The MEDiterranean Public HEALTH Alliance (MED-HEALTH)

A solid public health system constitutes a pillar of advanced societies, capable of providing their citizens with an enabling environment for development and smart and inclusive societies. All countries in Europe and beyond need to address increasingly global health challenges with the support of innovative approaches and skilled professionals. To do so, HEIs need to introduce programmes with a wide range of skills and disciplines, superseding fragmented or insufficient approaches. This situation of fragmented and insufficient approaches is particularly demanding in the South Mediterranean countries due, i.a., to its political and socio-economic climate. Competence-based education and multidisciplinary approaches are essential to prepare public health specialists for organising and managing actions able to improve the health conditions of the populations, reduce inequalities, strengthen the public health and health care systems and transfer innovation-related knowledge. Against this background, MED-HEALTH MED‐HEALTH has introduced a Master degree programme in Public Health Management in South Mediterranean HEIs in line with Bologna requirements and with a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. Complementary to the programme, a Public Health ePortal and a Regional Health Managament Network were set up as points of reference in the field and mechanisms to ensure sustainability of the project outcomes for the ultimate benefit of the region.The PCs targeted by MED-HEALTH (Palestine, Jordan and Tunisia) have significant rates of unemployment, more severely in women, structural weaknesses and lack of labour market efficiency. The region also shows a weak culture on meritocracy, with a clear need for continuous work in Higher Education for improving educational programmes. At the proposal stage, an overall lack of formal orientation to public health among workers, and in several cases, deficits in core public health skills were identified. A remarkably small number of public health workers have received a basic introduction to public health beyond their immediate job functions. Individuals with graduate public health degrees were rare and in high demand. In fact, public health studies at a Master degree level were fragmented or inexistent.Leadership and management skills were also absent in many local health departments. People were generally promoted from a clinical role to a managerial role without having necessarily the skills for the new role, nor managerial training or education of any sort. Although these skill deficits were not always identified in workforce surveys, they significantly impact the ability of public health agencies to provide effective services.In the light of the above, introducing study programmes with a range of skills and disciplines, including knowledge in strategic management, economics, negotiation and communication, helping target PCs improving the educational outcomes and the problem of skills mismatches and youth unemployment advised for a structured regional cooperation.Mutual recognition of qualifications and education systems, learning of foreign languages, and mobility of students, public health researchers and economic developers are some of the actions encouraged with the implemented activities.Thanks to the sustainability measures envisaged and implemented, it is expected that the new Master Programme and related resources will help improve in the next future the competitiveness of professionals in the PCs, contributing to better employment opportunities, closing gaps in the public health systems, improving societal perspectives and cooperation.