Examining African Contributions to Global Health (FutureLearn)

Offered by University of Basel,
Examining African Contributions to Global Health (FutureLearn)

Discover the achievements and impact made by African experts in global healthcare. Diversify your historical perspective by learning about the Global South. The history of science has largely been written from the perspective of the Global North. This has meant that the impact of the Global South has been neglected and undervalued. This five-week course from the University of Basel will uncover the innovation and excellence that Africa has brought to global health over time.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Use African ingenuity to improve public health worldwide
Africa has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, having contributed 12.8% of the technologies used to respond to the pandemic.
As you will learn in the case studies, many African countries have overcome health challenges using innovative solutions that can benefit the world. You’ll explore theories, financing solutions, and technologies from Africa that can be used to uplift health systems across the world.

Utilise the knowledge exchange of the Global South to inspire innovation
African countries have a wealth of knowledge that the Global North could benefit from.
Using the knowledge from this course, you will be able to identify problems relating to clinical trials and financing in the Global North and learn from innovative approaches in Africa.
You will also learn about examples of knowledge exchange in the Global South and find connections between urban planning and public health that can be used to motivate transformation in global health.

Learn with the experts in African Studies from the University of Basel
The University of Basel has a renowned Centre for African Studies, has one of the few chairs of African History in Europe, and is associated with one of the leading tropical medicine institutes in the world.
The experts are best placed to guide you in your journey, broaden your horizons, and improve your knowledge of the history of African contributions to global health.

Syllabus

Week 1: What are African contributions to global health?
Week 2: African health financing
Week 3: Learning from drug development in Africa
Week 4: South-South knowledge circulation
Week 5: Urban health in Africa

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Investigate the history of global health as well as knowledge and theory from the Global South, particularly from Africa. Discuss how it has been neglected in Northern academia.
  • Explore African health financing through concrete examples such as Universal Health Coverage and Results-Based Financing.
  • Compare the challenges of drug development and R&D costs estimation in the Global North and South.
  • Investigate South-South knowledge circulation and Chinese medical assistance in Tanzania. Explore how historians conduct their research.
  • Identify the interdependence between environmental factors and people’s health in African cities. Assess the ways in which the recent history of urban planning in Africa impacts public health. Delve into urban health and urban agriculture.

Who is the course for?
This course is suited to public health professionals as well as students and scholars of global health and African Studies.
It’s also helpful to those interested in history, urbanism, public health, health economics, drug development, and Africa.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Causes of Human Disease: Understanding Causes of Disease (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Causes of Human Disease: Understanding Causes of Disease (FutureLearn)

Learn the epidemiological methods used to understand the causes of diseases and how social factors influence their development. What causes human disease? Why do some people get a disease but others don’t? Through this course, you’ll learn how epidemiologists are helping to find answers to these complex questions and how the health of a population is measured and analysed.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Improving Healthcare Through Clinical Research (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Improving Healthcare Through Clinical Research (FutureLearn)

On this free online course, find out how medical treatments are discovered, tested and evaluated to improve healthcare for all. Everything we do in healthcare has to be discovered and thoroughly tested before it can be put into practice. In this course you will explore clinical research – its challenges and its huge benefits to modern healthcare.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Using Infection Control to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Using Infection Control to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance (FutureLearn)

Find out how effective infection control in health and social care can tackle the global risk of antimicrobial resistance. Get practical guidance on infection control in health and social care settings. This online course will explore the growing problem of antimicrobial-resistant infections in health and social care settings. You’ll find out how infectious diseases are acquired and spread, and how this contributes to the global risk of antimicrobial resistance.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Gram Negative Bacteria (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy - BSAC

Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Gram Negative Bacteria (FutureLearn)

This course by BSAC is for healthcare professionals managing infections. You will learn about Gram Negative Bacteria. Identify, diagnose and treat gram negative bacterial infections. Gram negative bacteria (GNB) are a group of bacteria that can cause infection and toxic reaction in patients, yet are difficult to differentiate and treat with antibiotics due to their structure.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Nutrition and Disease Prevention (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Taipei Medical University

Nutrition and Disease Prevention (FutureLearn)

Learn about the relationship between diet and disease and discover the role a nutrient-rich diet can play in disease prevention. Understand how good nutrition can prevent disease. Diet-related diseases and obesity levels are rising. On this course you will explore the relationship between diet and disease and the role diet plays in weight management. You will examine the latest research studies to consider how poor nutrition can lead to ill health, and whether what we eat can help to prevent the onset of common diseases, such as cancer.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Introduction to Critical Care Medicine (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Glasgow

Introduction to Critical Care Medicine (FutureLearn)

Learn how to handle complex issues faced in Critical Care Units when other options on the ward have been exhausted. Learn how to manage common presentations seen in Critical Care Units. Critical care is an emerging specialty in hospitals and, with an increasing population living with multiple co-morbidites, the burden on Critical Care Units is rising. In this course, find out about the common presentations seen in a Critical Care Unit and how to manage them effectively.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Why Do We Age? The Molecular Mechanisms of Ageing (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Groningen,University Medical Center Groningen - UMCG

Why Do We Age? The Molecular Mechanisms of Ageing (FutureLearn)

Why do we age? Is there a limit to human lifespan? Can we prolong our lives? Find out with this free online course. Discover the science behind the ageing process. The “why” and “how” of ageing has puzzled mankind ever since it questioned its place in the universe.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Perioperative Medicine in Action (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University College London

Perioperative Medicine in Action (FutureLearn)

Explore perioperative medicine and how you can improve care for the high risk surgical patient. Join this RCoA endorsed course. Too many patients die or suffer prolonged complications following surgery. Perioperative medicine is an emerging, multi-disciplinary approach, which tackles this issue, by optimising the care of high-risk surgical patients. It encompasses disciplines including anaesthetics, surgery, nursing, care of the elderly, physiotherapy and healthcare management.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Understanding Autism (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Kent

Understanding Autism (FutureLearn)

Understand more about autism, including diagnosis, the autistic spectrum and life with autism, with this online course. First identified over 70 years ago, autism is a lifelong developmental disability affecting how a person communicates with and relates to others, and how they make sense of the world. It is a spectrum condition; all people on the spectrum share certain difficulties, but their condition will affect them in different ways.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Birmingham

Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn)

Learn about how your liver works, ways to look after it and how liver damage is caused, studied and treated around the world. We are currently experiencing an international explosion of liver disease that continues to have enormous impact upon healthcare systems and global health. In the UK we have seen a 20% increase in deaths related to liver disease since 2000 and this pattern reflects the global situation.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Causes of Human Disease: Exploring Cancer and Genetic Disease (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Causes of Human Disease: Exploring Cancer and Genetic Disease (FutureLearn)

Explore how the unravelling of genetic code has led to a deeper understanding of genetic diseases and cancer. It’s widely known that some diseases run in families. The discovery of the structure of DNA and the unravelling of the genetic code has led to a deeper understanding of such diseases. We now know more about the genetic basis of cancer and how cancer cells are formed and reproduce. On this course you’ll explore the structure of DNA, its processes and learn how genetic disease results from DNA alterations.

Self Paced
2 Weeks