UZ Masters in Public Health programme turns 20

Professor Mufuta Tshimanga Correspondent
Today, June 26, the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe’s College of Health Sciences and the Ministry of Health and Child Care mark the 20th anniversary of the Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme.
As we celebrate, we look back and hope to inspire future generations about the best practices we have adopted to overcome challenges we have experienced in these two decades.

We also hope to inspire others that look to our model in not only developing, but keeping much needed capacity in the health sector.
At the beginning of the MPH project in early 1990s, the mission of assisting Government to build sustainable public health capacity looked daunting and insurmountable.

However, as of today we have contributed to the training of 50 percent public leaders across Zimbabwe. With support from international partners such as the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC- Zimbabwe) which has funded the programme since 2003, and Rockefeller Foundation which initiated the programme, it is has become a clear example of what local and international partners can achieve if they work towards a common goal – the health of Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Masters in Public Health programme is a two-year competency-based training that consists of classroom teaching (30 percent) and on the job field training (70 percent). Of the 200 trainees enrolled by 2013, 190 (95 percent) have graduated from both full-time and the three-year part-time classes and have taken leadership positions in the public and private sector as well as NGOs.

Since inception, the programme operated from two sites – the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Community Medicine at the College of Health Sciences and the Health Studies Office based at the Ministry of Health and Child Care. The latter site oversees the operation of field training in collaboration with approved field supervisors at the training sites through its eight provincial medical directorates.

In addition the health directorates of the major cities in the country are designated field training sites. Over time, a number of additional sites have been identified and are operational and include parastatals such as the National AIDS Council and Zimbabwe Family Planning Council, AIDS and TB Unit within the MOHCC, private organisations such as Bindura Nickel Corporation and Organisation for Public Health Interventions and Development.

The programme continues to explore additional non-traditional field sites among AIDS service organisations, UN agencies and NGOs for both full-time and part-time trainees.

Currently, the programme collaborates with the Division of Public Health Systems and Workforce Development (DPHSWD) at the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Training Programmes in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), World Health Organisation, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Zimbabwe), and informally with United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Population Fund.

The graduate programme in public health has gone a long way in increasing the capacity and skill set of public health practitioners in public health leadership, policy development and response to public health events. The programme, with the Ministry of Health, has participated in over 200 outbreak investigations and programme evaluations.

It was instrumental in overcoming the combination of economic recession, drought, and an HIV epidemic experience in 2007-9 years which had worsened the disease burden and caused the deterioration of most public health indicators in Zimbabwe.

This experience in public health service and training is Zimbabwe’s future. As we look forward to welcoming future trainees, we hope to build on the impact of past and current programmes that have been recognized locally and across the world to continue meeting the increasing demand for health professionals in Zimbabwe.

Professor Mufuta Tshimanga is Director of the Masters in Public Health programme.