Leadership in Global Health

Through this programme, the UNU International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) focuses on creating effective leaders to lead global health initiatives in developing countries. The PhD Fellowship is a scholarship aimed at supporting PhD students from developing countries in their studies at UNU-IIGH. Students will spend around a year at UNU-IIGH during which they will be supervised by Research Fellows; they will focus on data analysis and preparation for publications. Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to scholars who have completed their doctoral programme to further enhance their research skills. The Fellows will spend between one to two years conducting research and preparing for their publications. The postgraduate forum is for students to exchange ideas related to their postgraduate studies. The forum is rotated yearly between UNU-IIGH, Malaysia; Naresuan University, Thailand; and Universitas Gajah Mada, Indonesia. The Health Leadership Forum brings together senior officials in the health sector from developing countries to share experiences and to be exposed to current issues and approaches in health management.

Twinning

UNU-IIGH has had two high-level meetings with the Director General of Higher Education, Indonesia and Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia. The Director General had requested that Universitas Andalas submit a proposal related to this.

Focal Point

This programme will be led by Professor Syed Aljunid, Senior Research Fellow and supported by other professional staff of UNU-IIGH.

Purpose

The aim of this programme is to develop leaders in global health by building human capacity through postgraduate and leadership training.

Approach

The focus of this programme is to help enable developing countries to conduct master’s programmes and to train future leaders in global health at the PhD, postdoctoral levels health leadership programme.

Gender

Women will be encouraged to apply and be enrolled in the programme.

Target Audience

The programme targets health practitioners in developing countries. Stakeholders in the programme include international donor agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the World Health Organisation, local universities and ministries of health in developing countries.

Intended Impact

Impact: Influencing policymaking at the international level
Target: Governments and health practitioners
How: Evidence-based research

Impact: Curriculum development
Target: Institutions of higher learning
How: Through implementation of joint programmes

Impact: Capacity development in developed/developing countries
Target: Health practitioners in middle and senior management
How: Engaging them in postgraduate studies

Research Findings

New knowledge is expected to be derived from findings of the postgraduate projects.

Policy Bridging

New policies will be generated from findings of the postgraduate projects.

Value Added

This programme will highlight the uniqueness of UNU and UNU-IIGH as the main UN agency directly involved in postgraduate training at master’s, PhD and postdoctoral levels. The research output will contribute towards UNU-IIGH’s aspiration to become a centre of excellence producing leaders in global health.

Dissemination

The master’s, PhD and postdoctoral programmes will lead to publications in high-impact journals.

Timeline/Programme Cycle

All projects in the programme will be carried out in 2012 and 2013.

Evaluation

The performance of this programme can be evaluated by the number of master’s and PhD degree students registered and completing their courses, the number of research projects carried out and the number of papers published and presented in seminars, conferences and workshops by the postgraduate students.

Challenges

The challenges in this programme are financial constraints to support candidates and to fund research projects, a lack of good quality candidates to be enrolled in the programme and a lack of support in host countries to conduct research projects.