Introduction

In Pakistan, as in other developing countries, managers and mid-level professionals engaged in health and social sectors are faced with complex administrative, organisational, and programme implementation and evaluation issues. Unfortunately, there are few community-oriented, problem-focused and pragmatic training programmes that can provide them with the conceptual knowledge as well as practical skills and expertise to effectively address these complex issues.

The Continuing Education Programme (CEP) is a respo ns e by the Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS) of Aga Khan University (AKU) to this critical need of Pakistan and other countries in the region. The CEP (former Regional Training Programme) is being conducted regularly since 1994 and till 2007 has trained 1870 national and international health and development professionals in 99 regular, tailor-made, and follow-up training courses conducted within and outside Pakistan. Over the years, participants from a number of regional countries such as India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Iraq, Cambodia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Sudan, Syria, and Afghanistan have been increasing. There has also been an increase in enrollment from the, government agencies, and other NGOs working in Pakistan.

Goal

The overall goal of the Continuing Education Programme (CEP) is to further strengthen the expertise and problem-solving skills of the professionals belonging to different sectors of health so that they can provide more efficient and effective health and development programmes for their work places.

The CEP is particularly useful for mid-level health and development workers, managers, researchers and planners working at different levels in government, NGOs, and international agencies. It is designed to benefit the participants, their parent organisations, programmes and the target populatio ns they serve.

Short Courses and Participant at a Glance