Health Systems Strengthening and Global Governance | June 2-6, 2025

“I liked the course format, with a presentation on a topic, starting from the foundations to more complex elements. I particularly liked the fact that the presentations were thought of as a coherent and structured whole and made sense in the progression of the week. It was obvious that the course had been designed and prepared thoughtfully.”

– Health Systems Strengthening participant

COURSE FORMAT

Online only. Course will be live approximately 8:00 AM-2:00 PM (Montreal time), with break, each day June 2-6, 2025. Live content will be recorded and available until July 1, 2025. Asynchronous content will be included as part of the self-directed learning for some of the sessions and will be discussed in the course.

This course is offered with the University of Ottawa.

DESCRIPTION

This course provides an overview of a systems for health approach to understanding global health inequity. A conceptual framework that integrates the health systems building blocks with the interaction of social determinants of health and policies in other sectors form the basis of this course. The interactive sessions will be led by a faculty expert and will have opportunities for small breakout sessions. There will be short presentations by students regarding their breakout session discussion and assigned readings.

COURSE DIRECTORS

Janet Hatcher Roberts, BA, MSc
Affiliate Scientist, Bruyere Research Institute, University of Ottawa
Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Ottawa
Adjunct Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Epidemiology, Centre for Global Health, Dalhousie University

Innocent Ntaganira, MD, MSc, MA
Member of the Advisory/Honorary Board of the Pegasus Institute

Srikanth Kondreddy, PhD
Scientist, Bruyere Health Research Institute, University of Ottawa
Adjunct Professor, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa

CONTENT

Over the past 20 years, we have seen that having a strong health system is critical to realizing the improvements needed in health and health equity throughout the world. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) have also caused us to reflect on the positioning of health and health care within an intersectoral and intersectional vision of progress toward improved health and well-being. Now, more than ever, we see the impact of global polycrises, nation states' financial and governance decisions having an impact not just in terms of health, but the impact, interaction, of competing economic, governance, human resources, poverty, housing, gender and education priorities which are creating and will continue to create, significant deficits and massive inequities globally. Understanding and being able to incorporate a “lens” that examines and critically appraises a systems for health approach is essential for those who will be working in the health and social policy domains, or indeed in other policy domains, research, or academia who will be challenged to support the move forward to better health and well-being of those who live and should flourish on this planet.

This course builds the participant’s ability to understand health systems. The course utilizes problem-based learning, case studies, comparative analysis, and practice exercises to engage learners in following topics:

1. Introduction to health systems and unpacking perspectives
2. Burden of disease and context of equity
3. Equity, gender and global health challenges
4. Sustainable and responsive human resources for health leadership
5. Global governance and COVID-19
6. Healthcare financing from a global perspective
7. Health systems perspective on infectious diseases in developing countries and resource poor settings

OBJECTIVES

• Understand and apply a health systems framework in a global health context
• Understand integrative and interdisciplinary approaches to service delivery, programs/interventions and policy development
• Understand approaches for assessing progress in improving global health
• Understand key concepts of equity, gender and human rights and the interrelationships with vulnerable populations
• Understand the principles and opportunities for global health research

TARGET AUDIENCE

This course is intended for health practitioners in a global context, researchers, and policy/decision makers to be able to integrate a systems for health and equity lens into their everyday work and activities. It is not critical for participants to come from a public health/healthcare background, but it does provide a foundational base to understanding some of the issues taught in the course.

ENROLMENT

Limited to 100 online participants.