The Division of Social Medicine and Global Health at Lund University held a professional development course in health financing and health systems in Zambia.
Björn Ekman (First from the left in front row) and Jesper Sundewall (3rd from left) and NHIMA staff attending the professional development course. Photo: NHIMA.
Researchers and teachers from Lund University, Division of Social Medicine and Global Health, including SweDev chairperson Jesper Sundewall, visited Lusaka, Zambia September 24-26. The purpose of the trip was to run a professional development course in health financing and health systems for staff at the National Health Insurance Management Agency in Zambia (NHIMA).
The course is part of a networking project between Lund University, University of Zambia and University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) in research and capacity building for health systems research. The collaboration is funded by the Swedish Research Council and the (now discontinued) development research budget.
The course had 17 participants, all from the relatively newly formed government agency NHIMA. NHIMA is responsible for implementing a national health insurance scheme in Zambia, with as part of the country’s ambition to move towards Universal health coverage. The purpose of the course was to provide technical staff in NHIMA with basic understanding of key concepts and methods in health systems and health financing, to improve their capacity to fulfill the objectives of the reform.
This post was written by Jesper Sundewall, Chairperson of SweDev.