ONGWEDIVA – The University of Namibia (Unam) with its stakeholders in the health industry are engaged in ongoing deliberations to have a stand-alone school of public health to improve the population’s health and contribute to health equity in Namibia and regionally.
The much-anticipated school will not only focus on mechanisms to eradicate deadly diseases and ensure a healthy nation, but will also address unemployment.
The school is envisaged to have eight functional departments creating a total of 36 academic staff as well as administration staff. So far only 18 of the 36 vacancies have been filled for the proposed school.
The public school will come in handy because currently the region is not training its own human resources, which are needed to manage and develop its health systems. More so, prominently there is a need to strengthen governance and leadership for population health, which is typically provided in schools in public health.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting held in Ongwediva on Thursday Dr Käthe Hofnie-//Hoëbes remarked that universally, an independent school of public health would benefit the nation as a whole by responding to Vision 2030 by supporting public health care in the country and create a larger professional workforce with specialized skills to address the shortages in public health practitioners.
“The focus of the curriculum will be needs-driven, it will support new job growth as it will promote the creation of new cadres of public health specialization,” said Hofnie-//Hoëbes
For Unam, Hofnie-//Hoëbes said the independent school of public health will contribute to the international standing of the university, enabling it to develop tracks of specialized training to attract regional and global teaching expertise, and develop new sources of funding institutional collaboration and research.
Hofnie-//Hoëbes said that the school would provide competent practitioners, professionals and researchers capable of addressing public health issues at various levels of the health care system.
On the other hand, the graduates from the public health school will be equipped to develop and influence public policies and emerge as leaders in the field of public health.
Additionally, the school would enroll students from diverse professional backgrounds both locally, regionally and internationally and will have formalized relationships with well known public health institutions.
Hofnie-//Hoëbes said that public health research and publications would feature prominently on the school agenda to ensure that the school remains relevant and up to date and serves as a means to generate income for the school’s operations.
The course curriculum will include both general and specialization courses and cater for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
“The education will meet identified competences which will help with the evidence practice of public health and be action oriented, to assist in tackling major health problems facing the populations in Namibia and the sub-region,” said Hofnie-//Hoëbes.
At the moment, the University of Namibia offers a master’s degree in public health in response to quality public health education and research which was introduced in 2003.