Global Forum on the Well-being of the World's Children

This project supports a global health forum that focuses on exploring research topics to improve the health and well-being of children and youth in developing countries. The Forum organized by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) will take place on November 17-19 2016 in London United Kingdom. CIFAR is convening a group of leading global experts including researchers donors private sector representatives and knowledge users to explore current challenges and identify gaps in research knowledge to improve the health and well-being of children in the poorest and hardest to reach regions of the world. CIFAR was established in 1982 as an independent not-for-profit corporation that supports networks of Canadian and international researchers who conduct long-term research on scientific social and economic issues. Its mission is to increase Canadian research capacity in areas of importance to Canada and strengthen the Canadian research environment through the promotion of excellence and engagement with the international research community at universities and research institutes worldwide. CIFAR supports research programs in 14 areas drawing upon close to 350 eminent researchers around the world.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include to : (1) convene a coalition of partner organizations including academic institutions private sector organizations civil society organizations and research institutions to develop and a new global research network dedicated towards improving children’s well-being; (2) identify gaps in research knowledge that once addressed could improve the health and well-being of children in the world’s poorest and hardest to reach regions; and (3) mobilize information and ideas emerging from the Forum to Canadians and other knowledge users to support evidence-based decision-making for policy programming and/or on-the-ground development activities.