Strategic Objectives

KNUST is one of eight initial partners of the Higher Education Collaborative in Health and aims to contribute to all three pillars of the health strategy; Health Employment, Health Entrepreneurship and Health Ecosystems. This includes building an empowered health workforce, with a particular focus on women, and building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that advances skills, knowledge, and mindsets in order to launch and sustain health ventures. These programs will contribute to the advancement and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 17 in Ghana and across Africa. 

Project Pillars

Health Employment

The health employment pillar aims to expand and improve current capacities to train primary healthcare workers. KNUST will contribute to this goal by providing high-demand trainings for health professionals at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, specialized short courses for leadership development and by leveraging a ‘Train the Trainers’ (ToT) approach to significantly expand the number of students and faculty members equipped to pass on critical PHC skills.

Proposed Programs

  • Building on the Scholars Program at KNUST, provide masters and PhD’s programs to prepare leaders to oversee the expansion of training for primary health care workers and health professionals;
  • Community health care workers training across a range of disciplines and practices in medicine, including hospital systems improvement;
  • Leadership fellowship for health professionals, especially women, working in global health in Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs);
  • Facilitate faculty exchange to build capacity, share knowledge and co-create and build programs.

Anticipated Output

  • 825 students and health professionals trained from Ghana and across West Africa. This includes:
  • 5 new tailor-made short courses developed, namely, Community Health Entrepreneurship, Community Emergency Care, Palliative care, Quality Healthcare management, Emergency preparedness and response to epidemic-prone diseases
  • 130 research papers focussed on health entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and community based health systems strengthening published in peer-reviewed journals, will be widely disseminated through community engagement with opinion leaders and beneficiaries as well as issue policy briefs to stakeholders.
  • 10 faculty members and 5 Bio-medical Scientists co-creating and co-teaching with faculty at University of Toronto.

Health Entrepreneurship

The health entrepreneurship pillar aims to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and culture that supports entrepreneurs to create meaningful innovations and employment opportunities in the health sector.

Proposed Programs

  • Establish an entrepreneurial network across partner academic institutions in Ghana (Ashesi University and the 71 affiliated health institutions, and industries (see section 5 of the proposal);
  • Run start-up boot camps, incubators, and accelerators to provide training, mentorship, and funding for health ventures for both KNUST students and eco-system players;
  • Design courses to provide specific areas of expertise that African health entrepreneurs need such as entrepreneurship modules that guide students from knowledge translation to commercialization, helping them turn their ideas into commercially viable and scalable health sector start-ups;
  • Track data on growth of entrepreneurial ecosystems to inform smart programming decisions, ecosystem development, and the broader policy environment.

Anticipated Output

  • 560 PHC workers trained with the potential for them to reach an additional 12,000 workers during this project
  • 105 students awarded seed funding ($10,000 USD) to start and grow their businesses
  • 7,000 prospective students and 300 ecosystem actors introduced to the career viability and opportunities available within health entrepreneurship
  • 4,200 students trained in Sustainable Business Start-ups (SBS)and Public-Private-Partner Universities (3PUs) entrepreneurship training 

Health Ecosystem

The health ecosystem pillar aims to train and prepare a new generation of talented professionals with the broad sets of skills required to drive equitable and inclusive growth in African health sectors through public and private spheres. As KNUST is a premiere science and technology university, we will contribute to this pillar through our mandate of advancing knowledge and improving quality of life through relevant research, quality teaching, entrepreneurship training and community engagement. We will build on our existing experience of collaboration with health care service industries, including providing training and mentorship opportunities, and offer the following programs.

Proposed Programs

  • Develop a new Master’s program in health entrepreneurship in collaboration with U of T
  • Micro credential and certificate programs to teach in-demand skills essential for building sustainable health sectors and upskilling community health care workers.
  • Health sector network of academia, scholars, alumni, entrepreneurs, government agencies, health care start-ups, and private sector partners working together to create dignified and fulfilling jobs across health ecosystems

Anticipated Output

  • Develop a new Master’s program in health entrepreneurship in collaboration with U of T
  • Micro credential and certificate programs to teach in-demand skills essential for building sustainable health sectors and upskilling community health care workers.
  • Health sector network of academia, scholars, alumni, entrepreneurs, government agencies, health care start-ups, and private sector partners working together to create dignified and fulfilling jobs across health ecosystems
  • 100 postgraduate masters degrees in health entrepreneurship
  • Research outputs focussing on health entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity and community-based health systems strengthening will be widely disseminated through community engagement with opinion leaders and beneficiaries and policy briefs with stakeholders.
  • Health sector network of academia, scholars, alumni, entrepreneurs, government agencies, health care start-ups, and private sector partners working together to create dignified and fulfilling jobs across health ecosystems