The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will lead a five-year initiative to strengthen the capacity of public health schools in East Africa.
Work will begin initially with Makerere University in Uganda and Muhimbili College of Health Sciences in Tanzania. The goal of the initiative is to create and sustain a network of trained public health professionals to provide leadership to the entire region. Initial funding for programs comes from a $2 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Higher Education for Development.
“Africa faces many public health challenges from AIDS to malaria to poor nutrition. As African nations receive more global assistance, including the President’s $9 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and $1.2 billion from the President’s Malaria Initiative, there is a critical need for trained personnel who can provide leadership, and develop innovative national policy. Africa has a shortage of public health personnel who can coordinate and implement these projects, monitor their progress, and carry out the research needed to make them more effective,” said Gilbert Burnham, MD, PhD, director of the initiative and professor of international health at the Bloomberg School. “Uganda and Tanzania have established excellent public health schools. Our aim is to strengthen their capabilities for developing faculty and training students, not only in the two countries but regionally as well. The increasing convergence of administrative structures among the East African states offers an unprecedented opportunity to develop common regional approaches toward public health leadership and training approaches.”