Foundations of Global Health II
Full course description
The Foundations 1 course provided students with insight into the policy environment for program & project planning as well as the global context and tools/awareness to continuously update their understanding. In the Foundations 2 course, building upon this experience and their knowledge of policy approaches, students will learn how to develop project proposals that propose sustainable solutions for global health problems. To develop sustainable solutions students learn how to develop integrated projects into specific settings; how to involve local stakeholders in all phases of project design and implementation; and how to adjust to beneficiaries' interests and preferences. Students are expected to consider the IBPA framework of Foundations 1 as a basis for developing projects.
For this course, we have created a fictional foundation called the Global Agency for International Development (GAID) that funds initiatives in global health. GAID will issue a Call for Proposals (CFP) that simulates many of the terms and conditions that you would encounter in the real world of global health funding. In responding to the proposal call, groups should try to find a balance between their own values in regard to the problem; the views of stakeholders/ beneficiaries; and the interests and perspectives of funders.
As Foundations of Global Health 1, this is an online course in which students from Maastricht University, McMaster University (Canada), Thamassat University (Thailand), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (India), Rosario University (Colombia), Afhad University for Women (Sudan), University of South- Eastern Norway, and Niigata University (Japan) participate. Students work in groups of six students from at least two universities in self directed teams. A tutor supports the group work. The process is divided in several steps. Each step is supported by a lecture. The final proposal will be graded. As in Foundations 1 students will write an individual précis to reflect on the development of their professional skills to work in an international team.
Course objectives
Content related objectives
- To acquire knowledge of and experience with complex project design and principles of management in the field of global health.
- To acquire experience with project proposal writing and learn:
- to balance between principles of responsive design on the one hand and disease focused and result oriented requirements of funding organizations on the other hand
- to align ideas into global, national and local policies and systems
- to use evidence and knowledge from different contexts, at the global, national, and local levels, from private, public and civil society sectors,
- management skills to guide the development and implementation of a proposal,
- the design of priority actions and activities with indicators and expected results,
- the budgetary skills for such a proposal,
- ethical and political issues related to intervention, governance and forms of leadership and management.
- To be able to develop and demonstrate an attitude of professionalism and critical self-awareness within the context of global health teamwork
- To be able to communicate and defend a project proposal in global health concisely and effectively
Recommended reading
- L.C.S. Thissen
- M. Nadiruzzaman