Global Capacity Building
Building capacity through distance learning
Thursday 5 June 2008
Distance learning can be a prime means of building global public health capacity, Co-ordinator of the Peoples-uni Dick Heller told delegates in the final plenary. 'Who benefits from overseas students in the UK ?' he asked. 'Overseas students from both European and non-European countries are big business, and universities are aggressive in recruiting them. How can we aim at capacity building rather than boosting the UK's interests?'
There are now increasing amounts of 'open source' teaching, research and learning material available in the public domain, he said. The Peoples-uni will guide students through this outside of the traditional university system, he said, allowing public health professionals to build their skills.
A pilot course was run at the end of last year with great success. The Faculty has been extremely supportive, he said, and a 12-course module is now being developed. 'More than 80 people from 24 different countries from Russia to Rwanda have agreed to take part,' he said, urging delegates to get involved. 'All collaboration is welcome.'
To get involved visit www.peoples-uni.org
Watch Dick Heller's speech as part of the plenary session: Global capacity building for public health
Shared values will help us tackle global problems
The conference has heard about a range of problems that countries now have to face, such as climate change and obesity, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Fiona Adshead told the final conference session.. 'These problems are about complexity and are shared across the world,' she said. 'We're dealing with global forces.'
'It's easy to have a counsel of despair and say that there's nothing we can do,' she said. 'But it's important to remember that these problems are man-made. If we make the right political and economic decisions we can change things.'
'When I meet public health colleagues from around the world we are united by shared values and common purposes,' she told the conference. ‘It's these things that will allow us to tackle the problems we face.'
Watch Fiona Adshead's speech as part of the plenary session: Global capacity building for public health