Educating Future Health Diplomats: INDOHUN-style Health Sector Advocacy for Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Aug. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — With a strong determination to produce brave, intelligent, and emphatic Health Diplomats in the global arena, Indonesia One Health University Network (INDOHUN) in collaboration with USAID and One Health Workforce (OHW) will hold an intensive health diplomacy training program at the Grand Bidakara Hotel Savoy Homann, Bandung, West Java, August 25-29.

GHD 2018 will be held at the Grand Bidakara Hotel Savoy Homann, Bandung, West Java, August 25-29, 2018
GHD 2018 will be held at the Grand Bidakara Hotel Savoy Homann, Bandung, West Java, August 25-29, 2018

This health diplomacy training has a mission to create a superior generation in Indonesia that is able to play an active role in global health diplomacy with a target of producing 150 reliable health diplomats in 3 years period. This health diplomacy training consists of 40% theory and 60% practice. All training materials are prepared by the national and international level trainers from England, the Netherlands, United States of America and Africa.

This Health Diplomacy Training or Global Health Diplomacy (GHD) training is attended by young health-related professionals with minimum work experience of 3 years. Participants consist of various disciplinary backgrounds, such as public health disciplines, medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, defense diplomacy, pharmaceutical microbiology, international relations, and public administration.

The presence of health diplomats is important in relation to health issues that always arise in the realm of global politics, so that a comprehensive understanding is not only about political diplomacy, but also a deep understanding of health. Health diplomats are expected to be able to complement the colors of the global political realm with their knowledge in overcoming various health problems, resolving conflicts, and building collaboration to improve the quality of life of the global community.

In its implementation, the GHD provides scholarships worth IDR 7,000,000 or USD 800 for 30 selected participants. This scholarship includes accommodation, consumption, modules, training kits, and training costs (exclude transportation to/ from venue). The selected participants will be able to experience international networking session and world-class negotiation simulations free of charge.

GHD also provides practical education to hone participants’ skills. Each participant is required to follow a whole series of activities including practice of diplomacy and negotiation, political communication and lobbying, and the official international trial simulation or multi-stage negotiation simulation (MSNS).

In this MSNS the participants will conduct a diplomatic session simulation and act as diplomats who must be critical of foreign policy, national and regional security, have tactical response to the development of global health problems, as well as quick and appropriate attitudes in making strategic decisions.

Professor Wiku Adisasmito as a global health expert who is also the coordinator of INDOHUN stressed that the application of MSNS in this GHD training aims to give participants realistic diplomatic simulations. In the simulation, they are required to be able to be Indonesian Health Diplomats with high integrity for the nation and state.

“Not only through MSNS, the participants were also provided with training on diplomatic strategies and table manner training which is very important for global health diplomats” explained Wiku who is also Professor of the University of Indonesia’s Health Faculty.

This Health Diplomacy Training also answered instructions from President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) during the opening of the International Conference and Table Top Exercise for Global Health Security at the State Palace last year. At that time President Jokowi emphasized that to prevent global health threats, cooperation between health practitioners, across sectors and across countries is needed. President Jokowi also emphasized the importance of investing in human resources in various fields, one of which is investment in health human resources.

Like the tit for tat, President Jokowi’s statement was then responded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Center for Multilateral Policy Study and Development of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) through the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) activity “Indonesian Health Diplomacy Strategy in a Global Context” held in Depok, March 2018 ago.

The FGD reaffirmed some of Indonesia’s achievements in the health sector, including Indonesia’s success in gaining access to the H5N1 vaccine in 2008 and the role of the Bio Farma Indonesia industry which currently supplies 60% of the global polio vaccine. In this FGD also noted the importance of collaboration between government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in addressing various health problems both at national, regional and global levels.

This GHD training is the second GHD training that INDOHUN held. Previously it was held in Jakarta in 2017. It was participated by 30 young health professionals who were selected through a very strict selection. There were at least hundreds of people who registered in 2017, and that number doubles this year. High interest from the registrants shows how important GHD activities are for health professionals who want to get education to become a reliable Health Diplomat. This year’s GHD activities will be very different from the quality of the programs that continue to be improved from the previous year. This GHD participant registration is still open for non-scholarship programs. This training registration form can be accessed through THIS link.

“Our focus this year is the health system in the current era, of course this theme will be dissected by national and international trainers through various diplomatic materials and practices that we prepared specifically,” explained Fiqhi Rizky as the GHD Program Officer this year. (*)

Register and find out more here: http://globalhealthdiplomacy.id/index.php#contentExecutive

Media Contact:

Syayu Zhukhruffa
Communication Manager
Indonesia One Health University Network (INDOHUN)
G Building 3rd Floor, Room G316
Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, West Java
phone/fax: +6221 29302084

Photo – https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180808/2207092-1

Related Post