The posting for this position will be based in the Health Systems Program (HSP) of the Dept. of International Health.
The HSP of the Department of International Health focuses on the design and implementation of equitable, cost-effective strategies to improve health and health services for disadvantaged and underserved communities across the globe. The HS Program engages in research and practice around health intervention implementation and scale-up, bioethics, program evaluation, refugee health and disaster response, formative and qualitative research, and health economics. Disciplines represented on the HSP faculty include epidemiology, economics, evaluation, demography, statistics, health policy analysis, medicine and philosophy, among others, bringing this experience and scholarship to major research, training, and capacity-building projects in low- and middle-income countries.
International Institute for Primary Health Care-Ethiopia (IIfPHC-E)
Ethiopia has achieved recognition as one of the few countries that has developed a dynamic and effective national primary health care system (PHC) which has made it possible for the country to meet the Millennium Development Goals for health and to come close to achieving Universal Health Coverage. Through Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program (HEP), the gap between frontline heath workers and communities was overcome by deploying Community Health Workers and building community health posts for them to use. This community-based system of PHC has become the foundation of the broader health system.
As a result of these achievements, Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) founded the International Institute for Primary Health Care – Ethiopia (IIfPHC-E), referred to here also as the Institute). Its goal is to support and strengthen the Ethiopian PHC system while serving as a PHC knowledge powerhouse providing teaching, knowledge sharing, research and advocacy to the rest of the world, especially other African countries. At the request of the FMOH, the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHU) supported its startup in 2016. Since then JHU has provided technical and operational support to the Institute to assist with its development.
The Institute’s strategic plan identifies four strategic themes:
- Support for the national (Ethiopian) PHC program
- Support for PHC in other countries
- Support for knowledge generation and management, monitoring and evaluation of PHC
- Advocacy and partnership formation to advance the Global PHC Agenda
