From the ARUA 2021 Revised Conference Invitation: 

Focus of the 2021 ARUA Conference

The ARUA 2021 Biennial Conference will bring together experts from universities, research institutions, government, industry, civil society, international organizations, etc., to discuss the different steps that African economies need to take in order to face global public health challenges squarely. In reflecting on the prominent lessons from the handling of previous and current pandemics, the medium to long term implications of measures and steps taken to contain the spread of the virus in Africa will be the focus of the conference. This will be done 3 in recognition of the interconnections of the various issues involved in dealing with a pandemic.

The conference will seek answers to many questions, including the following:

• What are the characteristics of pandemics that make them likely to recur?
• Do African epidemiologists/scientists have sufficiently prominent role in national responses?
• Where is Africa in terms of the development of context-relevant protocols and containment measures for handling pandemics?
• What major steps do African governments need to take in addressing the obvious domestic knowledge gaps in dealing with global public health challenges and the resulting reliance on international expertise?
• What role can national research universities play in supporting national efforts in the development of containment and treatment protocols, medication as well as vaccines?
• What new sustainable strategies can be adopted to deal with poverty, inequality and unemployment in mitigating the impact of pandemics?
• What institutional vulnerabilities were exposed by recent pandemics and what new steps can be taken to strengthen the institutions?
• To what extent is Africa’s public health situation a consequence of inequality, food insecurity or governance?
• What has been the cost of the pandemic to economies, including the economic, social, human and institutional costs?
• What will it take to restart economies severely hit by the direct and indirect impacts of pandemics?

Conference Dates

The conference and workshops will take place on 18-20 November 2021. The two-day conference will be extended to a third day of workshops for the ARUA Centres of Excellence(CoE) devoted to drawing lessons from the conference and working with early career researchers to develop a strategy for tackling the effects of global public health challenges

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Outputs

The conference is expected to lead to several edited volumes. Depending on the ambitions of ARUA Centres of Excellence, it should also be possible for each CoE to produce another edited volume.

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Participation and Submission of Abstracts and Papers

Persons interested in participating in the conference may send an abstract of not more than one page to the organisers at info@arua.org.za before 31st May 2021. (The original deadline has been extended due to the Covid-19 situation). Applicants will be notified about decisions on their submissions by 30th June 2021.

Completed papers must be submitted before 30th October 2021.

There will be funding to support basic travel for a limited number of participants from poorly endowed universities and institutions. Award of such travel grants will be made strictly based on paper quality and the timeliness of submission.

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Visit https://arua.org.za/conferences/ or "Read More" to view the ARUA 2021 Revised Conference Invitation

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