Partnership for sustainable institutional capacity building: Innovations and lessons from FAMU-UDS initiatives in global health education

Background: Based on Higher Education for Development (HED) USAID initiatives, a historic partnership has been established between Florida A&M University and University for Developmental Studies (UDS) School of Medicine and Health Sciences for institutional capacity building to address community health, maternal and child health in particular in Ghana. According the Ghana Health Service Annual Report (2007), the health indicators for rural women are alarming (e.g. percentage of total deliveries by skilled personnel decreased from 46% to 35%, total number of maternal death increased by 9.1% and the percentage of under-five-year children who are underweight increased from 5% to 8% from 2005 to 2007) Objectives: To formulate a strategic plan and evaluate the global health education initiatives by measurable outcome indicators at institutional (e.g. mainstreaming integrated curriculum, training of faculty and students), community (e.g. success in CBPR), family (e.g. food insecurity) and individual levels (e.g. maternal and infant mortality). Methods: Through an Aggressive Partnership Model (APM) among academic institutions, government and non-government organizations, community members, regional and international organizations this partnership is developed. Workshops, focus groups, windshield surveys, document analysis, face to face interviews and community assessment were used to assess institutional capacity and based on the SWOT analysis results a strategic plan was developed utilizing distance learning methods and technology-based delivery to transcend global health barriers. Conclusion: After initial phase, this partnership in moving to the next level; however, the wealth of experience and lessons learned to identify barriers and processes to overcome those have paramount importance in global health education.