Regional Capacity Building Tools

Region of the Americas (AMRO)/Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO)

Capacity building

Key information

Material #1

  • Title of the capacity building or training materials:

    Virtual Campus for Public Health

  • Type of material (e.g. online eCourse, online training module, shared copy or pdf training manual, training package, video, etc.):

    Courses, resources, services and activities of education, information and knowledge management in training.

  • Languages the materials is available in:

    Spanish, English, Portuguese, French

  • The UN agency or partnership that developed the material (e.g. UNICEF, FAO/WHO collaboration):

    PAHO/WHO

  • Purpose of the material:

    The Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCHP) is a network of people, institutions and organizations that share courses, resources, services and activities of education, information and knowledge management in training, with the common purpose of improving the skills of the workforce and practices of public health through the development and innovative use of information and communication technologies for continuous improvement in the performance of continuing education programs in health. It is a tool of the technical cooperation of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for networked learning in the region of the Americas.

  • Main topic of the material:

    The VCPH has seven main components that correspond to their respective benchmarks: governance (management),
    education, skills, technological, financial and evaluation.

    1. Campus governance as a dynamic process that guides management, standard and evaluates educational activities network of institutions, organizations and individuals involved in VCPH to fulfill its mission.
    2. The educational paradigm adopted by the campus whose base is in the implications of Networked Education and the techniques and methods of Continuing Education in Health, which have been experienced and developed by PAHO in coordination with public health institutions of the countries of the Region.
    3. Maps skills of workers and public health institutions that need to correspond with the needs of the systems of public health services to strengthen its offer substantive;
    4. The information and communication technologies (ICTs) that are integrated into the strategic model as valuable tools to ensure effective decentralization and increased coverage of the educational process to help strengthen institutional autonomy and teamwork and, finally;
    5. Ensuring financial and material resources by mobilizing external and internal.
      The communication strategy aims to increase and strengthen the critical mass necessary for the VCPH will become a network of Public Health Education, to assist the development of the RHS.
      The self-assessment and evaluation that allows for feedback and improvement of management processes, education and technology developed in the VCPH.
  • Date developed:

    2003.  As of 2011, more than 140 institutions of the different nodes representatives participate in the Virtual Campus of Public Health.

  • URL (if available online):

    Virtual Campus for Public Health PAHO/WHO

  • Note

    Courses related to nutrition, type of courses and languages the eCourses are available in include:

    • PAHO Basic e-Learning course on human rights and health VCPH Self-learning
    • English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
    • Nutrition, Food Safety and Health in Emergencies in the Caribbean VHCP Self-learning English
    • Geohelminthiasis: prevention, treatment and control VCPH Self-learning Spanish
    • Health Promotion VCPH Self-learning English, Spanish
    • Gender and Health: Awareness, Analysis and Action VCPH Self-learning English, Spanish, Portuguese
    • Zika: Clinical approach in basic care VCPH Self-learning Spanish
    • Self-study course on climate change and health VCPH Self-learning Spanish
    • ACAPEM-B Health Care for the Elderly – International Competency Accreditation – Basic Level  VCPH Self-learning Spanish
    • Sustainable health agenda for the Americas 2018-203 VCPH Self-learning Spanish, English
    • Basic epidemiological concepts CVPH Self-learning English
    • Measurement of health status VCPH Self-learning English

Key information

Material #2

  • Title of the capacity building or training materials:

    GRADE Online Learning Modules

  • Type of material (e.g. online eCourse, online training module, shared copy or pdf training manual, training package, video, etc.):

    Online training module videos

  • Languages the materials is available in:

    English

  • The UN agency or partnership that developed the material (e.g. UNICEF, FAO/WHO joint collaboration):

    PAHO/WHO

  • Purpose of the material:

    These online learning modules are designed to help guideline developers and authors of systematic reviews learn how to use the GRADE approach to grade the evidence in systematic reviews, to create Summary of Findings Tables and GRADE Evidence Profiles, and move from evidence to making recommendations.

  • Main topic of the material:

    There are two sets of modules:

    1. For authors of Cochrane systematic reviews and other systematic reviewers
    2. For World Health Organization (WHO) guideline developers and other guideline developers
  • Date developed:

    Unknown

  • URL (if available online):

    GRADE Online Learning Modules