HEL-3032 International Health - Understanding and Intervention - 20 stp

- This course will cover the following issues -

Determinants of global health like:

- Poverty

- Gender

- Reproductive health

- Malnutrition

- Armed Conflicts

- Natural Disasters

- Water and sanitation

- Education

- Environment

- Climate

- Globalization

International institutions and interventions:

- Human rights

- International Humanitarian laws

- Millennium Development Goals (MDG)

- Important international actors (UN, Red Cross, NGOs, WB, IMF)

- GAVI, GATM, 3 by 5, DOTS, Stop TB, Greenlight Committee, PPP

- Transparency

- Good Governance

- Good Donorship

- Military Interventions

- Peace through health (PAHO/WHO)

- Global Health Research

- Quality issues

Individual skills:

- Cultural understanding

- Rapid Health Assessments

- Stress management and Security

- Project planning (Logistical Framework (LFA)

- Camp management

- Vulnerability assessments

- Monitoring and Evaluation

- Field study

The students should be able to analyze the international health problems and give ideas of how to effectively and adequately actions to the problems.

The students should understand and know about the main determinants of the global health, like: poverty, gender, nutrition, education, climate, environment, reproductive health, conflicts, disasters and catastrophes, water supply and sanitation.

The students should understand the complex mechanisms causing the inequity in health globally, and describe the relative importance of the different factors involved.

The student shall have a good knowledge in the international strategies and the programmes of the international agencies and organizations in order to reduce the gradients in health and health care in the world.

The students will be given skills in using "tools" to use in practical international health work, both in disasters and catastrophes, and in promoting health development.

Skills and competences:

- Students will be able to analyze an international health problem and develop proposals for effective and adequate response.

- Students will have skills relevant to work internationally in both emergency situations and more development-oriented health care.

General Proficiency:

- Students will be able to identify the most important determinants of global health: poverty, gender, nutrition, education, climate, environment, reproductive health, conflict, accidents and disasters, water and sanitation.

- Students will be able to evaluate the complex mechanisms that create inequality and explain the various factors' relative importance.

- Students will know the key strategies of the different and the various programs that the major international organizations are doing to improve health conditions in different parts of the world.

Knowledge and understanding:

- Students will have an overview of international laws and regulations and international conventions and agreements relevant to the topic. They should have an overview of the international actors: the UN, World Bank and other major agencies and organizations and their mandates and policies.

Obligatory assignment:

The students must write and pass two mandatory given home-assignments, each maximum 5 pages (aprox. 2500 words) in length before they can take the final exam. The assignments must be solved individually by each student. Assignments to be handed in one week after they are presented.

Exam:

A given individual home-based written examination, 10 pages in length (5000 words), on a given topic. The students are given 1 week to write the exam.

Students can write the assignments and examination in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale: A-E equals passed, F equals failed.

For failed students a re-sit examination will be arranged for this course.

Students with valid absence from exam will be offered a re-scheduled examination.

See also examination regulations: http://uit.no/students/studies?p_document_id=172032