Volunteers and the Internet can provide education in public health where it is most needed
The multiple health problems faced by low-income countries require urgent solutions. One solution, as articulated in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, is to increase the health workforce.1 An editorial (and accompanying articles) in the Lancet highlighted the need for global health capacity building,2 and the first Global Forum on Human Resources for Health (in March 2008) produced the Kampala Declaration, which urged “. . . immediate action to resolve the accelerating crisis in the global health workforce . . .”.3 Part of this solution will involve boosting in-country public health capacity,4 and an educational initiative to do this was launched recently — the People’s Open Access Education Initiative, better known as the Peoples-uni (http://peoples-uni.org).5
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- 1 Peoples-uni, http://peoples-uni.org.
- 2 University of Newcastle, NSW.
- 3 University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- 1. United Nations Millennium Project. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/index.htm (accessed Mar 2008).
- 2. Finding solutions to the human resources for health crisis [editorial]. Lancet 2008; 371: 623.
- 3. Global Health Workforce Alliance. The Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action. First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health; 2008 Mar 2–7; Kampala, Uganda. http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/forum/2_declaration_final.pdf (accessed Mar 2008).
- 4. Shaikh BT, Kadir MM, Hatcher J. Health care and public health in South Asia. Public Health 2006; 120: 142-144.
- 5. Heller RF, Chongsuvivatwong V, Hailegeorgios S, et al. Capacity-building for public health: http://peoples-uni.org. Bull World Health Organ 2007; 85: 930-934.
- 6. Stacey P. Open educational resources in a global context. First Monday [Internet] 2007; 12 (4). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1769/1649l (accessed Jul 2008).
- 7. Heller RF. Developing an e-based postgraduate programme in public health and health promotion: Masters in Population Health Evidence, MPHe. Health Educ J 2003; 62 (2): 153-155.
- 8. Zwi AB, Grove NJ, Ho M. Keeping track to keep Australia’s overseas aid on track [editorial]. Med J Aust 2005; 183: 119-120. <MJA full text>
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- 10. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian social trends, 2007. International students in Australia. Canberra: ABS, 2007. (ABS Cat. No. 4102.0.) http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/E0FE4ACEF9C8A65ACA25732C00207596?opendocument# 2%20Department%20of%20Education%2C%20S (accessed Mar 2008).