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Outside of Universite Kasa Vubu in Boma DRC ;

New funding to strengthen postgraduate medical training in five African countries

Catherine Setchell

Communications Manager, King's Global Health Partnerships

16 February 2024

King’s Global Health Partnerships (KGHP) has successfully secured funding from the CRI Foundation to support the development of postgraduate medical training in Somaliland, Sierra Leone, Zambia, DRC and The Gambia.

This new programme of work will allow King’s to work closely with health partners in Africa to identify the strategies and resources needed to strengthen postgraduate medical training and build an advocacy programme to put it on national and global policy agendas, ensuring vital investments are made in this area.

Medical students Zambia

Over the past 20 years, KGHP has had great success supporting the development of undergraduate and in-service health education, as well as strengthening a range of hospital services. However, we have yet to tackle the main reason why talented, young graduates leave their country’s health sector: the lack of postgraduate opportunities to become the specialists, leaders, and teaching faculty of the future.

Our partners in Africa have frequently highlighted this need and we have observed in our own programmes that a lack of clinical specialists can be a critical barrier to strengthening the health workforce and the quality of care delivered within a health system.

KGHP and paedeatric team in theatre The Gambia
Supporting the establishment of postgraduate medical training (PGT), and the strengthening of existing programmes, is a natural and strategic next step to build on our work in strengthening undergraduate health education and hospital services.” – Professor Andy Leather, Director, King's Global Health Partnerships

With this funding, KGHP will work with partners over a three-year period to:

  • Develop a postgraduate medical education strategy for each of our five partner countries, convening national stakeholders to agree the model of training and accreditation, and provide a needs assessment for what is required to deliver training in priority specialties, clarifying leadership, governance, and operational components.
  • Map out current and potential funders and implementing partners for delivering postgraduate medical education, assessing where existing capabilities could be harnessed, and identifying the additional resources required.
  • Advocate for investment in postgraduate medical training across the global health policy community by combining existing evidence with new insights generated from this work. KGHP will engage key stakeholders including national ministries of health, bilateral donors, philanthropies, international agencies and the academic community.

 

Our funding partner, CRI Foundation is a private foundation based in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. They provide grants to organizations and entities dedicated to improving health outcomes in Africa.

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