Improving Administrative Practices For Global Health Impact

Engage Africa Foundation works with future public health leaders to mentor them in public health as it relates to chronic disease prevention and control. Through their practicums, their grow in their understanding of and ability to contribute to emerging public health challenges. One of those students is Samiah Khan and she will be reflecting on her growth through monthly blogposts.

Hi,

My name is Samiah Khan and I am currently a student at the University of Waterloo. I am completing my Masters of Health Evaluation and am a practicum student with Engage Africa.

My goal for this practicum is to improve administrative practices in a volunteer based global health organization. I plan to take all that I’ve learned in my courses and apply that knowledge, as I aim to evaluate the current administrative practices and processes that take place within an organization such as, Engage Africa Foundation.

The practicum placement will take place from January – April 2018. Each month you may look forward to my monthly posts, recapping all that I have learned and all that I hope to accomplish.

This month, we were focused on establishing a current state assessment model. This was done through interviews with individuals who we asked a set of specific questions. The questions then allowed me to create a logic model that explains the administrative process at Engage Africa Foundation.

Current state assessment will depict the current administrative process. This model will allow us to highlight gaps easily and compare once recommendations are made in the final evaluation stage. Soon, my project will move toward incorporating how an organization anchored in global health and chronic disease prevention based in Canada can be effective nationally. This project will expand my own global health knowledge and chronic disease prevention practices.

Next month I hope to work on coming up with a strategy to make improvements and fill gaps that we identified through the current assessment. The first step to creating efficiency within an organization is being able to identify existing gaps, no matter how small or large. Wish me luck as I endeavor to provide some strategic solutions next month.

Stay tuned….more to come on the topic of assessments, evaluation and outcomes.

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