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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

George W. Pariyo, PhD and Nelson Sewankambo, PhD. Makerere University, Institute of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda, 999-999-9999, sewankam@infocom.co.ug

In 1990 WHO convened a meeting of leading Public Health leaders and educators in Africa and the developed world with experiences in Africa. They concluded that traditional approaches that used classroom-based training alone were inadequate to impart the skills needed to address the numerous Public Health challenges in Africa. They recommended the use of practical, field oriented, competency based approaches. The Rockefeller Foundation provided financial support to develop the Public Health Schools without Walls initiatives in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Ghana with the introduction of MPH programs that had a significant proportion of training time spent in the field.

The Makerere University Institute of Public Health (MUIPH) started the Ugandan PHSWOW program in 1994, which became the main graduate level training in Public Health in Uganda. The mission of the MPH program is “to produce practically oriented public health specialists who possess the knowledge, skills and professional attitudes required to assume leadership roles in the public health system,” and “to develop a new model of public health training that emphasizes problem-oriented learning and acquisition of competencies.”

Using a field oriented practice-based curriculum, trainees spend 60% of total time over two years in a field component assigned to one of a network of 11 field practicum sites, under apprenticeship with competent and well experienced Public Health experts who serve as directors of district health departments. Each trainee is required to investigate at least 5 Public Health problems being faced by their host station and write up a professional or scientific report.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

• Describe the development of an international public health graduate program in Africa
• Describe the development of an international partnership for graduate public health education
• Recognize innovative means of public health education in a developing setting, including distance-learning.

Keywords: Distance Education, International Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No