Want to find out how human rights translate into access to medicines for patients in the global south? Interested in doing your own analysis of access to medicines situation in low and middle income countries? Gain this research experience with the Essential Laws for Medicines Access project at the Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre.  

About this research: We know that national laws in the key countries take a human rights-based approach to access to medicines and this will be your starting point. Your role will be to conduct a multidisciplinary, in-depth case study to understand more about what circumstances led the adoption of these laws. You will also investigate national policies for universal health coverage, programmes for access to medicines, and evidence of how these are functioning in practice. Your goal is to understand if and how the human-rights based laws have coincided with better access to medicines for patients ‘on the ground’. 

We have vacancies to research these key countries:

• Bolivia (Language: Spanish)
• Brazil (Language: Portuguese)
• Ecuador (Language: Spanish)
• Egypt (Language: French, Arabic)
• Kenya (Language: English, Swahili)
• Nigeria (language: English)
• Paraguay (Language: Spanish)
• Peru (Language: Spanish)

What you can gain:  This research is well suited anyone seeking a voluntary research assistantship to gain experience or a thesis topic in the field of access to medicines and human rights. (NB: We can tailor this research to a specific discipline (i.e. law, medicine, etc.) if you desire to take it on as a thesis topic.)

During your research, you will be supported to try varied search methods and apply different legal and public health frameworks to your findings. At the end of your research, you will have developed in-depth knowledge of the national access to medicines situation. At the conclusion of a successful research assistantship, we will work with you to find avenues to promote your findings (i.e. in publications by the Research Centre, guest blog posts, student symposium, etc.)

Who should apply: Students interested in multidisciplinary research on access to medicines with fluency in SPANISH, ENGLISH, FRENCH, ARABIC or PORTUGUESE especially encouraged to apply.

How to apply: Interested students should send a brief email to Katrina Perehudoff (Katrina.perehudoff-at-gmail.com) as soon as possible as our first meeting will be on Oct 27. Do mention any relevant experience, language fluency and interest in this work.

How will the research activities be organised: After an initial meeting to discuss the research topic, scope and strategy, you will conduct research independently on your own time with periodic contact via Skype and in person with the contact person. Ideally, you would be able to spend at least 3-4 hours per week on this research and you would submit a synopsis of your findings in December 2015 (or a date to be decided with thesis students).