 ID: 101454
Added: 2006-08-11 9:08
Modified: 2009-09-11 14:37
Refreshed: 2012-02-10 04:35
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| CoPEH–SSA - Institutionalizing Ecohealth |
Taking into consideration the region's unique needs, the focus of CoPEH-SSA is first on building ecohealth capacity and excellence in research. Taking a step-by-step approach, CoPEH-SSA is first being implemented in West and Central Africa - where the Ecohealth program has developed a strong and motivated network of researchers and practitioners - through training workshops, conferences and overall project development and implementation. Eventually, CoPEH-SSA could expand further into East and Southern Africa. The current stage of building CoPEH-SSA in West and Central Africa is the institutionalization of Ecohealth in existing programs within several universities in the region (Bénin, Côte d’Ivoire Cameroun, and Burkina Faso). The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bénin is incorporating the Ecohealth approach into its curriculum in the fourth year of medical school as well as at the Masters and PhD level. This model can be replicated in selected programs within other universities in the region. Furthermore, the University of Bénin is in charge of developing a set of basic distance-education courses on Ecohealth which will be offered to students at the five universities. It is hoped that institutionalization of the approach will build a community of researchers in the region that will promote the use of Ecohealth methodologies in generating knowledge about the links between the environment and the human health. The objectives for CoPES-AOC (West Africa) include: To organize training courses on the links between environment and human health, improving teaching materials for graduate courses in selected faculties within five universities in the region, ensuring that teaching material are readily available, and building the necessary capacity and guidelines to support the program; To ensure the logistics are in place to support the institutionalization of the ecohealth approach by establishing the necessary networks, and that the different country offices are operational; To promote the program so that the public is informed, and that a sustainable source of funding is sought out to provide additional financing for the program; and To create a strong level of governance by creating a mechanism for communicating between the institutions, government, and the public; to ensure that all actors are promoting the network and ensuring that it remains functional; and ensure an effective evaluation procedure is in place.
http://www.copes-aoc.org
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