School of public health

Evaluation covered the period 1984-4/87 and was based on document review, site visits and interviews with Government of Zaire (GOZ) officials. Established as planned, the SPH received its first class of full-time students in 10/86; these numbered 22, 18 of whom were physician administrators. The curriculum, which is comparable to those in the West, successively covers four areas, each of which includes field training: quantitative measurement, health administration, public health interventions and behavioral sciences, and research methodology. Short courses have been offered on microcomputers and primary health care (PHC) management; a course on AIDS is planned. The building provided by UNIKIN for the SPH required significant renovations; these have been delayed by a lengthy review process and by skyrocketing costs (due to inflation). Neither the library nor the public health laboratories have been completed, although books and equipment have been ordered. A computer laboratory was developed at the temporary site and is used widely in teaching and research. No decision has yet been made as to a permanent location for SPH"s field research and training sites; activities are currently being conducted at two areas 3 hours from the school. Applied research is in progress or is planned in the areas of nutrition surveillance, AIDS, family planning, breastfeeding, PHC, diarrheal diseases, and health economics. In other areas, the GOZ will undertake the accreditation process through the UNIKIN system and the Ministry of Higher Education, and UNIKIN supports the independence of the SPH, once it is of suitable size and complexity. Regarding sustainability, the GOZ highly subsidizes Zairian and foreign students, while foreign students sponsored by bilateral and multilateral agencies pay $4,000 a year for tuition, plus room and board. No effort has been made, however, to seek an equitable fee to cover the higher costs of public health education. The contractor, Tulane University, has begun raising funds for an endowment, and earnings from research studies and short course will also contribute, though to an unknown extent. Key recommendations are to: (1) revise the project budget for dollars and local currency to reflect the change in the exchange rate, rising construction costs, and the need to continue expatriates" support until participants complete Ph.D. research; (2) revise field training to give priority to management and child survival; and (3) provide university-level teacher training to participants.