UZHELTH is designed to develop the capacity of Uzbek Higher Education Institutions to train public health personnel of various levels of responsibility and autonomy and in the relevant disciplinary sectors in order to enhance the level of human health in the broadest sense. Using Tuning Methodology, UZHELTH will implement a structured process of mapping. consultation, restructuring, monitoring and evaluation to assist Uzbek HEIs to reorganize, coordinate, extend and modernize the training offered.

UZHELTH will work closely with the relevant Ministries (Higher Education. Health. Agriculture) to gather insight and promote the necessary legislation or normal e changes to make state-of-the-art competence-based Learning Teaching and Assessment in the Public Health sector compatible with Ministerial directive and professional regulations.

Enhancement of single disciplinary areas (Public Health. Medicine. Veterinary Medicine, Food Safety and Environmental Protection, Pharmacy) will lead to the creation of an overall Sectoral Qualifications Framework (SQF), able to coordinate and give direction and coherence to the separate areas.

The UZHELTH Consortium will constitute a sustainable platform for cooperation not only between Uzbekistan and the European partners, but also with related projects and developments in the rest of the world. Through two-way consultation processes UZHELTH will create a structured relationship between the HEIs in their role as elaborators and transmitters of knowledge (education and research), with private enterprise and public bodies, introducing them as necessary partners in the creation of an efficacious overall public health system.

An overarching aim is to create a coordinated information structure for the Public Health sector in all its valences, able to put actors and stakeholders into immediate communication; and to train health personnel of all levels (technicians, experts, specialists, researchers) to utilize the system effectively.

It is to be emphasized from the outset that the UZHELTH Project will be carried out by a Consortium of European and Uzbek partners, including the Ministries of the partner country involved. All support the objectives of the project and will participate in the planned activities, in order to achieve the desired results. The participants are not paid by the European Commission to carry out this work; rather the European Commission supports them in their efforts to carry out what they have planned and proposed.

Main Project Objectives

The wider objective of UZHEL TH is to:

- To support Uzbek HEIs and the Uzbek government in developing a holistic state-of- the-art public health sector, enhancing the formation of personnel in human and veterinary public health and food safety

Specific Project Objective/s are to:

- Develop or improve competence-based degree programmes at different levels (short, Ba, MA, PhD), in the public health sector;

- Encourage legislation to ensure compatibility of programmes with regulations;

- Enhance the ability of medical graduates (nurses, paramedics and doctors) to intervene effectively in public health matters, improving both theoretical education and practical skills;

- Enhance formation of personnel involved in veterinary public health at various levels;

- Enhance formation of personnel involved in food safety, at various levels;

- Build a shared platform for all actors in the sectors linked to public health, ensuring positive cooperation and development of common parameters;

- Develop a shared information system shared between all the actors involved, enabling intervention in public health issues in real time and coordinated fashion;

- Coordinate the design or enhancement of programmes linking up with similar efforts in other countries and regions.