[An innovative training experience in public health at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar]

The Institute for Health and Development (ISED) at the University of Dakar, was created in 1987. Its mission is to fulfill the public health training needs of Senegalese health care professionals. ISED is responsible for a training program entitled "Certificat d'études Spéciales" (CES), the equivalent of a Masters of Public Health degree. The "CES" is a two-year program comprised of six modules, which last four months each. The ISED training approach stresses trainee responsibility above all. It is based on the trainee's professional tasks and is oriented toward the problems identified by the trainees themselves. In this sense it is highly adaptive and flexible. Each module is implemented in the same way; initially there is a 15 day residential phase for intensive theoretical courses, followed by an application period of 75 days in the trainee's work place, and then a final residential phase of 15 days for writing and presenting a technical report on the work in the field. This model allows trainees to bring together the theoretical and the practical. The trainers directly supervise each of these three phases. The two residential phases are conducted in the ISED training center, located in Mbour, 80 Km south of Dakar. 103 trainees are enrolled in the program in seven different classes. Of these trainees, 93 are health care specialists (85 physicians 7 pharmacists, 1 dentist). Ninety percent of previous graduates have been civil servants who work for the Ministry of Health in Senegal and the remaining 10% were from Burkina Faso and Togo. The training program is considered by all stockholders, beneficiaries, and relevant financial institutions, to be appropriate, beneficial and successful.