Forum
Public Health in Africa: The Role of National Public Health Institutes
Abstract
Formally launched in January 2006, the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) was created to help countries with limited public health infrastructure move toward development of a coordinated, science-drive organizational focus for public health decision-making and service delivery. The goal of this new organization is to improve the health of populations, particularly in low-resource countries, by providing an evidence-based framework and strategies to strengthen the ability of existing NPHIs to deliver essential public health functions, establishing new NPHIs or networks to coordinate these functions, and creating a new international community for NPHI leaders to foster public health advocacy, leadership development, and peer assistance.
The extent of organized public health at the national level, and of NPHIs in particular, varies among countries. The spectrum ranges from countries with no organized, government-led focus for public health to those with fully developed NPHIs. This paper considers the state of organized public health in Africa, explains the categories and roles of NPHIs, and describes the IANPHI contribution.
Author's affiliations
Barry David Schoub, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Full Text
PDF (299KB)Keywords
Cite this article
Article History
Date published: 2007-11-22
Article Views
Full text views: 2985
Comments on this article
*Read our policy for posting comments here