Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111317

Esther Tahrir, MPH¹, Gwen Smith, MA¹, and Rosanna Cifuentes, MD². (1) International Health Programs, 210 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, (831) 427-4966, etahrir@ihp.org, (2) Centro de Investigacion, Capacitacion y Apoyo a la Mujer, Torre Profesional #1 Oficina 203, Zona 4, Guatemala City, Guatemala

Implementing and sustaining international leadership development programs in public health is a growing challenge. In this sesssion, Ms. Tahrir, Director of the Latin American International Family Planning Leadership (IFPLP) for the Public Health Institute (PHI) will present the results of the transfer of activities of a successful leadership development program in reproductive health (RH) from the United States to Guatemala. For four years PHI brought to California over 100 Latin American RH leaders to train in leadership, strategic thinking, RH evidence-based medicine and practice from a multicultural, gender equity and human rights perspective. These participants were then guided in the implementation of strategies to improve RH at home. PHI has now taken on the challenge of transferring the IFPLP training course to Latin America to build regional capacity in RH leadership development and to create sustainable improvements in RH and family planning. Results focusing on the aplication of evidence based medicine and practice to the Guatemala context, establishing successful cross-cultural partnerships, creating local capacity and intitutionalizing efforts within the academic system will be discussed. Lessons learned will highlight the importance of program fellow participation in design and implementation, power sharing and flexibility. Evidence will show that the model of a collaborative program between domestic and international non-profits and universities is attractive, accepted and easily replicable by professionals in developing countries and can lead to a higher level of professionalism as well as longer term sustainability of leadership development efforts and more wide spread impact on RH outcomes, programs and policies.

Learning Objectives: