12th Annual Public Health Conference 

There are 37 million women (2020) in Southern Asia who give birth each year, but do not receive essential care. In most countries of this region, the health systems are weak along with poor quality of care. There is added disadvantage of having insufficient trained health workers, who are properly equipped to provide critical lifesaving care. The impact of weak health care systems is compounded by broader factors such as poverty, poor nutrition, poor sanitation and exposure to communicable diseases. A range of essential services is necessary to protect and enhance women’s health before, during and after pregnancy, and to give newborns a healthy start in life. 

Challenges of health system, equity and the high unmet need for family planning need urgent attention to accelerate the progress in the next decade. With just eight years left to achieve the 2030 targets, this research conference endeavors to review the past progress and identify the key areas for future action. It is the need of the time to synthesize existing information to understand the gaps in the health system and highlight the weaknesses in the management, monitoring and evaluation systems. The conference will focus on promoting and strengthening the fields of research, training, advocacy, policy and practice to contribute towards the attainment of universal access to SRHR in Pakistan and South Asia.

 Conference Objectives 

• To provide a platform for researchers to share their experiences in training, research, policy and practice engagement approaches and outcomes.

• To showcase innovations and successes in SRHR training, education, practices, research and policy engagements from other intervention programs and projects across Pakistan and South Asia.

• To identify priority SRHR areas to inform policy and practice to improve universal SRHR services.

 Expected Outcomes 

        To strengthen partnerships and collaboration among researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the areas of SRHR

 Theme

The main theme of the 12th Annual Conference is “SRHR in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) - Leveraging UHC for improving SRH in Pakistan and South Asian Region - Time to abandon business as usual.” 

 Sub-themes

• SRHR in the context of SDGs and UHC

• Innovations and approaches in SRHR service delivery including maternal and newborn health – use of program science

• Address issues and challenges of SRH faced by adolescents using innovations and relevant technology

• Health workforce and UHC – the role of mid-level health workers

• Successes and failures of family planning in Pakistan and regional countries

 Timeline

 Call for Abstracts

The Academy is requesting e-submissions of abstract, panel discussion, and poster based on the aforementioned themes by 25th September 2022 at :   https://www.hsa.edu.pk/12-annual-public-health-conference

Abstract, pre-formed panel and poster submissions must be in English and submitted electronically along with complete contact information, including valid e-mail address. Abstract content must meet the standard of an academic as well as scientific presentation. All abstracts will be reviewed by the Technical Committee. Information concerning the acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to the Principal Authors by 3 ^rd  October, 2022. All accepted abstracts will be compiled and published in the conference program as an abstract book.