I am pleased to announce that as of July 1, the Centre for Harm Reduction will merge with the Centre for International Health to create a new CIH. The merger is part of larger structural changes that are occurring across the Institute, designed to consolidate related programs into larger entities that will promote greater strategic opportunities. The integration of CHR into a new CIH makes particular sense because of increasing numbers of shared programs and activities and the desire to mainstream harm reduction across all our international work.
This is a proactive and positive move that reflects innovative thinking around the role of harm reduction in a broader development context. Harm reduction concepts will be expanded to be fully incorporated into general HIV prevention and care responses. This is particularly relevant to our goal of improving health in resource-poor settings throughout the region. Some time ago we flagged our intention to make this change on our website which is where and you will find a little more detail on the thinking that underpinned this change.
With an annual budget now around $18 million, the new CIH enhances its status as the largest and most comprehensive international public health group in the country. As we heard from Mike Toole’s excellent Fenner Lecture a few days ago, it is a huge bonus (and quite a rare circumstance) that a public health development entity such as CIH is part of an academic research institute. We greatly value this opportunity, as it will generate even more synergies across the development and research programs in the future.
I am very grateful to the leadership and staff of both CIH and CHR who have approached this change with a positive and cooperative mindset. Professor Robert Power will be CIH’s Senior Harm Reduction Advisor and will play a leading role in AusAID’s five-year HIV Co-Operation Program for Indonesia. Of even more significance, Robert will be the Burnet Institute’s Principal for Disease Prevention, which is one of four cross-cutting themes that define the Institute’s activities. Details surrounding these themes and other changes will be announced soon. Mike Toole remains Head of the new CIH.
To promote our new direction, the Burnet Institute will host a one-day symposium, "Integrating harm reduction in HIV responses and international health," in August. This will provide an update following the Barcelona International Harm Reduction conference and the International AIDS Conference held in Mexico City. In our symposium we will explore approaches to integrating harm reduction in HIV prevention and care responses, and investigate the potential of harm reduction in the broader development context.
Further details will be announced soon.
Brendan Crabb, Director