About ICPH

     The Institute of Community and Public Health (ICPH) at Birzeit University was established first as a unit in 1978, then as a department, and finally in 1998 as an Institute. Its growth and development came in response  to the Palestinian community's urgent need for independent and informed health human resource development, research and planning, model building and implementation of health care services locally.

     The Institute moved from its original premises in Birzeit town to Ramallah in summer 2003, following recurrent military restrictions of access to Birzeit town, which had affected especially the students coming from the various regions of the West Bank.
 

     The aim of the Institute is to contribute to the improvement of Palestinian population’s health and its health services by conducting policy and program-oriented research and utilizing evidence generated from the field for teaching, training and the operation of models of excellence in health care delivery that are gradually taken over by others working in health care service delivery locally. Teaching and training focus on equipping health human resources with the concepts, skills and practices that would allow them to improve service availability, accessibility and quality as a matter of basic human right.

     The Institute upholds primary health care as a strategy for health and health services development, defining primary health care not merely as a clinic in a remote area, but rather as a system of health care provision that includes effective linkages and referral/re-referral mechanisms among the different levels of health care. It takes into consideration that health is a social construction, and that health care needs to expand beyond the boundaries of the clinic to address structural, social, cultural and environmental factors that influence health and well being.

     Since September of 2000, with the beginning of the Second Palestinian Uprising, the Institute worked to combine immediate health crisis survival needs with longer term development objectives. Its structure and activities since that time moved towards achieving this goal by locating the linking point between the two imperatives.

     The Institute pioneers projects and programs that emphasize the needs of neglected and priority groups, works to develop programs and models that cater to the needs of the identified priority group until others working in the health sector take those over, and then phases its activities out to move into new areas.

     The first ten-year cycle was centred on participation in the development of the Palestinian Primary Health Care model along with non-governmental organizations. The following cycle  focused on the development of the Community Based Rehabilitation model, in cooperation with local groups. In the context of the prevailing political and socio-economic conditions, the Institute is currently active in a range of areas, such as environmental health, pharmaceutical management systems, child health and protection, emerging chronic diseases, and women’s health and health services.  The Institute is also in the process of model building and experimentation in the area of psycho-social health, working to assist in the development of a national, cost effective and culturally compatible psycho-social/mental health system.
 

     The Institute has established excellent working links and relations with the different Palestinian ministries working in the area of health, especially the Ministries of Health, Education, Agriculture, and Environment, in addition to a variety of local and international non-governmental organizations as well as UNRWA health care services. The Institute actively cooperates with these institutions and groups, being part and parcel of a collective effort aimed at improving health conditions and services in the area, and ultimately, the quality of life of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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