POVILL is a CONSORTIUM of ten organisations. It is funded by a four-year grant from the European Union Framework 6 to generate knowledge about the impact of major illness on household livelihoods and the degree to which interventions help them cope in China, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
The consortium partners are:
IDS - Institute of Development Studies, UK
The Institute of Development Studies is a leading global organisation for research, teaching and communications on international development.
IDS hosts five dynamic research teams, eight popular postgraduate courses, and a family of world-class knowledge services. These three spheres are integrated in a unique combination – as a development knowledge hub, IDS is connected into and is a convenor of networks throughout the world.
IDS aims to challenge convention and to generate fresh ideas that foster new approaches to development policy and practice. Such problem-focused thinking requires a commitment to multidisciplinarity, not just within social sciences, but across research, teaching and communications.
CHEI - China Health Economics Institute, China
The China Health Economics Institute (CHEI) was established by the authority of State Staff Committee in 1991. It was under the leadership of Ministry of Health (MOH), which is a research institute at national level.
Main Research Areas
§ To conduct policy-orientated research on national health development strategy and health care system reform, and to provide consultation to policy-makers.
§ To conduct academic and practical research on health economics - this is the basis of the macro-economic policy and the micro-economic management in health care sector.
§ To conduct comprehensive research with relevant departments and organizations to promote international and national exchanges and communication.
§ To conduct health development programs
ZUEL - Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL) is an institution of higher education under the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China with economics, law, and management as its core disciplines. These are coordinated with the development of eight other disciplines including literature, history, philosophy, engineering, etc. ZUEL is also one of the universities sponsored by “211 project”, which is the Chinese government's new endeavour aimed at strengthening about 100 institutions of higher education and key disciplinary areas as a national priority for the 21st century.
The faculty has made over 30,000 research contributions, including more than 1,300 monographs, more than 1,700 textbooks, and more than 21,000 articles, with more than 500 publications in foreign countries.
In the fields of international academic exchange, ZUEL has developed a worldwide cooperative research and academic exchange relationships with universities and research institutions of more than 20 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, America, and Australia.
WCCMS - West China Center of Medical Sciences, Sichuan University, China
West China University of Medical Sciences was one of the best three medical universities in China directly under the Ministry of Health. It was combined with Sichuan University to form new Sichuan University in 2000 and it renamed as West China Center of Medical Science in Sichuan University.
Research Experience
§ Rural Health Care Financing: Rural Collective Medical System, description behavior and it determinants, Payment methods to providers
§ Behavioral Change and Health Promotion
§ Impact Evaluation of CMS
§ China Urban Medicaid: Access by the poor to basic health care, Care seeking behavior
WCCMS has close cooperation relationship with schools of public health in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.
ISDPP - Institute of Social Development, Beijing Normal University, China
Beijing Normal University was the earliest established teacher-training university in China, which grew out of the Faculty of Education of the Metropolitan University founded in 1902. It was named Beijing Normal University in 1923.
Beijing Normal University lays a great emphasis upon discipline construction, sets up a curriculum system for characteristics of teacher training, educational science, pure science and humanities. The University is a pioneer with respect to the number of national key laboratories, bases for science researching and talents cultivation, disciplines that offer PhDs.
Beijing Normal University has taken an active part in international academic exchanges and cooperation with more than one hundred overseas universities and international organisations. The field of international exchange and cooperation has expended very quickly.
ITM - Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium
http://www.itg.be/itg/
The Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium (ITM) is an inter- university but autonomous post-graduate institute for specialised training, research and service provision in the field of tropical medicine and health care in developing countries. It closely collaborates with institutes and research groups all over the world and especially in the South. Through its research and training, the Department of Public Health contributes to the worldwide development of sustainable effective health care systems that assure equity, quality, efficiency and participation.
NIPH - National Institute of Public Health, Cambodia
The National Institute of Public Health of Cambodia is the representative body of the Ministry of Health of Cambodia providing public health and laboratory services, training and research to improve the health of the Cambodian.
Its main purpose is to give target-oriented and qualified Public Health training to key health personnel, to analyse health-related problems, to assist in developing adequate approaches through decision linked operational research and to support the implementation of the Health Care System Reform through training and research in linked Provinces. Its National Reference Laboratory gives specific support for training, research, quality control and development of standards.
It provides policy makers with elements to base their health care reform on sound scientific evidence, to follow the process of implementation in analysing developed strategies and compare alternative approaches taking cost-efficiency into consideration.
CAS - Center for Advanced Study, Cambodia
The Center for Advanced Study (CAS) is an independent, non-political Cambodian institution devoted to research, education and public debate on issues affecting the development of the Cambodian society. CAS provides research services, develops research projects, supports research capacity building, and promotes the use of evidence-based policy by providing research assistance through consultancies, being research partner to local research network partner, (I)NGO, donor organisation or academic organisation.
CAS provides on the job research training, supervision of students’ theses and management of research capacity building programmes to strengthen social science research infrastructure and research capacity building. It also promotes the development of web-based social science research resources
KI - Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Karolinska Institute is one of Europe's largest medical universities. It is also Sweden′s largest centre for medical training and research, accounting for 30 per cent of the medical training and 40 per cent of the medical academic research that is conducted nationwide. Karolinska Institute′s mission is to improve the health of mankind through research, education and information.
The Karolinska Institute Library, KIB, is Sweden's largest medical library and the country's national resource library for medicine, odontology and care sciences.
NIOPH - National Institute of Public Health, Lao PDR
According to the demand of concretising of tasks, the National Institute of Public Health (NIOPH) was established in 1999 by the Prime Minister Degree No 20/PMO as a national focal point for health research and training activities in Lao PDR by merging of health research activities of the Council of Medical Sciences (CMS) and training activities of the School of Public Health (SPH).
NIOPH is responsible for the fifth main work plan of the MOH “Health Research and Training Management”. Thus, the NIOPH is supposed to be a macro technical body of the Ministry of Health, which is a national focal point for promoting, supporting, coordinating and implementing health research activities, health policies and research ethic development. In addition, the NIOPH conducts in country post graduate training and training on health management, upgrading health staffs in their relevant technical areas nationwide and cooperates with foreign partner institutions.
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) co-ordinates POVILL and has a small team that manages the programme.
-Gerry Bloom (Scientific co-ordinator)
-Jas Vaghadia (Project co-ordinator)
Consortium Agreement
Each partner has signed the Consortium Agreement which defines the relationship and working arrangements between partners and responsibilities to each other.
Consortium Steering Group
The Consortium Steering Group is the formal decision-making body for the project. Each partner is represented on this group. It has the overall responsibility for timely implementation, quality control and achievement of project objectives. It ensures that individual sub-studies are designed and implemented as part of a larger whole and that country studies take into account the comparative aspects of the project. It meets regularly and maintains regular contact through teleconferences and electronic communications. The Consortium Steering Group reviews and assesses project progress and ensures that the project stays on track to achieve the agreed objectives.
Scientific Advisory Committee
POVILL has identified a Scientific Advisory Committee. The committee reviews project progress and advises the Consortium Steering Group on technical issues and policy impact. The committee will review all relevant project deliverables and will provide technical feedback at key stages of the project.
Scientific Advisory Committee membership:
- Louise Fox, World Bank
- Agnes R Quisumbing, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA
- Dennis Ross-Degnan, Harvard Medical School, USA
- Viroj Tangcharoensathien, IHPP, Ministry of Health, Thailand
- Lawrence Haddad, Institute of Development Studies, UK
- Melissa Leach, Institute of Development Studies, UK
- Armando Barrientos, Institute of Development Studies, UK