BUJUMBURA July 24th (ABP) – The Minister of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Dr Thaddée Ndikumana, honored with his presence, the graduation ceremonies for the twenty-one candidates of the Master’s degree in Public Health Sciences at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP), in the fields of epidemiology and management of health systems.
The graduation ceremony by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research, Mr. Frédéric Bangirinama, was followed by the handover of diplomas to the candidates.
Minister Ndikumana took that opportunity to recall that the primary mission of his ministry is to improve the state of health of the Burundians. He also stressed that this mission cannot be fulfilled if the ministry does not have the necessary resources, including human, material and financial resources.
He specified that human resources are considered the engine of the health system and that the contribution of training institutions, in this case the INSP, is essential. For this reason, he recommended that the INSP do everything possible to make available a varied and competitive training offer comparable to that of other countries of the East African Community (EAC).
To the 21 master’s degree candidates who have just graduated as the first promotion, the Minister congratulated them and invited them to be ambassadors of that institute by the conscientious application of the knowledge and behaviors they have acquired. .
To the technical and financial partners including the European Union, WHO, the Free University of Brussels and the National Institute of Health Sciences in Burkina Faso, the Minister expressed his thanks and asked them to continue that support to accompany the sustainability and effective ownership of that training.
The director general of the INSP, Prof. Joseph Nyandwi, also congratulated those graduates who have just obtained the master’s degree. He specified that since January 2018, a master’s course in public health sciences has been provided at the INSP in the disciplines comprising public health including Epidemiology, Bio-statistics, Management of the health system, Promotion of health and environmental health.
According to the director general, the master aims to deepen the knowledge in public health of students holding a first degree (medicine, bachelor or license) while wishing to get involved in improving the health of people.
It is worth noting that the INSP took inception in 1991 and aims to build the capacities of the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS through its training, research and laboratory analysis programs.