South Africa Explores Public Health Policy and NPHI Framework

A delegation of South African government officials together with staff from the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) office in South Africa visited the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on August 19-23 to better understand how other national public health institute (NPHI) models are structured to maximize public health impact.  

The visit was coordinated through CDC’s Center for Global Health in partnership with IANPHI. With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IANPHI and CDC are currently working together to help countries develop or strengthen NPHIs. South Africa’s exploration of potential policy options is being funded as part of this work.  

The South African team participated in seminars and meetings with high-level CDC experts to learn about the agency’s history, governance, functions and linkages to other public health groups in the country. They also heard from IANPHI experts on the various models for NPHI development and organization based on the experience of IANPHI’s 90+ members and its Framework for the Creation and Development of NPHIs.