[afro-nets] Strengthening the Essential Public Health Functions

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Strengthening the Essential Public Health Functions
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A Pilot E-Learning course on Strengthening the Essential Public
Health Functions

Course Code: HNP382-37-337

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15 September 2005

ORGANIZERS: The World Bank Institute and the Pan American Health
Organization

Website:
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/wbi/wbicatalogue.nsf/vewExternalEvents/E1FDB31A5C65E9EE85257054004E3109?OpenDocument

Dates: From October 05, 2005 to February, 01, 2006

Cost: No Fees.

Delivery Mode:
Fully Web-based/Fully Online-asynchronous (EL)
Language: English


Hmmm!

Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn


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BACKGROUND OF THE COURSE:

At the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, the 189 states of
the United Nations reaffirmed their commitment to work towards a
world in which elimination

of poverty and sustainable development would have the highest
priority. The World Bank and the Pan American Health Organiza-
tion (PAHO) along with numerous

organizations, are committed to an unprecedented global effort
to work towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part
of their corporate mandates.

Since the Summit, it has become apparent that the achievement of
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is at risk in many parts
of the world. Nearly over a half of the targets and the MDGs di-
rectly or indirectly concern health and at present there are
several alarming trends in health indicators that need to be ad-
dressed in order to achieve the MDGs. Moreover, poor health con-
tributes to declines in per capita income and productivity, ul-
timately undermining these countries' efforts to reduce poverty.

As the World Bank analysis of MDGs shows in the Health, Nutri-
tion and Population Millennium Development Goals, "Rising to the
Challenges", effective interventions exist, the challenge is to
strengthen the health sector through: stronger policies and in-
stitutions; improved household practices; improved service de-
livery; tackling of human resources and pharmaceutical market
constraints; sustainable financing and the strengthening of core
public health functions.

With regard to the latter, there is a growing consensus on the
need to strengthen the public health capacity of national health
systems as an indispensable condition to attain, and more impor-
tantly, to sustain the health MDGs. However, the consensus is
broader in scope, as all nations, rich and poor, have to address
health challenges linked to their socio-epidemiologic and demo-
graphic profiles and trends, in a context of globalization.

PAHO, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) and the Latin American Center for Health Sys-
tems Research (CLAISS), developed a set of 11 Essential Public
Health Functions that captures the role of national health au-
thorities in public health. An instrument was prepared to assess
the performance of these functions and further applied in 42
countries and territories in the Region of the Americas, provid-
ing a rich experience and strong empirical basis for the devel-
opment of specific plans of action.

Similarly, the World Bank recognized the importance of embracing
the principles and practices of public health through a public
health note and the adoption of a Poverty Reduction Strategy
framework.

To ensure the relevance and quality of its content and delivery,
the e-learning course has been designed and organized by leading
experts in the fields of public health and distance learning.
Along with these technical content experts, the course designers
have ensured that the course blends technical knowledge and pol-
icy relevance with the right mix of interactivity and practical
examples to stimulate the learner.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the course is to develop leadership and
competencies in the performance and assessment of the Essential
Public Health Functions (EPHF), as a critical component in
strengthening national capacity in public health.

At the end of the course participants will be able to:

* apply the conceptual framework that supports the Essential
Public Health Functions (EPHF)

* describe and analyze each of the EPHF in detail;

* apply the methodology and diagnostic tools to assess and moni-
tor the performance of the EPHF at the national and sub-national
levels;

* design plans of action and strategies to strengthen public
health functions and capacities within a specific country con-
text;

* analyze the contribution of health systems and EPHF to achieve
the MDG making use of the provided framework;

* employ strategies for encouraging participation of key stake-
holders in achieving public health objectives and reorienting
health care services; and

* identify health problems that require cross-sectoral strate-
gies to address them.

COURSE STRUCTURE

The course is structured around the 11 Essential Public Health
Functions as identified by PAHO and will be clustered in an in-
troductory module and 3 tracks.

Participants will be required to take the introductory module
and the first track (basics and organization) and then to choose
one from the other two tracks (the strategy and policy track or
the access and quality track). Participants can also take all
three tracks if they have the interest and availability to do
so.

Required:

Introductory Module

Track 1: Basis and Organization

1. Health Situation Monitoring
2. Surveillance and Risk Control
3. Human Resource Development
4. Emergencies and Disasters

Choose either track 2 or track 3:

Track 2: Strategy and Policy

5. Policy Development
6. Regulation
7. Health Promotion
8. Research

Track 3: Access and Quality

9. Quality of Services
10 Equitable Access
11. Social Participation
12. Inter-sectoral Action for Health

COURSE FORMAT

You will take the pilot course entirely through the internet
(World Wide Web). Upon acceptance as participant you will be
given a course ID and password, with which you will be able to
access the course site. The format of the course relies heavily
on 'action learning' which means that you will be required to
actively participate in all online activities, which will mainly
consist of reading the course content and posting assignments
and reacting to other participants' postings. As most of the
weeks' assignments are based on team work and joint products, it
is imperative that you are able to log in and work on the course
regularly so that your team can effectively produce the team
products, and that you can adhere to deadlines. Active partici-
pation is required to qualify for receiving a completion cer-
tificate.

Technical Requirements: Participation in the course requires an
internet connection, the Internet Explorer browser and the Acro-
bat Reader and Flash Player (vs 6 or higher). More detailed
technical requirements will be sent upon confirmation of par-
ticipation.

The working language of the course will be English. Because of
the nature of internet based learning, you will have to have
good to excellent English writing skills, since all the communi-
cation within the course will be in written format.

Since this is an e-learning course there will be no travel in-
volved. We require that you be able to set aside 8 to 10 hours
per week to devote to the training. It is important that you get
your manager's approval for this time commitment prior to apply-
ing to this course. We advise spreading the workload out over
the week, working everyday on it for an hour or two, rather than
doing it all in one day. This will enable you to actively par-
ticipate in all discussions and respond to your fellow partici-
pants' postings in a timely manner and thus satisfying the com-
pletion requirements for this course.

Given that the course is a first offering (a pilot), your feed-
back on the course will be used for future improvement of the
course.

DURATION AND COURSE LOAD:
Three tracks of 5, 4 and 4 weeks respectively - 8 to 10 hours
per week.

Participants are required to do the introductory module and
Track 1 and either Track 2 OR Track 3.

See below for more information about the tracks.

DATES: TRACK 1: October 5 - November 9 2005,
TRACK 2: November 23 - December 21 2005 and
TRACK 3: January 4 - February 1 2006.

PARTICIPANTS:
Technical cadres of Ministries of Health, mid-level policy mak-
ers, World Bank staff, PAHO and WHO staff, other development
agency and donor agency staff and other agents of change.


REGIONS TARGETED:
There will be 25 slots for participants from the Caribbean Com-
munity and Common Market (CARICOM) region, the remainder of the
25 slots are open for participants from any region of the world.

APPLICATIONS

On behalf of the course organizers, we take great pleasure in
inviting you, or a member of your staff, to participate in this
event. Please feel free to forward

this announcement to anyone you think might be interested to
participate or nominate a participant.

We would also like to invite you to nominate participants from
countries you work with. We are particularly interested in re-
ceiving nominations from Ministries of Health, Finance/Planning,
Parliament, etc, as well as NGOs, private sector organizations,
the donor community and others working in this field. We encour-
age teams from each country to participate and collaborate in
this course.

Please apply online for this offering at:

http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/wbi/wbicatalogue.nsf/ExtApp?OpenForm&code=HNP382-37-337&trail=ByDate

(Make sure you copy the entire URL in your browser, starting
from "http" to "ByDate")

If you have problems locating the electronic application form,
please send an email to mailto:jhindriks@worldbank.org. Upon ac-
ceptance you will receive information how to log on to the
course.

FEES:
For this pilot only there will be no fees.

For any other information contact
Jo Hindriks
mailto:jhindriks@worldbank.org

LANGUAGE: English only

GENERAL COURSE CONTACT: Jo Hindriks at jhindriks@worldbank.org

* * * *

This message from the Pan American Health Organization,
PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate information Re-
lated to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in
health; Socioeconomic health differentials; Gender; Violence;
Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Eth-
ics; Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Sci-
ence issues. [DD/ IKM Area]

"Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as
is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings and inter-
pretations included in the Materials are those of the authors
and not necessarily of The Pan American Health Organization
PAHO/WHO or its country members".

PAHO/WHO Website: http://www.paho.org/