Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch, in New York on July 16, 2015. The Report provides the first ever comprehensive examination of evidence showing how the health and well-being of future generations is being jeopardised by the unprecedented degradation of the planet’s natural resources and ecological systems. It calls for immediate, global action to protect the health of human civilization and the natural systems on which it depends. The report was written by a Commission of 15 leading academics and policymakers and was chaired by Sir Andy Haines. Our President, Sania Nishtar was one of the 15 Commissioners. The Report will also be launched in Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Nairobi, Melbourne, Beijing, Santiago and London. The Islamabad launch is planned for July 24.

July 07, 2015: The Ending Childhood Obesity Commission recently held its regional consultation in Cairo on July 2.  The meeting was organised by the World Health Organisation Eastern Mediterranean region office and was attended by countries from the region. This consultation is the second in a series of regional consultations, the Commission is holding globally to seek regional perspectives on the issue. The meeting was chaired by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar, who co-chairs the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.

June 25, 2015: The third meeting of WHO’s Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity was held in Hong Kong on June 22 and 23rd. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar co-chaired the commission meeting along with co-chair Sir Peter Gluckman, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

June 9, 2015: Edited by Julio Frenk and Steven Hoffman, “To Save Humanity: What matters most for healthy future” is a compilation of thought-provoking essays authored by global leaders in health. The book includes 100 short essays on today’s most pressing topics. Contributors include luminaries, former presidents, and celebrated dignitaries from all sectors of society, including Margaret Chan, Bill Clinton, Jim Yong Kim, Michael Bloomberg and several others including our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar. Together, they urge the case for humanity and focus attention on the issues that will impact global health and development the most. Our President’s chapter in the book is on “Fusion Fund for Health” making a strong call for the need to protect people from catastrophic expenditures on healthcare. The book , preview here, is an important input into the post-2015 global agenda.

To Save Humanity: What matters most for healthy future

May 23, 2015: “I am a staunch believer of the importance of effectively functioning institutions and good governance and have a habit of circling every issue back to that point…Many of us are convinced that the problems of inequality in relation to women’s participation in economic life are rooted in our patriarchal culture and feudal norms, and I do not disagree with that. But I do want to emphasize that in the worksite setting, there are systematic barriers to the participation and growth of women in the workforce…and that institutional enablers can play a very significantly role in making women’s talents mainstream”. This is an excerpt from our president Sania Nishtar’s keynote speech at a recent Women’s Leadership Summit. The full text of her speech can be accessed here.

May 09, 2015: “The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented in both its scale and impact”. This is the opening statement of a recent article in The Lancet authored by many global health leaders, including David L Heymann, Lincoln Chen, Keizo Takemi, Thomas R Frieden, our president, Sania Nishtar and others. Titled “Global health security: the wider lessons from the west African Ebola virus disease epidemic” the paper, which calls for stronger health systems, can be accessed here.

May 05, 2015: The Seminar series alongside the Asian Development Bank Board meeting in Baku featured a session on Universal Health Coverage:  “Revealing the financial solutions for UHC”. The seminar aimed to explore ways in which developing countries in Asia and the Pacific could achieve financially sustainable universal health coverage. Participants discussed new tools for increasing financing for health services and ways in which a finance ministry could navigate the political minefield associated with raising and allocating taxes. The Heartfile health financing model was discussed as one of the options for overcoming the financial access barrier for the poor in the realm of UHC. A The Seminar was moderated by Stephen P Groff, Asian Development Bank Vice president for Operations. Panelists included Kiyoshi Modera, Vice President, Japan International Cooperation Agency; George Gotsadze, Director, Curatio International Foundation, Georgia; Rajiv Mehrishi, Secretary Finance, India; and Sania Nishtar, President Heartfile, Pakistan.

April 24, 2015: The Global Philanthropy Forum was held in Washington from April 21-23. Hosted by Jane Wales, the Forum focused on “Disruptors and Decision makers” this year. With a focus on business, philanthropy and government, the forum brought together leaders from all three constituencies to deliberate on solutions to daunting problems at the intersection of public, private and social sector work. Challenges as a result of “broken, and malign, systems” were at the core of the discussion. the session on Non-Communicable diseases centred on innovative approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Sania Nishtar and Rajesh Punjabi from Liberia were the two session experts, who led the discussion in a problem-solving format.

April 23, 2015: The World Health Organisation hosted the meeting of the Global Coordinating Mechanism on NCDs from April 20-21 in Geneva. The dialogue focused on ways “to encourage the inclusion of the Non-Communicable diseases in development cooperation agendas and initiatives, internationally agreed development goals, economic development polices, sustainable development frameworks and poverty reduction strategies”. Dr. Sania Nishtar was the opening Keynote Speaker at the event and talked about the “Global Burden of NCDs—realising the commitments to include NCDs in development cooperation agendas and initiatives”.

April 12, 2015: Five years on, learning from the implementation of the 18th amendment are still needed to guide the reform process. Our recent opinion can be accessed here.

March 30, 2015: The Harvard Pakistan forum was held in Boston on March 28 and 29. The title of the meeting “rediscovering a nation” and the guiding principles of “Unity, faith and discipline” were inspirational. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was one of the three keynote speakers, alongside Ishrat Hussain and Hussain Dawood. Her talk focused on Health and Governance.

The 2015 Harvard Pakistan Forum

March 27, 2015: The World Health Organization’s Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity has commenced its regional consultations and hearings. The first in the series, the Western Pacific Region Consultation was held in Manila on March 24. Our President, Sania Nishtar, Co-chair of the Commission led the consultation. The commission has recently opened its Interim report for an online consultation. An accompanying Commentary in The Lancet authored by co-chairs, Sir Peter Gluckman and Sania Nishtar along with Timothy Armstrong from the WHO Secretariat highlights the global burden of childhood obesity and underscores the need for effective strategies to tackle childhood and adolescent obesity in different contexts around the world.

February 4, 2015: Heartfile’s annual retreat took place on 3rd February at Monal, Islamabad. The annual organizational plan for 2015 was discussed, followed by an award ceremony where our President Dr. Sania Nishtar distributed shields and cash prizes to high performers of 2014. The organization staff later went on an excursion on hiking trails of the Margalla hills.

January 19, 2015: The second meeting of the WHO Commission on ending Childhood Obesity was held in Geneva on Jan 13 and 14, 2015. Our President Dr. Sania Nishtar attended the meeting as Co-Chair of the Commission.

January 15, 2015: The Lancet-Rockefeller Planetary health Commission held a peer review meeting in New York on January 14-16. The Commission is mandated to analyze evidence of the impact of environmental changes on human health and to improve understanding of these challenges and potential policy responses. Our president Dr. Sania Nishtar, attended the peer view meeting in her capacity as a Commissioner of the Lancet-Rockefeller Planetary Health Commission.

January 9, 2015: Karachi-based supporters of Heartfile Financing, Haamid Jaffer, Saeed Allawalla and Haroon Qasim held an event in Karachi on January 8, featuring a talk by our president Sania Nishtar about Heartfile Financing to mobilize support for the initiative. The link to the documentary shown at the event can be accessed here.

December 09, 2014: An International Seminar on Public Policies Against Childhood Obesity and Overweight was recently held in Mexico City. The event was hosted by the School of Public Administration of Mexico City (EAPDF) and the Regional Center for the Americas of the METROPOLIS International Training Institute (MITI). Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was the Keynote speaker at the event. Her talk was relayed through a video link and was simultaneously translated in Spanish. The video relay can be viewed  here.

November 21, 2014: Hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Second International Conference on Nutrition,  an inclusive inter-governmental meeting on nutrition, was held in Rome from November 19-21. The two main outcome documents of the conference are the Rome Declaration on Nutrition: a political commitment document, and the Framework for Action: a technical guide for implementation. Ministers from 193 countries met in Rome for the first time in 22 years to look at ways to tackle malnutrition.

The meeting was held not only to evaluate the progress made following the first international conference in 1992 but mainly to formulate member countries’ political commitment to addressing malnutrition and other crucial issues related to food, agriculture and health care. Post-2015 and Non-communicable diseases (NCD) featured on discussions as well. Our President was invited as a special guest to speak about NCDs in the post 2015 development agenda in the Roundtable session. The text of her statement can be viewed here

November 13, 2014: The Summit on the Global Agenda 2015 was held in Dubai from November 9-11. The event is the world’s largest brainstorming event, which annually convenes over 1000 thought leaders from around the world for the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils, which are comprised of more than 80 groups of experts from around the world. Experts explored the latest developments in business, society and technology, to provide a better understanding of the fundamental transformations impacting our world. They collaborated in interactive workshops to provide innovative recommendations on some of the most pressing global challenges. Our president, Dr Sania Nishtar attended the Summit as a member of one of the health councils. Her Oped in The News with reflections on the Summit with regard to Pakistan can be accessed here

October 22, 2014: The Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne’s 10th Annual Global Health Forum is underway today. The theme of the forum is “Health security and economic growth in Asia-Pacific – challenges for Australian aid?” The forum is being held at an opportune time since the Australian aid agency, AusAID has recently integrated with Australia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event featured a special video presentation by our President, Sania Nishtar, who spoke about four strategic areas that need consideration in discussions on foreign assistance in a context where priorities are likely to shift post-2015, when the MDGs come to term and a new era for development partnerships, dawns. The video presentation can be viewed here.

Nossal Institutes 10th Annual Global Health Forum

October 17, 2014: Pakistan Innovation Foundation’s first National Conference on Innovation was held on Oct 16th, 2014 at Serena Hotel in Islamabad. Pakistan Innovation Forum was a by-invitation-only conference, which brought together leaders from the industry, business, academic, and government sectors, as well as innovators and entrepreneurs. The foundation has recently floated a number of innovation challenges and is recognized as a reputed innovation-focused civil society agency in the country. Our President, Sania Nishtar gave the keynote address at the conference and talked about the policy and institutional challenges of innovation, referring particularly to her insights as former Federal Minister of Science and Technology, the national stewardship agency responsible for S&T and innovation.

October 15, 2014: The World Health Organization’s Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity held its first set of  hearings with the private sector and non-governmental organizations in Geneva on October 13 and 14. of Our President Sania Nishtar the Commission co-chair attended the meetings on both days. The hearings are part of the ECHO commission process. Details can be accessed at the World Health Organization website.

September 29, 2014: Management Sciences for Health hosted a unique reception in honour of Universal health coverage on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week. The reception was part of series of events, which were held throughout the week to advocate for the inclusion of UHC targets in the Sustainable Development Goals framework. A group of global health thinkers offered a “toast to UHC”, at the Riverpark on Wednesday, September 24.  Amongst the toasters were Ariel Pablos Mendez, Michael Myers, Laurie Garriett, Tim Evans, Jeff Sturchio, Minister of Health of Rwanda, Yvonne Chaka Chaka and our president Sania Nishtar. It was remarked that the “event was UNGA week’s most entertaining global health event.

A toast to Universal Health Coverage

September 26, 2014: The Harvard Global Equity Initiative-Lancet Commission on Global Access to Pain Control and Palliative Care (GAPPCP) held its first meeting in New York on September 23rd on the side-lines of the UN general assembly. Commissioners including Felicia Knaul, Julio Frenk, Richard Horton, Dean Jamison, Rifat Atun and our president, Sania Nishtar attended the first commission meeting. The Commission aim to identify opportunities for incorporating pain control and palliative care within health reforms to strengthen health systems and achieve effective universal health coverage and propose health systems strategies that harness national and global platforms.

September 25, 2014: This year’s opening meetings of the UN General Assembly marked a pivotal moment in global health, as formal negotiations began on the post-2015 development framework. Ensuring the place of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the post-2015 health agenda requires on-going advocacy from the many stakeholders. Within this context a high level event was hosted by Columbia University in New York on September 23rd. Invited speakers included Jim Campbell, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Minister of Health of Zambia, Michael Myers, and our President Sania Nishtar. Experiences were shared from around the world about converge and entitlements in UHC from the health worker lens and the manner in which progress is being made in different parts of the world in expanding coverage through modifications in the outreach and mandate of health workers.

September 24, 2014: The Rockefeller Foundation hosted a UN general assembly side session on Universal health coverage on September 22 in New York to reiterate the importance of investing in UHC. Recalling that 1 billion people have never received basic healthcare and that 150 million suffer from financial catastrophe in the process of paying for healthcare, the need for urgent action was reiterated. H.E. Fumio Kishida, H.E. Annick Girardin, H.E Phuangketow, Seth Berkley, Richard Horton, Ties Boerma, Tim Evans and our president Sania Nishtar spoke at the event.

August 29, 2014: Pakistan played a pioneering role in Social Franchising back in the 1990s with the application of social franchising approaches in family planning. Therefore, the First National Conference on Social Franchising, which was hosted by Marie Stopes Society in Bhurban this week, had much to reflect on with regard to leveraging past experiences to scale up this model as a way of reaching out to Pakistan’s underserved population. Our President, Sania Nishtar was invited as keynote speaker to talk about the broader health systems and reform perspective of social franchising. Aptly, she termed population explosion a human security threat. The daily Express Tribune, highlighted her quote “Security agencies have to become the biggest stakeholders to resolve the problem of population explosion [in Pakistan]”. At the meeting she mooted the idea of a Declaration, which got shaped as the Bhurban Declaration.

August 13, 2014: ‘The Youth Ask Leadership Conclave 2014,’ concluded on Sunday, August 10, 2014 in Islamabad. The conclave was organized by Rutgers WPF, Pakistan, under the programme ‘Access, Services and Knowledge,’ funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its purpose was to provide young people with a common platform through which they can acquire knowledge for community leadership. The event led to a Charter of Demand, which was shared with the media. Out president, Dr. Sania Nishtar gave the keynote speech at the opening of the event. More information about the event can be accessed here.

August 12, 2014: “Sometimes, the rationale of a policy decision becomes apparent long after the actual decision itself. The imperatives created by the polio travel conditionality will help us understand why it was critical to reestablish Pakistan’s Ministry of Health”. This was the opening statement of an Op-ed, which recently appeared in the News International. The author, our President Sania Nishtar explains, using the Polio travel conditionally as an example, why she established Pakistan’s Ministry of Health during her tenure as Federal Minister in 2013. More details about the establishment of the ministry can be accessed on Page 49 in her enclosed Handover Papers.

July 22, 2014: The WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, which was announced at the World Health Assembly earlier in May held its first meeting in Geneva on July 17-18, 2014. Our President Sania Nishtar, co-chairs the Commission with Sir Peter Gluckman, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The Commission has been requested by WHO to produce a consensus report specifying which approaches are likely to be most effective in different contexts around the world to overcome the global obesity epidemic, where numbers are climbing fastest in developing countries.

July 21, 2014: At a jointly hosted meeting at the Bellagio Centre in Lombardy, Italy, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Lancet convened a select group of thought leaders “to identify critical strategies and innovative inventions, drawing energy from the recognition that the heath of planets, people, cities, ecosystems and businesses are intricately intervened”. The meeting focused on the critical intersection of human and planetary well-being. Our President, Sania Nishtar was one of the invited thought leaders.

July 18, 2014: On July 11, the NCD Alliance, Government of Sweden and CARICOM hosted a panel discussion on the sidelines of the UN high level review on NCDs in New York at the UN Headquarters. The theme of the event was “delivering solutions, accountability and results” on July 11, 2014. The panel included Dr. Howard Koh, Dr Margaret Chan, Sir George Alleyne, Anders Nordstorm, and James Hospedalis. Our President, Sania Nishtar moderated the session.

July 16, 2014: The President of the United Nations General Assembly John W Ashe, convened a high level meeting to review progress achieved in the prevention and control of Non-Communicable Diseases since the 2011 Political Declaration on NCDs. The frame of reference was post-2015 and the focus was on scaling up multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder response to NCDs. Our president, Sania Nishtar joined Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Sectary of State, US Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Lochen Naido, President UNODC and Mario Ottilgo of IFPMA for the roundtable on partnerships. Her comment on the Heartfile blog about the meeting can be viewed here. The webcast of the event can be accessed here.

June 27, 2014: The Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School jointly organized the Ministerial Health Leaders Forum from June 1-5 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Forum is the flagship component of the Ministerial Leadership in Health Program, co-hosted by both the schools. 11 serving ministers of health from all over the world participated in the program as the 2014 leaders. Our president, Sania Nishtar was amongst the select group of experts who were invited to participate in the meeting as resource persons alongside the Harvard faculty.

June 5, 2014: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has developed a strong brand for publications on Pakistan. As part of their Asia Program and Comparative Urban Studies Project in collaboration with the Fellowship Fund for Pakistan, their latest publication, titled ‘Pakistan’s Runaway urbanization: What can be done?’ provides readers with insights into the challenges of Pakistan’s rapid urbanization and the policy imperatives which emerge in that context. Edited by Michael Kugleman, the Publication features an array of chapters by Pakistani experts, including a Chapter on Health authored by a group of Heartfile authors. The publication can be accessed here.

May 27, 2014: The EAT Stockholm Forum was held on 26-27 of May, 2014 with opening remarks by HRH Prince Charles and Keynote address by President Bill Clinton. First in its series of conventions, the EAT Forum presented lectures, talks and inter-disciplinary panel discussions where global leaders of science, politics and business shared and discussed challenges and opportunities in linking food, health and sustainability. In a panel, “Who are the new change makers”, moderated by Anthony Costello, our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was joined by Sunita Narain, Helena Helmersson, Vandana Shiva and Dr. Corinna Hawkes to lead the discussions.

May 26, 2014: Last week our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar participated in the Harvard Health Leaders’ Ministerial Roundtable, which was held in Geneva on May 18. The Forum convened the 2012 and 2013 alumni of the Ministerial Leadership in Health Program and hosted a facilitated discussion on the achievements and challenges of ministerial leadership in implementing health policy priorities. Sania Nishtar gave the keynote remarks after a presentation by Harvard Professor Bill Hsiao on the comparative international experiences in the implementation of Universal Health Coverage.

May 20, 2014: It is with great pleasure that we refer to World Health Organization’s announcement, yesterday at the World Health Assembly in Geneva about the establishment of a new high-level Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Our President, Dr Sania Nishtar, has been appointed to co-Chair the new Commission along with Sir Peter Gluckman, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Among the Commissioners are global experts and distinguished opinion leaders. The Commission and its working groups will meet several times over the year and is expected to produce a report in early 2015 outlining a plan of action and accountability to address global childhood obesity. WHO’ press release on the subject can be accessed here. For further details are posted on the WHO commission website.

March 14, 2014: The Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal is the flagship health periodical of the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean region. In its February 2014 issue, our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar authored the editorial, titled, Health in the post-2015 agenda: three considerations in moving forward,accessible here.

March 12, 2014: Project Syndicate has posted today, our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar’s Viewpoint, related to the key message of the Emerging Market’s Symposium, which was held in Oxford, UK earlier in January this year. The 2014 Symposium focused on maternal and child health and nutrition. Your comments and views are welcome through the Heartfile eForum, where it has been cross posted.

February 14, 2014: Discussions on the empirics of governance and corruption are limited in conveying the real impact of poor governance at the granular level—a level, which can indicate the quantum of human suffering as a result of poor governance and corruption. The health sector is deeply impacted as a result of entrenched corruption. This week we post a true story of a family afflicted by corruption on our eForum Blog with a view to raising awareness about four key entry points to anti-corruption reform in Pakistan. These have been cross posted in The News International and the Huffington Post.

January 27, 2014: Each year, world leaders and academics from across the globe congregate in Davos at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting to deliberate on global issues. This year, the forum was themed, “The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business”. Our President Sania Nishtar was also amongst the participants. In particular she was amongst the 60 global leaders who were invited to attend the “Health and Economic Growth Summit ”, also attended by Prime Minister of Norway, and the President of Estonia, President of Finland and Ministers of health and finance from many countries. Sania Nishtar was also a discussion leader along with Omar Ishrak, CEO of Medtronic on the session on “Health Systems Leapfrogging in the Emerging Economies ”.

2014 World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos

January 27, 2014: The Government of Sudan is adopting different modalities for providing health coverage for its citizens. Within this context, the World Health Organization, Sudan Office, National Health Insurance Fund, the European Union and their partners this year co-hosted the International Conference on Roadmap to Universal Health Coverage from 25-26 January, 2014 in Sudan. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar connected via a videolink to talk about innovations in financing critical to achieving universal health coverage in mixed health systems. The title of her talk was  “Beyond Bismarck and Beveridge: financial innovations to achieve UHC”.

January 21, 2014: The annual Emerging Markets Symposium, a distinctive tradition of the Green Templeton College of the Oxford University, themed on Maternal and Child health and Nutrition this year, was held from January 9-12 at Egrove Park, Oxford UK. Each year, the Symposium brings together authoritative and influential leaders in public and private sectors from all around the world to reflect on different issues in the Emerging Markets. This intensive three-day meeting concluded with actionable recommendations in the penultimate session of the symposium, “What Should be Done”. This session was chaired by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar along with Suman Bery, Tsung-Mei Cheng, and Serra Kirdar-Meliti. Dr. Sania Nishtar was also a plenary speaker with Dr. Rifat Atun, Peter Bourne and Uwe Reinhardt, chaired by David levy.

January 20, 2014: The Muslim-Science.Com is an online journal, dedicated to “the revival of scientific, and science-based innovation and entrepreneurial culture in the Islamic World”. In 2014, it has launched its first list of ‘Top-20 Most Influential Women in Science in the Islamic World’ which encompasses 20 women from all over the world for their outstanding achievements as Pioneers, Shapers and Emerging Champions. In recognition of Dr. Sania Nishtar’s policy advocacy contributions to the development of science and innovation of the Islamic World, she has been listed as the Shaper amongst the top 20. More details can be viewed here.

January 10, 2014: With the new year, come new hopes and new challenges for governance of the country. One way to ensure excellence in leadership performance is through transparency and accountability in decision-making. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar urges on this singular prerequisite through her recent article simultaneously published in The News International and in Huffington Post. Your comments and views are welcome through Heartfile eForum.

December 10, 2013: On the occasion of its third annual Anticorruption Day Celebrations, the Asian Development Bank Governance and Public Management Community of Practice planned week-long events to raise awareness about the importance of integrity and anti-corruption amongst staff and stakeholders. The  events culminated with the main event on December 9 at the ADB headquarter in Manila, Philippines. The event was focused on ADB’s internal anticorruption campaign, “iACT: I fight corruption”. Our President, Dr Sania Nishtar was invited as the keynote speaker along with President of the Asian Development Bank, Takehiko Nakao and Philippine Congresswoman Leni Robredo. The text of her speech can be viewed here.

International Anti-corruption Day

December 10, 2013: A regional meeting on “Accelerating progress towards universal health coverage: global experiences and lessons for the Eastern Mediterranean Region” was hosted by the WHO Regional Office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 5 to 7 December 2013. The Conference aimed to share international experiences with regional policy- and decision-makers to assist them in devising a clear vision for health system reform to achieve the goal of Universal Health Coverage. At the occasion, our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar gave a plenary talk on “Innovations in health financing for Universal Health Coverage”.

November 28, 2013: The Summit on the Global Agenda is the world’s largest brainstorming event, which annually convenes over 900 thought leaders from globally recognized expert communities for the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils. This year, council members, including our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar met at the Global Agenda Summit in Abu Dhabi from November 18-20. The summit was hosted by the World Economic Forum in partnership with the Government of the United Arab Emirates. In recognition of the transformations that businesses, economies and societies are facing, members at this year’s Summit focused on ways of transforming new models into sustained processes in order to develop solutions for a greener and more socially inclusive world.

Global Agenda Council Summit

November 27, 2013: Launched in Recife, Brazil, this month, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization was a themed issue with a focus on Universal Health Coverage. The launch was held to mark WHO’s Third Global Forum on Human Resource for Health and thus the theme of the issue was human resources for universal health coverage. Featuring twenty-five articles, the Bulletin explores the efforts, work plans, successful engagements and challenges in involving the human resource towards achieving universal health coverage. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar was a lead author with Johanna Ralston, World Heart Federation on the Bulletin’s paper: Can human resources for health in the context of non-communicable disease control be a lever for health system changes?

November 27, 2013 The GAVI Alliance held its Board meeting in Cambodia on November 21-22, 2013 to identify the new vaccines to be added to the organization’s portfolio of support. The GAVI Alliance Board is intended to provide a platform for strategic direction and policy-making that will oversee the operations of the Alliance and monitor program implementation. At the occasion, our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar presented the Committee Chair Report as the Evaluation Advisory Committee Chair. The Board Meeting this year was featured by Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, representatives from donor and developing countries, civil society organizations, vaccine manufacturers and other stakeholders in global immunization. The minutes can be accessed here.

November 13, 2013: Over the years, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has developed a strong brand for publications on Pakistan. On November 6^th, 2013, through its Asia Program and Comparative Urban Studies Project and the Fellowship Fund for Pakistan, the Center held its latest conference, Pakistan’s Galloping Urbanization in Washington DC. Hosted by Robert Hathaway  and Michael Kugleman, the seminar invited eminent Pakistani scholars including our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar who presented her paper on Urbanization and Public Health. The Center will publish her findings in its subsequent volume on urbanization in Pakistan, which will be a compendium of research contributions by the scholars present at the conference, including Mohammad Qadeer, Tasneem Siddiqui, Murtaza Haider, Nadeem Ul Haque, Ahsan Iqbal, Aun Rahman and Nadeem Hussain.

November 12, 2013: The disease burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is exceptionally high in the developing world with 80% of deaths caused by NCDs occurring in low and middle income countries alone. Within that context, the John Hopkins University press has recently released a new book, titled Noncommunicable Diseases in the Developing World: Closing the gap. Edited by Jeffrey L. Sturchio and Louis Galambos, the book features several chapters by NCD experts that seek to provide the reader with recommendations and actions based on the authors’ experiences and their review of the NCD situation in the developing world. One of these chapters, “Sectoral Cooperation for the Prevention and Control of NCDs” was co-authored by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar and Sir George Alleyne.

October 3, 2013:  Our President Sania Nishtar was at UNICEF headquarters in New York last week for a “Conversation with Thought Leaders” in their Series. The objective of the Conversations event is to convey, through discussions with leading thinkers a better understanding of global trends shaping the contemporary world and its future. The Conversations foster a debate with UNICEF staff and beyond, and help position its work within this broader context.

September 26, 2013:  The United States Government, Permanent Missions of CARICOM to the United Nations, the NCD Alliance and the NCD Roundtable jointly hosted a side event in New York, on the margins of the UN Special Event on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) early this week. This high-profile multi-stakeholder dialogue – Healthy Planet, Healthy People: Building Synergies for Sustainable Development was opened by HRH Princess Dina Mired of Jordan and featured a vibrant panel discussion on bridging health, NCDs and sustainable development. Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet moderated this full and dynamic panel, where our president, Sania Nishtar joined Ambassador Jimmy Kolker, Sir George Alleyne, Marie-Paul Kieny, Sarah England and Lisa MacCallum for discussion on the exiting next steps towards the post-2015 global health agenda, where NCDs are likely to be featured more prominently than they have been in global health priorities.

September 2, 2013: healthcare quality regulation has been an orphan area in Pakistan’s public policy. In our recent Oped, and blog-post, the suffering of an unfortunate woman have been highlighted to make a case for urgent policy action.

August 27, 2013: The 21st IUHPE World Conference on health promotion commenced in Pattaya, Thailand on August 25. Jointly hosted by the International Union of Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and Thaihealth, the four day conference focuses on “The best investments in health promotion”. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar, gave the keynote speech at the opening of the event. Michael Sparks, President of the IUHPE, termed the keynote speech as “the perfect start to a conference on investing well in health: clear and inspiring“. The text of this speech can be accessed here.

July 31, 2013: The Global Handbook on Non-communicable Diseases and Health Promotion has just been published by Springer. Edited by David V. McQueen, the book has a long list of contributors with expertise in various aspects of NCD global policy and practice. The Chapter on “NCDs and Civil Society: A History and a Roadmap” has been authored by our President, Sania Nishtar with Johanna Ralston of the World Heart Federation. Further details can be viewed here.

July 30, 2013: Our president, Sania Nishtar joined the UN ECOSOC High-level Segment 2013 Panel Discussion on Universal Health Coverage, earlier this month through a videolink. The event video can be viewed on UN Web TV with her comments accessible here.

ECOSOC High-level Segment in Geneva

July 24, 2013: iHEA Congresses are well established fora, which convene global experts in health economics each year. This year, the Congress was themed Celebrating Health Economics. It was held in Sydney, Australia on July 7-13, 2013. Heartfile participated in two sessions at the event. In the session “What can we learn from public sector based approaches to the challenge of universal health coverage in Asia and Africa?”, organized by Barbara McPake, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Dr. Faraz Khalid, Heartfile presented “The purpose, design and impact of Health Equity Funds: health financing mechanisms to protect the poor and pave the way to universal coverage”. In the other session “Beyond Bismark and Beveridge: innovative financing mechanism for UHC” Dr. Sania Nishtar participated through video message, which can be viewed here.

9th World Congress of the International Health Economics Association

July 18, 2013: With the increasing global traction for Universal Health Coverage, the Ministry of Health, Turkey collaborated with the Imperial College London, The Lancet and Istanbul Medipol University to launch the Lancet Series on Turkey at the Turkey Ministerial Conference on Universal Health Coverage on June 27-28, 2013. The meeting featured major stakeholders from OECD, World Bank and the World Health Organization. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar moderated the Ministerial panel on Managing Emergencies in the Context of Universal Health Coverage. Other panelists included Dr. Ala Alwan, WHO RD for the EMRO region and the Ministers and Secretaries of Health of Turkey, Romania and Indonesia. Podcast of the panel is available here.

Turkey Ministerial Conference on Universal Health Coverage

June 24, 2013: The World Health Organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland hosted the Eighth Global Conference on Health promotion: Health in All Policies on June 12, 2013. This high level meeting of experts and policy makers was held to support Member States in developing and strengthening policies across sectors while taking into account the health implications of decisions and actions. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar chaired a plenary panel. Webcast can be viewed here and the Conference Statement can be viewed here.

Eighth Global Conference on Health Promotion

June 21, 2013: We practice what we preach. Our president, Sania Nishtar voluntarily submits her decisions and actions during her tenure as Federal Minister for accountability and transparency. Her latest Op-Ed on the subject can be accessed here.

June 19, 2013: After a successful stint as Federal Minister in Pakistan’s Caretaker government, Sania Nishtar has resumed responsibilities as President Heartfile. While in office she had charge of four ministerial portfolios, Education, Science and Technology, Information Technology and Health. One of her main achievements was to re-establish Pakistan’s Health Ministry. Her Handover Papers to the next government, in her own words “provide the underlying rationale for the decisions I took while in office, and are meant to be a measure of how I performed. Through the Handover Papers I am holding myself accountable to the people”. We are delighted to have her back in office.  She has also shared a key reflection in a wallpaper message to all government functionaries when she left office.

June 3, 2013: Dr. Sania Nishtar, in her capacity as the Federal Minister with three portfolios and the government’s focal person on health headed Pakistan’s delegation to the annual 66^th World Health Assembly, hosted by the World Health organization in Geneva, Switzerland from May 20-28, 2013. The World Health Assembly, which is the supreme decision-making WHO body, drew on Ministers and officials from 194 Member states that congregated to undertake annual review of the activities of WHO and set new set priorities for the future. The Health Assembly this year focused on discussing specific health topics like non-communicable diseases, universal health coverage, women and children’s health, as well as the programme budget, administration, reform and management matters of WHO. More details can be viewed in the press release here and the video can be accessed here

May 21, 2013: As Pakistan begins its voyage in reforming its healthcare infrastructure, Heartfile and Aga Khan University jointly hosted the launch of the Pakistan Lancet Series at Comstech Auditorium in Islamabad on May 17, 2013. The series titled Health Transitions in Pakistan was revealed by Dr. Richard Horton, Chief-in-Editor of the Lancet. The Series Editors, Dr. Sania Nishtar, Federal Minister, Government of Pakistan and Prof. Zulfiqar Bhutta, the founding director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University were joined at the panel by Dr. Richard Horton, Prof. Tazeen Jaffar of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore and Dr. Abdul Ghaffar, Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO, Geneva. The meeting opened with a video message by Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO who praised the formation of the health division in Pakistan. The four papers published were then presented by the panelists.

Pakistan Lancet Series launch

May 13, 2013: Cervical cancer kills an estimated 275,000 women every year and 500,000 new cases are reported worldwide. Cervical Cancer-Free Coalition, a US-based research and advocacy group released their first Cervical Cancer Global Crisis Card globally on Friday, May 10, 2013. According to this report, Pakistan was ranked seventh in cervical cancer death statistics. The press release for the cervical cancer global crisis card upon its Pakistan launch can be viewed here which quotes Dr. Sania Nishtar’s concerns profusely who calls for an immediate intervention post elections.

March 19, 2013: Pakistanis are renowned for their zealous generosity and their charitable contributions towards humanitarian causes.  Rana Allawala and Saeed Allawala, both friends of the Heartfile Leaders’ Network, hosted a fundraiser for Heartfile Health Financing in Karachi on March 3, 2013. Justice (R) Nasir Aslam Zahid was the chief guest at the event, and our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was the keynote speaker. The event called on a selected gathering of Karachi’s eminent movers and shakers willing to lend support to Heartfile Health Financing, our social protection program, which protects the poorest of the poor from medical impoverishment.

March 15, 2013: The High Level Dialogue on Health in the Post 2015 Development Agenda was hosted by the governments of Botswana and Sweden in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF on March 4-6 in Gabarone, Botswana. The convening culminated the six month long global thematic consultation on health in the post-2015 development agenda. Our president, Sania Nishtar was one of the 47 delegates invited to the High Level Dialogue on Health. Her views on the subject can be viewed here on the Heartfile blog.

Post 2015 dialogue

February 27, 2013: The World Health Organization hosted a meeting of the Informal Consultation Group (ICG) of Experts on NCD on February 11-12 in the WHO Headquarter in Geneva. The meeting was held to review progress made in global initiatives for NCD prevention and control, to solicit inputs on WHO’s draft global action plan for NCD prevention and control 2013-20, and to discuss the possibilities and opportunities of NCD integration into the post-2015 UN development agenda. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar participated the meeting as a member of the ICG group of experts.

February 19, 2013: World’s renowned experts, eminent scientists and academics have contributed towards the latest series of the Lancet, Series 4 on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs),  launched on February 11, 2013. The Series builds on the High Level Meeting on NCDs convened by the United Nations in 2011 and on its previous series in 2010, 2007 and 2005. The Series, coordinated by Robert Beaglehole, aims to bring more evidence in the public domain, as the post-2015 agenda planning is underway. It also proposes cost-effective interventions to accelerate progress to avert millions of deaths, worldwide, by 2025. In this Series, our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar co-authored a viewpoint, ‘Improving responsiveness of health systems to non-communicable diseases with Prof. Rifat Atun of Imperial College, London as the lead author. This paper focuses on developing health systems in response to non-communicable diseases in the midst of challenges incurred by them.

January 29, 2013: Our President Sania Nishtar attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 in Davos from January 22 to 26. Amongst other things, she was a panellist in the session “Religion and Politics” and spoke about the impact of religion on development. She was also the official Rapporteur for the session on “the Future of Health”. Official rapporteurs was a new role introduced by WEF at their annual meeting this year to capture select sessions, building upon high-level topic expertise of the rapporteur. Her insights on the session and conversation with the session moderator webcast by WEF can be viewed here. Additionally, she was a discussion leader on another event at the Forum which focused on human capital.

January 18, 2013: The Emerging Markets Symposium this year was themed Gender Inequality in Emerging Markets, held on January 11-13, 2013 at the Egrove Park, Oxford UK. It was hosted by Green Templeton College. Each year, the Symposium brings together authoritative and influential leaders in public and private sectors from all around the world. This intensive three-day meeting concluded with actionable recommendations. With 49 participants, a number of sessions were held, one of which was on Women’s Leadership, chaired by Madeline Kunin. Speakers at this session included Baroness Goudie, Serra Kirdar Meliti, Mona Lena Krook and our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar.

December 31, 2012: The Lancet and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington co-hosted the launch of the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 on December 14, 2012. The meeting featured a series of panel discussions on the subject. The fourth session of the launch, centered around comparative risk assessments was chaired by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar. Panelists included Prof. Srinath Reddy, Sir Richard Peto, Prof. David Leon, Stephen Lim and Majid Ezzati. The podcast of the full meeting can be viewed here and for highlights of the session, you can visit the Heartfile eForum.

November 27, 2012: The British-Pakistan Foundation held a Roadshow on November 16th, 2012, to raise awareness within the UK Pakistani Diaspora about the ‘third sector’ activity in Pakistan in terms of civil society contribution towards the development agenda in Pakistan and to present successful health sector examples to the diasporas. Asif Rangoonwala, Chairman BPF made the opening remarks for the panel, which was moderated by Suniya Qureshi, BPF Executive Director. The panel included Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan, Representative RSPN; Saquib Hameed, Executive Director LRBT; Moazzam Malik, Director West Asia DFID; Dr. Mohammed Iqbal, Representative APPSUK, Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Representative Medic Liverpool FC and our president Sania Nishtar, who showcased the work of Heartfile.

November 14, 2012: The Summit on the Global Agenda is an annual global brainstorming that brings together members of the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils. In its fifth session this year, over 700 expert members of the Network of Global Agenda gathered at the Summit to address over 70 areas of global interest. The webcast of the Summit can be accessed here and the executive summary can be viewed here.  Our President, Sania Nishtar attended the meeting as a member of the Council on Wellbeing and Mental Health.

November 14, 2012: The paper titled “How to achieve international action on falsified and substandard medicines” published today (November 14th, 2012) in the British Medical Journal calls for a treaty on falsified medicine. Amir Attaran, Associate Professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at the University of Ottawa was the lead author of this paper. One of the key attributes of this paper was the scale of international consensus it garnered amongst international development, public health and legal experts. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was one of the co-authors.

November 12, 2012: The World Economic Forum on India 2012 was held from November 7-8, 2012 in New Delhi where leaders were invited to share their ideas on India’s development. One of the sessions “Health Collaboration as a Bridge”, looked at nurturing cross-border relationship through health and building partnerships. Panelists from the Indian side included Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman, Global Health Private, India; Prof. K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), India and Pretha C. Reddy, Executive Chairman, Apollo Hospital Enterprise. Our president, Sania Nishtar, and Jahangir Khan Tareen, Former Minister of Special Initiatives, Government of Pakistan were the panelists from the Pakistan side. The synopsis can be accessed here.

Our president Sania Nishtar attended the World Economic Forum on India 2012 which was held from November 7-8 2012

World Economic Forum: Health Collaboration as a Bridge

November 11, 2012: Heartfile and International Development Research Centre (IDRC) jointly hosted a Satellite event on the occasion of the 2nd Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Beijing on November 3, 2012 at the Beijing International Conference Centre. The event was organized as a consultation, with the purpose of soliciting peer views on Heartfile Health Financing’s evaluation strategy. Panelists included Sharmila Mhatre (IDRC), Dr Abdul Ghaffar (WHO), Dr. Johanthan Quick (MSH), Dr. Babak Pourbohloul in addition to Dr Faraz Khalid and Dr. Sania Nishtar, from Heartfile.

November 11, 2012: The Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research was held from October 31^st till November 3^rd, 2012 in Beijing which was attended by over 1,700 representatives from more than 100 countries and 760 institutions. The final Plenary on Post-2015 development goals: Framing the issues, prioritizing health and using the evidence was chaired by Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet and the plenary speakers included Joseph Kasonde, Minister of Health of Zambia; Anders Nordström, Ambassador for Global Health, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden; Bob Emery from USAID; Toomas Palu, from the World Bank and our president, Sania Nishtar. The Webcast for which can be accessed here.

Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Beijing

November 05, 2012: Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar recently published her views on Development and how Pakistan fits into the post-2015, Millennium Development Goals agenda. Her article has been published in the Huffington Post on October 31^st, 2012 and in The News on November 5, 2012.

October 29, 2012: This year, the 4th World Health Summit was held on October 21-24 in Berlin, Germany. The 2012 Summit was themed “Research for Health and Sustainable Development,” and focused on finding innovative solutions for NCDs and conditions of global concerns, including unhealthy lifestyles. The three-day interactive event featured a number of “multi-stakeholder panels” under patronage of Angela Markel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was a panelist at the session on “Governance for a Healthy Planet: Are we building new silos? How to combine the priority health agendas? MDGs, NCDs, SDH”. The session was chaired by Ilona Kickbusch and Anders Nordström. Other panelists included Kate Gilmore, Bjorn Oddens, and Marleen Temmermann.

October 16, 2012: This year, Program of Seminars at the 2012 World BANK/ IMF Annual Meetings in Tokyo featured a Global Health Session on “Making the Case for Investing in Health, Again!”. The session was moderated by Andrew Jack of the Financial Times and opening comments were made by Akihiko Tanaka (President, JICA). Panelists included Maria Kiwanuka (Minister of Finance, Uganda), Christopher Murray (Director, Institute for Health metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington), Haruo Naito (President & CEO, Eisai Co.) and our President, Sania Nishtar. The webcast of this seminar can be viewed here.

Webcast of the Tokyo session on ‘The Case for Investing in Health’

October 9, 2012: The application of complex systems modeling has progressed dramatically over the past decade and there has been a growing interest in utilizing these methods to evaluate existing public health measures or design new intervention/control programs. Despite these advances, these models have not been fully employed in the broader context of health systems research. Recently our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar co-hosted the captioned retreat with Dr. Babak Pourbohloul in Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Italy on September 25-28, 2012, where two groups of experts:  health systems experts and mathematicians were brought together to explore a new interface bridging disciplines. The meeting concluded with a statement, which can be accessed here.

Bellagio Meeting on Complex Health Systems Analysis

September 24, 2012: The Planning Commission held a meeting to explore the prospect of collaborating with Heartfile Health Financing (HHF)—Heartfile’s innovative social protection program, which aims to help the poorest of the poor in Pakistan from catastrophic shocks. The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Chairman, Mr. Nadeem Ul Haq. Participants included stakeholders representing various ministries of  the Government of Pakistan in addition to a number of development partners and expert. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar gave a presentation on the HHF system which stirred an interest in its potential for up-scaling and its potential for collaborations. The Planning Commission has devised to form a Working Group to follow up on this consultation.

September 14, 2012: The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health and the WHO East Mediterranean Regional Office jointly organized an International Conference in Riyadh September 10-12. Participants including government and non-government stakeholders in the region had the opportunity to re-assess their commitment for prevention and control of NCDs. The Conference issued a “Riyadh Commitment” which emphasized on the participants’ desire to making the UN General Assembly Political Declaration on NCD Control and Prevention a success story in the EM Region. Our President, Sania Nishtar was a plenary speaker and gave a global overview of NCDs.

EMRO High Level Conference on Non-Communicable Diseases

September 7, 2012. The 20th IPPNW World Congress was recently held in Hiroshima, Japan. The host organization, the “International Physicians for Preventing Nuclear War” is the Nobel Peace Prize-winner union of physicians around the world. The congress themed this year, “From Hiroshima to Future Generations” supported its commitment towards global peace building. Dr. Sania Nishtar was a plenary speaker in the session titled “World without Structural Violence and Human Security”. Her talk centered on the intersections between human security and peace.

Sania Nishtar speaking at a peace conference in Hiroshma

August 23, 2012: The Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College London and the Qatar Foundation hosted this year’s Global Health Policy Summit on August 1, 2012 in London. The Summit was held at the Guild Hall; leaders from all over the world with a common aim of creating an active global community of health innovators and reformers were presented with an opportunity to collaborate to tackle the challenges facing healthcare systems. Dr. Sania Nishtar was a panel speaker at the summit’s Innovative Delivery Models session at the Summit.

Global Health Policy Summit

August 07, 2012: The World Health Organization and UNAIDS organized a joint high level satellite meeting, the International AIDS Conference on July, 22nd 2012 in Washington, D.C. The session focused on the health systems’ challenges related to the management of chronic conditions with a particular focus on HIV and NCDs. Among others, Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO participated in the session, moderated by Richard Horton. Dr. Sania Nishtar made the opening presentation at the session.

Learning from HIV experience: An NCDs and health systems perspective

August 02, 2012: Dr. Sania Nishtar was interviewed by a premium media brand, monocle 24 for their radio show, The Entrepreneurs which has up to 50,000 listeners per episode. In her interview, Dr. Nishtar spoke about the unique Heartfile Health Financing program which allows healthcare access to the “poorest of the poor” through its technology interfaced health financing program. To listen to the full interview, click here and skip to 19 minutes 53 seconds.

July 27, 2012: After a successful June 11 launch in Washington the Heartfile Leaders’ Network has also been launched in London at a reception at the House of Lords on July 11. Dr. Peter Bourne, Former Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations and former special assistant to Jimmy Carter, spoke at the reception to mark the London launch; Prof. Sir Eldryd Parry, Prof. Rifat Atun, Richard Blewitt and many prominent members of the Pakistani diaspora joined the reception and pledged their support for Heartfile.

The London Launch of the Heartfile Leaders’ Network

July 26, 2012: Pakistan was in the spotlight at the House of Lords in London on July 11. The seminar, “Innovative Financing for the Poor: Pakistan at the Cutting Edge” featured a discussion on the Heartfile Health Financing program. The event was hosted by Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, and was moderated by Dr. Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet. Dr. Sania Nishtar was the keynote speaker, alongside panelists Prof. Sir Eldryd Parry, Prof. Rifat Atun and Richard Blewitt of HelpAge International. The event was succeeded by a reception in the Attlee Room at the Lords where the London Launch of the Heartfile Leaders’ Network took place.

Event at the House of Lords in London

July 23, 2012: Jennifer Brookland profusley quoted Dr. Sania Nishtar’s insights in her article “Polio in Pakistan: Who’s to blame?”, published on a popular International Development web-portal, DEVEX. Pakistan along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, remains one of the three countries world-wide where Polio is still an endemic. Read here.

June 29, 2012: The captioned meeting was convened in Washington, DC on June 14-15 by the Governments of the United States, India and Ethiopia. It was organized in close collaboration with UNICEF in order to bring together decision makers and thought-leaders to identify the smart investments to collectively end preventable child deaths. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar was a panelist in the session on “How to Reach Every Child with Essential Services: Coverage with quality and equity” and talked about ways of getting everyone on board, and engaging private health care providers in child survival.

High level meeting on Child Survival: a Call to Action

June 22, 2012: Partners for a New Beginning (PNB) hosted the Washington launch of the Heartfile Leaders Network on June 11, 2012. The Network is being established to support the work of Heartfile Health Financing and the Sania Nishtar Health Fund. Event details can be viewed here.
Partners for a New Beginning is a network operating in ten countries around the world where local projects and priorities are identified by local chapters. The Secretariat strategically matches these projects with US and international partners. The Aspen Institute in Washington serves as the Secretariat for Partners for a New Beginning. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar is a member of the PNB Pakistan Chapter.

Aspen Institute event for Heartfile

June 14, 2012: The 2nd Meeting of the Advisory Group of the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy for Health Systems Research was held in Boston at the Harvard Inn on June 11-12. The meeting was hosted by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar attended the meeting as a member of the Advisory Committee.

June 13, 2012: Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar recently attended the Board Meeting of the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) in her capacity as the Chair of the Evaluation Advisory Committee of GAVI and presented the committee update

June 12, 2012: View a recently released video, which features the work of our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar. The video was shot during the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2011 innovation forum. Click here to view.

May 05, 2012: Heartfile hosted the Pakistan Lancet Series Stakeholders’ Consultation in Islamabad on April 20. The meeting was hosted by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar and Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta. Dr. Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet and Dr. Pamela Das, Series Editor joined through a video link. The objective of the Pakistan Lancet Series is to identify evidence-based critical actions, which can be institutionalized as a priority to reform Pakistan’s health system within the context of the opportunity created by the devolution reform and against the backdrop of the prevailing macro-economic, geo-strategic and capacity constraints the country is facing.

May 01, 2012: Forum 2012, the new order in Global Forum for Health Research meetings, was recently held in Cape Town from 24 to 26 April 2012. The meeting was hosted by the Geneva based COHRED Group under the theme of “Beyond Aid: Research and Innovation as key drivers for Health, Equity and Development”. Our President, Sania Nishtar was a panelist in two sessions on “Innovative Models of Healthcare Delivery” and “Women and Science and Technology” and chaired the session on “Strengthening Networks and Partnerships in Research Innovation”. The webcast can be viewed here.

Forum 2012 in Cape Town

April 30, 2012: The Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) is a global public-private partnership focused on saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing access to immunisation in poor countries. The Alliance Board recently had a retreat in Oslo on April 16-17, which was attended by our President Dr. Sania Nishtar, who chairs GAVI’s global Evaluation Advisory Committee.

April 13, 2012: The recent ‘twin’ high level meetings on Wellbeing and Happiness, in New York, the first hosted by Jeffery Sachs on April 1 at the Columbia University and the second by Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley of Bhutan at the UN General Assembly on April 2 were important initial steps in the global response to the challenge of elaborating measurements of happiness and wellbeing. Beyond that they served as an important step on the path to new sustainable development goals, which will hopefully include measurement of wellbeing after the 2015 end-date of the MDGs. Our president, Sania Nishtar attended both the events. The webcasts of the events will be available shortly.

April Meetings on Wellbeing in New York

March 09, 2012: The new Regional Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization convened a high level expert meeting on health priorities in Cairo on March 1-2 just after assuming office. Heartfile President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was amongst the select group of experts invited to reflect on the WHO reform process and priorities for its scope of work in the future.

March 06, 2012: 125 deaths were recently reported in Pakistan as a result of fatal bone-marrow suppression subsequent to contaminated substandard drug intake. These drugs were available to the poor free of cost from a public cardiology pharmacy. Our analysis of the situation has just been published in The Lancet and in the News International.

February 24, 2012: Our recent co-authored comment in UNA-UK’s New World magazine titled “The global push against non-communicable diseases” can be accessed here.

Februray 17, 2012: The British Medical Health Journal (BMJ) recently highlighted the issue of contaminated drugs in Pakistan that led to the deaths of 120 people. In a statement to the journal, our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar commented that this should be a wake up call. “There are only a handful of testing laboratories in the country” and that “…while the standard operating procedures for quality testing may have been articulated, the infrastructure to implement them does not exist”.

February 07, 2012: Read about our recent comment in the Huffington Post about the World Economic Forum’s niche as a convening space for health sector stakeholder engagement. This is a much needed capacity in the current global economic environment where global solutions can best be achieved by exploiting public-private synergy.

February 06, 2012: The Women in the World Foundation has featured a story on “Two Doctors Overcoming Obstacles to Accessing Healthcare”, focusing on the work of our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar. Click here to read article.

February 02, 2012: WEF’s Annual Meeting in Davos was focused on “The great transformations: shaping new models”. Our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar was one of the panelists at a session on Innovative Development Models. Other panelists included: Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development of the United kingdom; Seth F. Berkley, Chief Executive Officer, GAVI Alliance, Switzerland; Kenneth C. Frazier, Chairman, President and CFO, Merck & Co., USA; Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Geneva; Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General, UN Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva. The panel was moderated by John McArthur of the United Nations Foundation, USA.

February 14, 2012: Dr. Saba Amjad and Yasir Abbas Mirza represented Heartfile at the recent Packard Foundation’s partners meeting, which was held at JW Marriott in Dubai on January 27-28. The meeting focused on compliance training and program overview. Our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar talked on challenges and opportunities of health and population in the changing context in the post 18^th-Amendment scenario.

DAVID AND LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION’S PARTNERS MEETING

January 17, 2012: Due to popular demand, we have compiled an archive of Heartfile’s articles on the devolution of the health portfolio and the abolition of the health ministry in Pakistan as a result of the 18th Constitutional Amendment. These can be accessed here.

December 26: 2011: Abu Dhabi recently hosted the World Health Care Congress Middle East where a plenary session on Innovative Financing Models for Global Health Care Challenges was featured as part of the Congress’ emerging trends theme. The panel included Robert Filipp, (Founder, Innovative Finance, Geneva); Dr. Paolo de Santis, (Partner, McKinsey & Co., Rome); Wassim Mourtada, (CEO Envision ALR, Abu Dhabi); Helmut M. Schüehsler, (Managing Partner, TVM Capital, Munich) and Heartfile Founder and President, Dr. Sania Nishtar.

December 24, 2011: The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council, with its focus on global risks and the means of their mitigation, was held in Dubai, from November 30–December 1, 2010. This year, the Chronic Disease Council had a strategic role to play in convening members to deliberate on strategies to address the chronic disease challenge in view of the upcoming UN General Assembly special session on chronic non-communicable diseases in September, 2011. Dr. Sania Nishtar attended the meeting as a member of the Council on Chronic Diseases.

December 19, 2011: As a follow up to the UN high level summit on NCDs, a WHO EMRO consultative meeting was recently held on “Building Regional NCD Research Agenda and Enhancing Implementation of NCD Action Plan.” The meeting, which was held in Dubai, from 11 to 13 December 2011 concluded with a set of research priorities and was well attended by researchers and policy makers from all over the WHO EMRO region. Heartfile president, Dr. Sania Nishtar attended the meeting as the invited expert from Pakistan.

December 14, 2011: Heartfile Health Financing was featured as a key theme in discussions at the 2nd Annual Public Health Conference on Health Systems held at the Health Services Academy in Islamabad. The focus was on “Public health in the wake of recent reforms in Pakistan.” Dr. Sania Nishtar was invited to speak at the opening plenary and Dr. Faraz Khalid gave a program overview in one of the concurrent sessions.

December 12, 2011: University of Hong Kong in collaboration with Elsevier, hosted the Health System Reform in Asia Conference 2011 on Dec 9-12 in Hong Kong. Dr. Sania Nishtar’s plenary talk at the conference, relayed via a video link can now be accessed here.

December 09, 2011: One of the plenary sessions at the recent meeting of the Global Chapters of Partners for a New Beginning, in Turkey on December 2, focused on Partnerships. Our President, Sania Nishtar was on the panel and shared with the panel and the audience Heartfile’s approach to partnership building.

PARTNERSHIP PLENARY IN ISTANBUL

November 21, 2011: Huffington Post UK launched a new Impact section on issues, charities and making a difference on Friday November 18, 2011, the same day as the BBC’s Children In Need campaign. Our comment on Innovative Financing for health in Pakistan was displayed on the front page of the Impact section available to more than four million Huffington Post readers in the UK with around 35m for the site worldwide. Read here…

November 07, 2011: The review published in the November issue of the WHO Bulletin states that the “book provides a timely spotlight on the investment needed to develop effective, transparent and pro-poor health systems” and that it has “something to offer for both the local and global audience” Click here to access the article in PDF format

WHO BULLETIN PUBLISHES A REVIEW OF CHOKED PIPES

November 5, 2011: Follow our recent comment on the Polio situation in Pakistan in the Huffington Post

November 05, 2011: Heartfile has made assistance available for victims of the recent flood through the Heartfile Health Financing program. The program currently provides assistance to patients who are prone to catastrophic expenditures on healthcare. View details

November 01, 2011: This month’s issue of Asian Scientist magazine carries an interview of Dr. Sania Nishtar about the new Sania Nishtar Health Fund and what inspired her to start Heartfile Health Financing. To read the interview please click here.

October 27, 2011: The Sania Nishtar Health Fund was launched at an event hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York on September 20, 2011. The fund has been set up to support the work of Heartfile Health Financing and has been created with the Global Innovation Award that Dr. Nishtar received in July from the Rockefeller Foundation. Keynote remarks at the launch were made by Sir George Alleyne, Syed Babar Ali, and Dr. Mehmood Khan. Participating agencies included Partners for a New Beginning at the Aspen Institute, the American Pakistan Foundation, the World Economic Forum and the World Heart Federation. Further details about the Fund can be viewed here.

October 26, 2011: The World Health Organization, at its recent World Conference in Rio de Janeiro, organized a ministerial panel on “Ensuing Equitable Universal Coverage” and convened policymakers and experts to discuss on-ground examples relevant to universal coverage health reform. Panelists included Simon Burns, Minister of State for Health, United Kingdom; Alexandre Padilha, Minister of Health Brazil; Dr Jeanette Vega, Ex Minister of Health, Chile, Margaret Chan, Director General, WHO and our President, Sania Nishtar. The webcast of the session will shortly be available through this portal.

WORLD CONFERENCE ON THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

October, 18, 2011: At the recent captioned meeting in Abu Dhabi, the Global Agenda Council on Health and Well-being 2011, which is one of the World Economic Forum’s 79 Councils, focused on making a case for positioning health and wellness, as the potential fourth bottom line of businesses. The understanding is that performance, social responsibility and commitment to environmental protection are the existing three. Our President, Sania Nishtar, is a member of the council and attended the meeting.

GLOBAL AGENDA COUNCIL, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

October 14, 2011: Our recent paper, “Heartfile Health Financing: Striving to achieve Health Equity in Pakistan,” has just been published on a World Health Organization hosted website for the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health. The conference commences on October 19, 2011. The paper is part of a series of case studies that present successful examples of policy action aiming to reduce health inequities. The paper can be downloaded here and background details can be accessed here.

October 05, 2011: a recent paper co-authored by Eva Jane Lopez of the World Economic Forum and Sania Nishtar from Heartfile outlines the imperative for creating an apex global coordinating mechanism for non-communicable diseases. This is the first publication after the release of the high level political declaration on NCDs, which reinforces one of the declaration’s key recommendations centered on furthering international collaboration on NCD. The paper can be accessed here

September 22, 2011: A special issue of ‘The Journal of Health Communication’ was launched at a side event to the UN high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases in New York on September 19. Both guest editors, Peter Anderson and Dr. Sania Nishtar, are members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Chronic Disease and Wellness where at a meeting of this body in 2010 in Dubai, the idea for this special supplement was conceived. The authors of this 205-page journal have engaged in research and dialogue throughout the globe. The issue can be downloaded here and the authors’ introduction to the series can be viewed here.

September 08, 2011: Seventh in the series, the captioned Congress, which was held in St Gallen in the last week of August, 2011 explored Demography’s intersections with other sectors. Our president Sania Nishtar was a plenary speaker in the session titled “Demography meets Health”.

WORLD AGEING AND GENERATIONS CONGRESS 2011

September 07, 2011: Our final viewpoint on the devolution of the health portfolio from the standpoint of national roles has just been published in The News International (Click here to Download). You can also view the proposed national structure for health in the post devolution situation.

August 24, 2011: Democracy, politics, governance and accountability – historically misunderstood in theory and practice, these attributes of state governance need to be properly addressed in order to improve every aspect of the body politic, especially health systems performance. Our recent Independence Day Commemorative Viewpoint, which focuses on this can be downloaded here.

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August 19, 2011: In preparation for the UN High Level Meeting on September 19-20, 2011, the NCD Alliance has just released its Human Rights Brief. This has been prepared by its Human Rights Working Group, of which Dr. Sania Nishtar is a member. Ten key recommendations are outlined in the brief including inter alia, implementation for prevention of NCDs, the right to essential medicines and technologies and vulnerable populations,. Click here to view the four page summary and the in-depth paper can be downloaded here

August 12, 2011: the recently held debut meeting of the Aman ki Asha Health Committee in Delhi concluded with a declaration and an action plan for the way forward. The meeting was chaired by our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar and Dr. Naresh Trehan from India. The outputs of the meeting now serve as the framing context for pursuing mutual learning, sharing of experiences and exploring avenues for collaboration.

August 09, 2011: Hosted by Wafaa El-Sadr, Rifat Atun and Jean Paul Moatti, the above meeting included an afternoon Panel, which was chaired and moderated by our president, Dr. Sania Nishtar.  Panelists included Ambassador Eric Goosby (United States Global AIDS Coordinator), Bart Janssen (Medicines Sans Frontiers), Gottfried Hirnschal (WHO) and Chewe Luo (UNICEF).

August 03, 2011:  As part of its first annual Innovation Awards ceremony in New York held on July 7, 2011, the Rockefeller Foundation honored four Global Innovators, amongst them our president Dr. Sania Nishtar, who received the innovation award for her unique contributions to the field of global health. Other award recipients include President Bill Clinton, Jane Weru, executive director of the Akiba Mashinani Trust in Kenya and representatives from the microfinance organization Kiva in the Classroom. The press release from the event and video footages can be viewed.

ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATIONS AWARD INNOVATION

August 01, 2011: Our most recent viewpoint on the rapidly evolving situation regarding the abolition of the Ministry of Health and health devolution in Pakistan was published last Saturday. This viewpoint is in two parts with the first raising questions and the second is expected to offer options for the way forward. The author is soliciting your views, which we prefer receiving through our Facebook page. Alternatively, she can be emailed directly at sania@heartfile.org

July 18, 2011: Many lessons can be drawn from the scale-up of HIV services in low-income countries for institutionalizing care for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Such insights are useful as the international community and domestic policy planners converge during the upcoming UN High Level NCDs Summit this September to draw strategies to address the burgeoning challenge of NCDs. Dr. Sania Nishtar has recently co-authored an article with Miriam Rabkin of Columbia University to draw attention to the potential of such experience sharing. The paper has been published in a special supplement of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which was released at an event preceding the International AIDS conference in Rome, on July 15, 2011. The article can be downloaded here.

July 08, 2011: The US Institute of Peace in collaboration with another Washington based think tank, the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding, held a panel discussion on the captioned subject in Washington on June 14, 2010. Panelists included Dr. Sania Nishtar, Dr. Attiya Khan, Naveed Hassan Naqvi and Mr. McCloud (USAID). The session was moderated by Moeed Yusuf (USIP).

BUILDING PAKISTAN’S HUMAN CAPITAL: A FOCUS ON HEALTH AND EDUCATION

July 6, 2011: Dr. Sania Nishtar chaired the preview of TDR’s IDEAS (Infectious Diseases, Evidence for Action) Report on June 14 at the Global Health Council meeting in Washington. The global report on research priorities for infectious diseases of poverty “offers new ways of improving public health in poor countries, with research as the compelling foundation and driver for policies.”

TDR REPORT PREVIEW

June 29, 2011: The World Bank south Asian HNP multi-sectoral Decentralization Study Group hosted a lunch presentation at the World Bank in Washington on June 15, 2011. Our President Dr. Sania Nishtar presented our recent analysis related to the captioned subject with Pakistan as a setting. Julie Mclaughlin chaired the session and Pablo Gotrett was the discussant. The announcement featuring the background can be viewed and the analytical report can also be downloaded.

DO WE NEED MINISTRIES OF HEALTH

June 27, 2011: The establishment of a Drug Regulatory Authority is once again on Pakistan’s policy agenda. In principle a step in the right direction, Heartfile examines its implications and suggests some practical recommendations in its recent analysis.

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June 22, 2011: The Lancet NCD Action Group’s recent paper “UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases” answers four key questions, which need to be addressed if the UN High-Level meeting on NCDs in September, an opportunity to incite a coordinated global effort against NCDs, is to live up to its potential. Led by Robert Beaglehole and Ruth Bonita, the paper is authored by 11 other experts from around the world including our President, Dr. Sania Nishtar. The paper and its accompanying summary can be downloaded.

June 21, 2011: During the recent UN General Assembly Civil society hearing on NCDs, which was held in the run up to the September NCDs summit, Dr. Sania Nishtar led one of the three roundtables and spoke about the need to enhance global cooperation, outlining the stakeholders, mechanisms and modalities. The video of the hearing was split up into two separate parts. You can fast forward to the relevant section of the video at 1 hour, 36 minutes to view her comments.

UN CIVIL SOCIETY HEARING ON NCDS

June 9, 2011: The captioned report by the Asia Society Pakistan 2020 Study Group, whose members include a mix of individuals, all of whom are leaders in their own separate fields, is now available for download. The report, written by project director, Hassan Abbas, has insights and intellectual contributions from the group including Dr. Sania Nishtar from Heartfile.

June 06, 2011: Through Heartfile Health Financing, we make assistance available to the poor who cannot afford to pay for healthcare and run the risk of spending catastrophically. Most of the patients we support are the poorest of the poor and we are often confronted with situations where patients need ongoing help beyond healthcare. The case of two patients just supported through our program is illustrative and our summer intern has narrated an account of these cases, which can be viewed here. We are looking for organizations that can help support these patients beyond healthcare and would be grateful if anyone has any ideas in this regard.

May 31, 2011: The captioned comment raises the point about broader issues of governance in Pakistan, which are impeding progress in general as well as towards health systems goals. The comment gives a message of hope in relation to societal strengths in Pakistan and also raises the point about the need for capacity and will at the State level  to harness the strength of the society.

View PDF version

May 5, 2011. Read our commentary in the Lancet “Pakistan prepares to abolish Ministry of Health”, which has just been published on “Online First”. We are also releasing the final version of the accompanying report, “Health and the 18th Amendment: retaining national functions in devolution” today.

May 5, 2011: Read our recent viewpoint about the challenges and lack of clarity vis-à-vis regulatory prerogatives subsequent to the pronouncement of the 18th constitutional amendment in Pakistan. This ambiguity has implications for health with respect to regulation of human resources, drugs, service delivery and medical education. Click here to read more.

May 5, 2011. Read our commentary in the Lancet “Pakistan prepares to abolish Ministry of Health”, which has just been published on “Online First”. We are also releasing the final version of the accompanying report, “Health and the 18th Amendment: retaining national functions in devolution” today.

May 2, 2011: Heartfile president, Dr. Sania Nishtar attended the First Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Non-Communicable Disease Control as a member of the International Steering Committee of the conference. She also synthesized outcomes of sessions both during the closing plenary of the ministerial meeting on the 29th as well as the WHO Global Forum on the 27th. The aim of the conference was to “support member states in developing and strengthening policies and programmes on healthy lifestyles and NCD prevention.”

MOSCOW MINISTERIAL MEETING ON NCDS

April 19, 2011: Dr. Sania Nishtar’s interview in The NEWS International about how the 18th Amendment still enables the federal government to retain a national role in health despite provincial devolution can be read here.

April 13, 2011: Bill Savedoff, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development, Washington, has commented on Heartfile’s recent paper on Health and the 18th Amendment. Read here

April 8, 2011: Sania Nishtar was inducted into University of Toledo’s Medical Mission Hall of Fame.

April 05, 2011: The 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan has devolved several subjects including health from the federal to the provincial level. This has far reaching implications for health, changing the entire health systems matrix in Pakistan. Heartfile’s recent paper, Health & the 18th Amendment underscores the importance of a national role for health. The paper is in the public domain and can be downloaded now. Comments if any should be sent to sania@heartfile.org. In addition to this news posting, we have also placed a comment in the newspaper to solicit inputs from a wider audience.