Between July and October of 2017, the Iraq Ministry of Health (MoH) implemented, in collaboration with GHD| EMPHNET, the Public Health Empowerment Program - Basic Field Epidemiology (PHEP – BFE). This is an in-service training program designed to strengthen the MoH’s epidemiologic capacity. It achieves this goal by enhancing the knowledge and skills of health workers in areas relevant to the fundamentals of surveillance, outbreak investigation, and emergency response.

In the context of Iraq’s complex emergency situation, the PHEP-BFE builds the capacities of the national health workforce. It contributes to expanding it, and hence addresses the country’s urgent health problems.

Residents of this first PHEP-BFE cohort comprised 25 health workers from various governorates in Iraq. These health workers are responsible for disease surveillance and response at the district level.

The PHEP-BFE curriculum consists of three didactic training workshops. These were complemented by mentor-supervised field projects. These field projects were implemented in two parts: the first was a five-week field work period implemented after the first training, while the second was a three-week field work period implemented after the second.

The program’s first workshop was conducted from July 16 to July 27, 2017. During this workshop, residents were trained on the basic skills needed to conduct effective public health surveillance, while case studies and group exercises were used to reinforce concepts taught. As part of their first field project, the residents analyzed their unit’s recent surveillance data. They summarized their analysis in a report, and then conducted a data quality audit as well as feedback visits to selected reporting sites.

In the second workshop, conducted from September 10 to 14, 2017, residents were introduced to emergency risk communication, epidemiology during outbreaks, and Rapid Response Teams (RRTs). Residents also presented their first field projects during this training workshop’s opening sessions.

In their second field work period, residents wrote case reports and outbreak investigation reports. They also summarized additional surveillance data and conducted an analysis of a surveillance quality problem.

The third and last training workshop took place between October 17 and 19, 2017. It covered topics aimed at enhancing residents’ skills in health problem framing and analysis. During this workshop, participants presented their fieldwork projects and these projects were evaluated.

On the last day of the workshop, the first cohort’s graduation ceremony took place. This event was attended by the MoH Director General of Public Health Directorate Dr. Ihsan Jaffar, the Director General of Al-Najaf's Health Directorate Dr. Ali Shubbar, the Director of the Iraq Field Epidemiology Training Program (I-FETP) Dr. Qahtan Salhi, and the Deputy Director of EMPHNET Dr. Adel Belbaisi who was representing  GHD| EMPHNET's Executive Director Dr. Mohannad Al-Nsour.