title: Strengthening post-graduate educational capacity for health policy and systems research and analysis: the strategy of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The last 5-10 years have seen significant international momentum build around the field of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR + A). Strengthening post-graduate teaching is seen as central to the further development of this field in low- and middle-income countries. However, thus far, there has been little reflection on and documentation of what is taught in this field, how teaching is carried out, educators' challenges and what future teaching might look like.
  
  
  METHODS
  Contributing to such reflection and documentation, this paper reports on a situation analysis and inventory of HPSR + A post-graduate teaching conducted among the 11 African and European partners of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA), a capacity development collaboration. A first questionnaire completed by the partners collected information on organisational teaching contexts, while a second collected information on 104 individual courses (more in-depth information was subsequently collected on 17 of the courses). The questionnaires yielded a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, which were analysed through counts, cross-tabulations, and the inductive grouping of material into themes. In addition, this paper draws information from internal reports on CHEPSAA's activities, as well as its external evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis highlighted the fluid boundaries of HPSR + A and the range and variability of the courses addressing the field, the important, though not exclusive, role of schools of public health in teaching relevant material, large variations in the time investments required to complete courses, the diversity of student target audiences, the limited availability of distance and non-classroom learning activities, and the continued importance of old-fashioned teaching styles and activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper argues that in order to improve post-graduate teaching and continue to build the field of HPSR + A, key questions need to be addressed around educational practice issues such as the time allocated for HPSR + A courses, teaching activities, and assessments, whether HPSR + A should be taught as a cross-cutting theme in post-graduate degrees or an area of specialisation, and the organisation of teaching given the multi-disciplinary nature of the field. It ends by describing some of CHEPSAA's key post-graduate teaching development activities and how these activities have addressed the key questions.
authors.affiliation: Health Policy and Systems Division, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. erminerasmus@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ermin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Erasmus
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.affiliation: Ghana Health Service/Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
authors.forename: Irene Akua
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Agyepong
authors.affiliation: Tropical Institute of Community Health and Development, Faculty of Health Sciences, Great Lakes University of Kisumu, Kisumu, Kenya.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alwar
authors.affiliation: Health Systems Research and Dynamical Modeling Unit, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: de Savigny
authors.affiliation: Institute of Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kamuzora
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Tolib
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mirzoev
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Policy/MRC Health Policy Research Group, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Nonhlanhla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nxumalo
authors.affiliation: Health Systems and Policy Research Group, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|Medical Management Centre, Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tomson
authors.affiliation: Health Policy Research Group and the Department of Health Administration and Management, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu-Campus, Enugu, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Uzochukwu
authors.affiliation: Health Policy and Systems Division, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.|Department of Global Health and Development, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gilson
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D057191:Capacity Building; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004500:Education, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005060:Europe; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D013597:Systems Analysis
keywords: CHEPSAA; Capacity development; Course review; Health policy and systems research and analysis; Low- and middle-income countries; Post-graduate; Teaching