UNICEF Health Systems Strengthening course expanding its reach

Nossal is getting ready to host UNICEF staff from across the world in Melbourne to participate in this year's Health Systems Strengthening course.

Last year, the Nossal Institute for Global Health welcomed 83 UNICEF staff from over 50 countries to participate in a newly developed Health Systems Strengthening course, a collaboration of UNICEF, The Nossal Institute, and a number of global experts in health systems strengthening. After completing 12 online modules over a number of months, participants gathered in Melbourne for a two week residential course which challenged them with real-world, complex health systems problems, and equipped them with the tools and strategies they need to make their country’s health systems effective and resilient. The diversity and depth of experience among participants made for robust debate and great fun while learning, and we continue to hear from people who are putting their new skills into practice in their country roles.

From this great beginning, the course has geared up this year, with nearly 140 UNICEF staff from across the world. Participants have been working their way through the online modules in recent months and we are looking forward to hosting them here next week.

We are also busy, in collaboration with UNICEF, developing this course into a fully online, freely available MOOC (massive open online course) on the FutureLearn platform to be launched in 2019.  The course is designed for current health development practitioners, but will be of interest to anyone with a background in global health who wants to understand health systems strengthening. Through eight online modules, each comprising about 4 hours of content, you can engage with the complexity of health systems at national, district and community levels, and build competency in data management and analysis, health systems actions for equity, health systems financing, human resources for health, supply chain management, quality of care, and private sector engagement. Watch this space for more information about dates that enrolment will open.