The Secretariat of the Pacific Community is developing a training programme for health professionals to help them better respond to public health emergencies in the region.
The initiative, Strengthening Health Interventions in the Pacific, is to offer public health staff a series of courses, accredited by Fiji National University.
The acting public health division director, Yvan Souares, says some trainees will do the course full time for two years, while part-time trainees will participate one day a week.
Dr Souares says it will aid individual professional development and strengthen public health systems nationally.
"Some trainees, by MOUs being signed with the ministries, would be given room to work on specific projects identified as national priorities. So the capacity building is at the national level, but also at the individual professional level. And this capacity building would also be qualified by academic degrees."
Yvan Souares says the initative will be presented to the next Pacific-wide Ministers of Health meeting in July.
