Our programmes

Current programme:

Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance project to strengthen training and education of health workers in Zambia (2010-2012)

Funded by: UK Department for International Development/Zambia MoH
Management Agent:  The Tropical Health & Education Trust

The aim of this project is to support the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) to implement its plans to increase and develop its health workforce and contribute towards achieving the health related Millennium Development Goals, and to provide opportunities for learning and development for health workers and institutions in both Zambia and the UK.

This project will

  • Provide 9 nurses, doctors and scientists as long term volunteers or on secondment to help train Zambian health workers in Zambia and to help develop curricula where appropriate
  • Identify 5 additional UK NHS institutions to partner Zambian hospitals and provide around 30 more short term volunteers or secondments to help train health workers in Zambia
  • Support the training of 5 Zambian nurse tutors and provide 5 houses for nurse tutors attached to nursing schools.

The outcomes of the project are equivalent to

  • providing 33% of the additional nurse/midwifery tutor capacity targeted by the government (for one year only).
  • contributing to the training of an additional 20 nursing/midwifery students over the life of the programme, delivering in total an extra 100 trained nurses/midwives (5 replacement tutors x 20 additional students).  This is equivalent to one third of the extra annual midwifery capacity required, or one sixth of the extra annual nursing capacity required.
  • increasing the number of full-time medical tutors in pathology, anaesthetics and mental health from zero (currently) to three.
  • Providing an immediate input of a volunteer specialist in biomedical engineering to support the development of a curriculum in biomedical engineering.  This will be the first step in a national strategy to enable equipment maintenance at hospitals.

It is expected that the long term UK volunteers in all three health areas will reinforce the quality of training of the courses they will be delivering and at the institutions where they will be based.  Volunteers will impact on the number of staff available at each department and the tutor/student ratio. They will also be able to provide training in other training institutions (nurses and midwives) and other health cadres (doctors). This level of training will be maintained after the end of this project through, and without the direct support from UK volunteers, as a result of this project.

For more information contact Emily Measures at the Tropical Health & Education Trust on [email protected]