2019 Public Health England Annual Conference 2019
Professor Jean-Claude Desenclos, Secretary-General of IANPHI, attended the Public Health England (PHE) annual conference on September 10, 2019 at Warwick University. He participated in a session chaired by the Head of the Global Health Division at Public Health England, Prof. Neil Squires entitled: ‘Building Public Health Capacity Globally.’ Other participants included:
- Professor Katarzyna Czabanowska - Professor of International Health, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
- Mrs Elsie Ilori - Deputy Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
- Dr Leena Inamdar - Consultant in Global Public Health, National Infection Service
- Dr Rüdiger Krech - Director for Universal Health Coverage and Health Systems, World Health Organization (via video)
- Dr Ebere Okereke - Consultant in Global Public Health, PHE
The session focused on building public health capacity globally with Dr. Krech outlining how public health capacity is vitally important to achieving the WHO’s triple billion goal. The triple billion goals include:
- 1 billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage
- 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies
- 1 billion more people enjoying better health and well-being
Practical examples of capacity building were presented by Mrs. Ilori in discussing the setting up of Nigeria CDC and by Dr. Inamdar in assisting the Odisha regional government in India. Prof. Czabanowska then presented the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region’s competency-based approach and the importance of training in strengthening public health globally.
Prof. Desenclos shared the work of IANPHI and the role of peer-to-peer support in building a global community of practice to support public health strengthening. Dr. Okereke outlined PHE’s work in supporting and building National Public Health Institutes in a self-sustaining way. The session received plenty of interest and positive feedback with the value of organisations such as IANPHI in building public health capacity globally highlighted.
For more information about PHE’s annual conference and access to videos and presentations, visit PHE’s annual conference website.
This article was published in IANPHI Insider #4 (November 2019).