The virtual working environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to adapt its capacity-building strategy for the health workforce by offering several online courses.
Currently, the OpenWHO platform1 hosts a channel dedicated to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), with six multilingual courses dedicated to a wide range of health topics: NTDs and COVID-19 (in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish); mycetoma (in English); rabies and One Health (in English); podoconiosis (in English); scabies (in English, French, Spanish and Russian); and tungiasis (in English).
By the end of 2020, more than 22 000 learners had enrolled in at least one of these courses, and more than 7000 Certificates of Achievement were issued.
In 2022, the course on mycetoma will be available in Arabic, that on rabies and One Health in French, on scabies in Arabic and Portuguese, and on tungiasis in French, Portuguese and Spanish.
Also in 2022, several additional courses will be published, including Buruli ulcer; cutaneous leishmaniasis; cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Americas; leprosy; onchocerciasis; post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis; visceral leishmaniasis in East Africa; yaws; and others. Three courses will be dedicated to cross-cutting subjects such as tropical dermatology; supply chain management of NTD health products; and safety of NTD medicines.
Next steps
To further expand its offer of online courses over the next biennium 2022-2023, WHO's Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases is launching a virtual survey to assess current gaps, needs and preferences in the offer of virtual tools for capacity strengthening.
Frequently-asked questions
- Who can take the survey? Everyone is welcome to take the survey!
- What is the deadline for completing the survey? Sunday 30 January 2022 (World NTD Day).
- Which languages is the survey available in? The survey is available in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish.
- How is the survey structured? The survey includes 23 questions: the first set about the characteristics of the responder, the second set about the responder's experience on NTDs and online courses, and the third set about the responder's preferences for topics, format and platforms of future online courses.
- How can I access the survey? To access the survey, please click one of the links below.
Access to the WHO survey on NTD online courses
- Arabic (عربي)
- Chinese (中文)
- English
- French (Français)
- Russian (русский)
- Spanish (Español)
- Portuguese (Português)
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1OpenWHO (https://openwho.org/) is WHO's interactive, web-based, knowledge-transfer platform offering online courses to improve the response to health emergencies. OpenWHO enables the Organization and its key partners to transfer life-saving knowledge to large numbers of frontline responders.
