Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi. The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training,

Member profile

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health. It is a public private partnership that has collaboratively evolved through consultations with multiple constituencies including Indian and international academia, state and central governments, multi & bilateral agencies and civil society groups.
Structured as an independent foundation, PHFI adopts a broad, integrative approach to public health, tailoring its endeavours to Indian conditions and bearing relevance to countries facing similar challenges and concerns. The PHFI focuses on broad dimensions of public health that encompass promotive, preventive and therapeutic services (many of which are frequently lost sight of in policy planning, as well as in popular understanding).

Main activities

The PHFI is working towards building public health capacity in India by:

• Establishing 5 - 7 new institutes of public health over the next 6 years;
• Assisting the growth of existing public health training institutions/departments and facilitating their evolution into major institutes of public health;
• Establishing a strong national research network of public health and allied institutions which would undertake policy and programme relevant research that will advance public health goals in prioritized areas - with suitable international partnerships where useful and appropriate;
• Engaging public health expertise to collectively undertake analytical work for generating policy recommendations related to public health action, in not only the health sector but also in all other sectors which impact upon health of people, and developing a vigorous advocacy platform to effectively communicate these recommendations to policy makers and other relevant stake holder groups (including civil society organizations which represent the interests of people’s health); and
• Establishing an independent accreditation body for degrees in public health which are awarded by training institutions across India.

Links to the health workforce crisis

PHFI believes that health challenges must be understood and acted upon. Concerted health research, policy development and analysis, programme development and evaluation, health systems organization, models of health care financing and operationalized scientific research are aids to this process. They assess and highlight the need for action, while providing insight for possible solutions. Education and training in public health need to be interdisciplinary in content, so that the pathways of public health action are multi-sectoral.
The interventions proposed need to be evidence-based, context-specific and resource- sensitive. Professionals at PHFI focus their research, training and community service expertise on understanding health needs and problems of populations. In-depth research, critical analysis, drawing from global experiences and academic collaborations enable PHFI to provide much-needed technical assistance to initiatives and policies that protect, promote and improve health and health systems.