PhD scholarship available on "The Right to Health through litigation" (law/economics/social sciences/medicine/ethics)

We invite applications to write a PhD as part of a multi-disciplinary research project focusing on the role of litigation in the shaping of health policies in low and middle-income countries. Health right litigation has over the past two decades been on the increase in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Do such litigation strategies hold a potential for advancing the human right to health, or do they reinforce inequalities by primarily benefitting the more resourceful? The project investigates under what conditions litigants succeed with health rights claims as well as the effects of such litigation: on legal developments, on health policies and budgets, and on health services on the ground (see project outline at http://www.cmi.no/research/project/?1128=right-to-health-through-litigation).

The research project is based at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen, and is undertaken in cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen; Harvard Law School, USA; the Center for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh, and individual researchers in a number of countries.

Qualifications
The international research team is composed of researchers with a background in political science; law; economics; anthropology; medicine and ethics, and applications are invited from all of these fields. Applicants should have an MA or equivalent university degree. Academic or practical experience from relevant fields is an advantage but not a condition.

English is the working language of the project. Candidate must have sufficient command of the English language to participate in discussions and write the PhD in English.

To enable synergies with the rest of the research group it is a condition that the PhD candidate is located in Bergen during the grant period (except during field work, courses, exchanges etc). The grant period is 4 years, including one year of work for the CMI as the host institution. It is a condition that the candidate applies and is admitted to a relevant doctoral programme within the first six months of the project period. The salary level for PhD candidates is Ltr.43-48 (NOK 325 600 - 355 000).

Application requirements
The application should state your motivation for applying for a PhD within this project and describe aspects of your background and experience that would be of value for the project, and should include:
• A short (1-3 pages) project proposal describing what you would like to focus on for the PhD and
how you see this within the framework the broader project.
• A Curriculum Vitae.
• A sample of your writing (optional). This may be English, Norwegian or Spanish, but if written
material is not submitted in English, language skills must be documented.
• Two referees that can be contacted (with contact details).

Deadline for applications is 15 May 2008.

Applications should preferably be sent electronically to Merete.leby@cmi.no.
Alternatively to postal address: CMI, P.O.Box 6033, N-5892 Bergen,
Norway, Attn. Merete Leby.
For applications by postal mail, notification should be given by
e-mail or fax (+47 55574166).

For additional information contact Siri Gloppen (project leader) siri.gloppen@cmi.no /+47 55574000/ +47 91820532






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