We are a global community of institutions and individuals committed to social accountability. We collaborate with communities and cross-sector stakeholders to strengthen health systems and prepare a workforce that meets community needs.
Our members share strategies and principles to enhance equity and quality in health systems. We build on successful outcomes and practical experiences across diverse contexts, continuously improving through collaboration and reflection.
We apply these shared approaches to advise governments, agencies, and institutions on how to align policies, institutional and educational practices with community needs to build more equitable and responsive health systems.
Our Theory of Change for Socially Accountable Health Professional Education (SAHPE) outlines the expected outcomes and the pathways needed to achieve these outcomes. It emphasizes systems-thinking, co-creation, and continuous quality improvement and calls for faculty and other stakeholders to engage in critical reflection and periodic assessments, to align policies, curricula, and educational practices with evolving needs of students, communities, and health systems. This approach goes hand in hand with The Way We Work.
School’s mission, values, governance and strategies are needs-based: centered on addressing health issues and social determinants of health among target populations, strengthening local health systems, and reducing health inequities.
School has a participatory approach: governance and strategies are planned with meaningful input from all relevant stakeholders, particularly local government and communities, with a primary focus on the priority health and social needs of local communities.
Established in 1994, Ateneo de Zamboanga School of Medicine in the Philippines was the first medical school serving the poorest communities in Minda- nao. Central to its educational approach is community-engaged learning. Throughout their training, students engage directly with underserved communities-spending substantial time each year understanding and addressing local health challenges.
At James Cook University College of Medicine and Dentistry in Australia students participate in facilitated “Community Meetings” where they learn about the key challenges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities face and how best to communicate and engage to help close the gap in Indigenous health.
Northern Ontario School of Medicine University is successfully building a workforce in Canada’s most remote communities. Its innovative socially accountable program was developed in collaboration with rural, francophone and indigenous communities and other stakeholders and is producing doctors ready and willing to work in rural areas.
At the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the University of Gezira in Sudan, medical students learn about and conduct a host of public health activities in rural communities that often have limited access to care and are faced with a range of social determinants that negatively affect their health. This short documentary describes such a rotation from a student perspective.
James Cook University School of Medicine trains a fit-for-purpose health workforce for regional, rural, and remote communities through locally-based and integrated general practice and rural generalist education from undergraduate to clinician years. This includes providing rurally based primary care practitioners with advanced skills so they can better serve their communities.
Education, research, and service programs are designed to meet the health and social needs of underserved communities.
The curriculum integrates basic, clinical, population, and social science, including the social determinants of health.
Programs emphasize a commitment to public service, with faculty members erving as role models.
Teaching methods are student- centered and service-based, emphasizing teamwork and benefiting from information technology.
A significant part of the learning experience takes place in primary care settings.
Students are selected from communities that have the greatest health needs.
Social accountability is reflected across all departments and in the commitment from school leadership.
Schools recruit and train community- based practitioners as teachers and mentors.
Programs are located in or near the communities they serve.
Charlie Labarda, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM-SHS), where he has taught for more than a decade. He is a regular member of the National research Council of the Philippines, belonging to the Medical Sciences Division (Division III). Before joining the medical faculty at UPM-SHS he trained in at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital. He finished his PhD in the Department of Psychology at The University of Hong Kong, his Master in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management (high honors), Doctor of Medicine (cum laude) at the Our Lady of Fatima University-College of Medicine, and his undergraduate Social Sciences studies (cum laude) at UP Tacloban College. He was a topnotcher in the Physician Licensure Examination (8th place).
He served as the Unit Faculty Representative to the All UP Academic Employees Union-Manila Chapter. He is also part of the UPM-SHS core faculty for the Leadership and Development Program (LDP) capacitating local chief executives (governors and mayors) in strengthening their health systems to achieve the goals of universal health care and sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the Philippine government. He also volunteers as civil society partner of DSWD in its 4Ps Program as Vice-Chairperson for the National Independent Monitoring Committee (NIMC). He also helps in various DOH and WHO projects in line with his advocacies around medical education, health equity, disaster public health, resilient and healthy communities, and mental health especially in low resource settings. Recently he became part of the Data Science for Public Policy Working Group based at the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP-CIDS), promoting the use of data science for public policy.
Dr. Dharamsi currently serves as the Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. With 25 years of experience, he brings an interdisciplinary background and extensive international and community development experience as an educator, scholar, and administrator.
Dr. Dharamsi’s academic journey began in Canada, where he earned an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and achieved tenure in the Department of Family Medicine. He also co-directed the UBC Center for International Health.
His work is at the intersection of public health, medical humanities, global health, ethics, and the social determinants of health.
Born in Tanzania, Dr. Dharamsi is a first-generation high school and college graduate. He is deeply committed to student success. He began his career as an inner-city schoolteacher.
His career includes leadership roles as regional director for early childhood development and poverty alleviation in East Africa with the Aga Khan Development Network, founding associate dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso, and senior advisor to the provost at New Mexico State University.
Dedicated to advancing public health, Dr. Dharamsi actively serves on the boards of several national and international organizations, including the ASPPH Global Engagement and Partnerships Advisory Committee.
