The International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) is an international umbrella organization of national public health institutes (NPHIs), public health government agencies working to improve national disease prevention and response. IANPHI is made up of 100+ members, located in more than 90 countries. An important goal of IANPHI is to improve health outcomes by strengthening NPHIs or supporting countries in creating new NPHIs. As of 2023 IANPHI’s president is professor Duncan Selbie, former chief executive of Public Health England. The IANPHI Secretariat is based at Santé Publique France, and the US Office is located at the Emory University Global Health Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. The IANPHI Foundation is located in Finland at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. Coordinated by Secretary General Jean Claude Desenclos, the IANPHI team is responsible for member relations and programs, policy, communications and NPHI development projects, and the IANPHI annual meeting. At its inception (2002-2006), IANPHI received seed funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and a one-year planning grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). BMGF subsequently awarded multi-year funds for IANPHI's development and to support projects to build NPHIs in low- and middle-income countries. Resources have since been contributed e.g. by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) A recent role for IANPHI has been to work with the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) project.
The National Public Health Institute model The national public health institutes (NPHI) model, exemplified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública of Mexico (INSP Mexico), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Brazil (FIOCRUZ Brazil) and others, is an effective and cost-efficient way to systematically develop and sustain national public health systems. NPHIs have been major contributors to reductions in morbidity and mortality from infectious and noncommunicable conditions. Many, including the U.S. CDC and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland), have developed over several decades, while others, including NPHIs in Liberia and Canada, were created following threats such as Ebola and SARS, in recognition that a coordinated system with a specialized institution is needed to effectively respond to disease threats. NPHIs usually lead national efforts for disease surveillance and outbreak investigation (to monitor population health trends and detect and resolve outbreaks), laboratory services (to identify and confirm disease threats), health programs (including recommendations for immunizations and maternal and child health initiatives), and public health workforce development and research (including new treatments and technologies). NPHIs are designed to give governments the ability to assess and address major acute and long-term disease threats in a country using scientific, evidence-based policies and strategies, as well as create a career home for public health researchers and scientists, thereby fostering the evidence-based approaches necessary to ensure that government policies are based on scientific evidence rather than politics.
History and activities In 2002, the directors of nearly 30 NPHIs met in Bellagio, Italy to share best practices and discuss opportunities for collaboration. In 2004, the group reconvened in Helsinki and declared its intention to forge an alliance. IANPHI was formally launched at the first General Assembly in Brazil in January 2006, with 39 founding members and a one-year grant from the Gates Foundation. Under a subsequent five-year grant from the Gates Foundation awarded in late 2006, the membership has expanded to 100 institutes in 88 countries around the world. IANPHI's activities fall into three areas:
Projects (targeting investments to create or strengthen NPHIs in low-resource countries) Policy (developing a framework, tools and policy papers for public health system strengthening) Leadership development (creating an international community of NPHI directors)
Peer-to-Peer Partnerships One of IANPHI's distinctive features and strengths is a peer-assistance approach that facilitates sharing of expertise and experience among member NPHIs. The model clearly benefits the recipient NPHI by identifying strategies to address priority needs and raising standards of performance for organizing and conducting public health functions. But it rewards the contributing institute as well – by sharing skills and assets to benefit others while also linking resources and solutions to address regional and global health threats and opportunities. For the network of IANPHI members, the model provides unique opportunities for NPHIs to link with others that are geographically or linguistically similar or are struggling with similar technical or programmatic issues, such as information system development or pandemic preparedness. This collaborative approach also provides a platform for developing research or programs to address shared issues, whether laboratory safety or avian influenza, tobacco use or injury. Recent peer-to-peer partnerships include:
Peru and Bolivia - INLASA Partnership Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine Norway and Malawi - Host Workshop Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine and Peer-to-Peer organizational development Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine UK and Kenya - Science-to-Policy Expertise Canada and Kenya - Study Tour Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine Morocco and Togo - Strengthening Information Systems UK and Uganda - Communications and Advocacy Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine France and Togo - Epidemic Intelligence and Disease Surveillance Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine France and Togo/Côte d'Ivoire - Influencing Policy through Publication
List of IANPHI members Afghanistan: Afghan Public Health Institute Albania: Public Health Institute Algeria: Institut National de Santé Publique (INSP) Angola: National Institute of Public Health Argentina: National Laboratories and Health Institutes Administration (ANLIS) Armenia: National Center for Disease Control Armenia: Armenian National Institute of Health Austria: Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG) Bangladesh: Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research - IEDCR Belgium: Sciensano Bolivia: Health Laboratories National Institute (INLASA) Brazil: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - FIOCRUZ Bulgaria: National Center of Public Health and Analyses (NCPHA) Burkina Faso: Institut National de Sante Publique (INSP) Burundi: National Institute of Public Health Cabo Verde: Instituto Nacional de Saúde Pública (INSP) Cambodia: National Institute of Public Health Cameroon: Direction de la Lutte Contre la Maladie, les Épidémies, et les Pandémies (DLM) Canada: Public Health Agency of Canada Canada: Institut national de santé publique du Quebec China: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention China: Centre for Health Protection, Hong Kong Colombia: National Institute of Public Health Costa Rica: National Institute for Research on Nutrition and Health Côte d'Ivoire : National Institute of Public Health Archived 2016-01-10 at the Wayback Machine Croatia: Croatian Institute for Public Health Cuba: Institute of Tropical Medicine "Pedro Kouri" Czech Republic: National Institute of Public Health Denmark: Statens Institut for Folkesundhed Denmark: Statens Serum Institut (SSI) Ecuador: National Institute of Public Health Research El Salvador: National Institute of Public Health Estonia: National Institute for Health and Development Ethiopia : Ethiopian Public Health Institute Finland: National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) France: Santé publique France Georgia: Georgia National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) Germany: Robert Koch Institute Germany: Bundesinstitut für Öffentliche Gesundheit Ghana: Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Ghana: Ghana Health Service Guatemala: Centro Nacional de Ciencias de la Salud (CNCS) Guinea: Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire (ANSS) Guinea: National Institute of Public Health Guinea (Guinea NPHI) Guinea Bissau: National Institute of Public Health (INASA) India: National Centre for Disease Control Archived 2012-03-01 at the Wayback Machine Iran Islamic Republic: Institute of Public Health Research Ireland: The Institute of Public Health in Ireland Israel: Israel Center for Disease Control Italy: National Institute of Health Jordan: Jordan Ministry of Health Kazakhstan: National Center for Public Healthcare Kenya: Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Kenya: Kenya National Public Health Institute Liberia: National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) Libya: Libya National Centre for Disease Control Macedonia FYR: Institute for Public Health of the R. Macedonia Madagascar: Ministère de la santé publique Malawi: Public Health Institute of Malawi Mexico: National Institute of Public Health Moldova: National Center of Public Health Mongolia : National Center for Public Health Morocco: Pasteur Institute of Morocco Morocco: National Institute of Hygiene Morocco: Direction of Epidemiology and Disease Control Mozambique: National Institute of Health Archived 2016-01-28 at the Wayback Machine Myanmar: National Health Laboratory Myanmar: Ministry of Health and Sports Nepal: School of Public Health and Community Medicine B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences Netherlands: Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment Nigeria: Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) Nigeria: Nigeria Centre for Disease Control Nigeria: National Primary Health Care Development Agency Norway: Norwegian Institute of Public Health Pakistan: Pakistan National Institute of Health Palestine: Palestinian National Institute of Public Health Panama: Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies Papua New Guinea: National Department of Health Peru : Peruvian National Institute of Health Poland : National Institute of Public Health Portugal: Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Portugal: National Institute of Health INSA Republic of Korea: Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Russian Federation: National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine Rwanda: Institute of HIV/AIDS, Diseases Prevention and Control Saudi Arabia: Centers for Disease Control Serbia: Institute of Public Health of Serbia Sierra Leone: Ministry of Health & Sanitation Slovenia: National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) Somalia: National Institute of Health (NIH) South Africa: National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) Spain: Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII, Instituto de Salud Carlos III) Sudan: National Public Health Institute Sweden: Public Health Agency of Sweden Syria: Center for Strategic Health Studies Tanzania: National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Thailand: National Institute of Health Timor Leste: National Institute of Public Health Togo: National Institute of Hygiene Archived 2012-03-17 at the Wayback Machine Tunisia: National Institute of Health Turkey: Refik Saydam Hygiene Center Uganda: Uganda Virus Research Institute UVRI Uganda: Uganda National Institute of Public Health Ukraine: Public Health Center of Ukraine United Kingdom England: Public Health England (PHE) United Kingdom Wales: Public Health Wales United States: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vietnam: National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology - NIHE Zambia: Zambia National Public Health Institute Zimbabwe: National Public Health Institute
Organization IANPHI is managed by an executive board and secretariat. Executive board members consider and vote on issues of strategic direction and policy and on project and funding recommendations. There are currently 14 active members on the executive board:
The IANPHI Secretariat is based at the Santé Publique France, and the US Office is located at the Emory University Global Health Institute in Atlanta, GA.
IANPHI long-term projects IANPHI's long-term projects help public health systems in low-resource countries respond to modern public health challenges, improve outcomes, and support healthy populations and strong economies. These intensive multi-year engagements develop and strengthen national public health institutes (NPHIs), moving them forward on a continuum from those least developed to those with a comprehensive and coordinated scope of public health responsibilities. Currently, IANPHI has ongoing long-term projects in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo.
See also List of national public health agencies
References
External links Official website