International Association of National Public Health Institutes


The International Association of National Public Health Institutes is an international umbrella organization of national public health institutes, public health government agencies working to improve national disease prevention and response. IANPHI is made up of 100+ members, located in more than 90 countries. An important goal of IANPHI is to improve health outcomes by strengthening NPHIs or supporting countries in creating new NPHIs.
As of 2023 IANPHI’s president is professor Duncan Selbie, former chief executive of Public Health England. The IANPHI Secretariat is based at Santé Publique France, and the US Office is located at the Emory University Global Health Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. The IANPHI Foundation is located in Finland at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. Coordinated by Secretary General Jean Claude Desenclos, the IANPHI team is responsible for member relations and programs, policy, communications and NPHI development projects, and the IANPHI annual meeting.
At its inception, IANPHI received seed funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and a one-year planning grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BMGF subsequently awarded multi-year funds for IANPHI's development and to support projects to build NPHIs in low- and middle-income countries. Resources have since been contributed e.g. by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention A recent role for IANPHI has been to work with the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance project.
WWW ianphi.org

The National Public Health Institute model

The national public health institutes model, exemplified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Agency of Canada, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública of Mexico, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Brazil and others, is an effective and cost-efficient way to systematically develop and sustain national public health systems. NPHIs have been major contributors to reductions in morbidity and mortality from infectious and noncommunicable conditions. Many, including the U.S. CDC and the National Institute for Health and Welfare, have developed over several decades, while others, including NPHIs in Liberia and Canada, were created following threats such as Ebola and SARS, in recognition that a coordinated system with a specialized institution is needed to effectively respond to disease threats.
NPHIs usually lead national efforts for disease surveillance and outbreak investigation, laboratory services, health programs, and public health workforce development and research. NPHIs are designed to give governments the ability to assess and address major acute and long-term disease threats in a country using scientific, evidence-based policies and strategies, as well as create a career home for public health researchers and scientists, thereby fostering the evidence-based approaches necessary to ensure that government policies are based on scientific evidence rather than politics.

History and activities

In 2002, the directors of nearly 30 NPHIs met in Bellagio, Italy to share best practices and discuss opportunities for collaboration. In 2004, the group reconvened in Helsinki and declared its intention to forge an alliance.
IANPHI was formally launched at the first General Assembly in Brazil in January 2006, with 39 founding members and a one-year grant from the Gates Foundation. Under a subsequent five-year grant from the Gates Foundation awarded in late 2006, the membership has expanded to 100 institutes in 88 countries around the world.
IANPHI's activities fall into three areas:

Peer-to-Peer Partnerships

One of IANPHI's distinctive features and strengths is a peer-assistance approach that facilitates sharing of expertise and experience among member NPHIs. The model clearly benefits the recipient NPHI by identifying strategies to address priority needs and raising standards of performance for organizing and conducting public health functions. But it rewards the contributing institute as well – by sharing skills and assets to benefit others while also linking resources and solutions to address regional and global health threats and opportunities.
For the network of IANPHI members, the model provides unique opportunities for NPHIs to link with others that are geographically or linguistically similar or are struggling with similar technical or programmatic issues, such as information system development or pandemic preparedness. This collaborative approach also provides a platform for developing research or programs to address shared issues, whether laboratory safety or avian influenza, tobacco use or injury.
Recent peer-to-peer partnerships include:
  • Norway and Malawi - and
  • Morocco and Togo - Strengthening Information Systems
  • France and Togo/Côte d'Ivoire - Influencing Policy through Publication

List of IANPHI members

  1. Afghanistan:
  2. Albania:
  3. Algeria: Institut National de Santé Publique
  4. Angola: National Institute of Public Health
  5. Argentina:
  6. Armenia:
  7. Armenia:
  8. Austria: Gesundheit Österreich GmbH
  9. Bangladesh:
  10. Belgium: Sciensano
  11. Bolivia: Health Laboratories National Institute
  12. Brazil: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - FIOCRUZ
  13. Bulgaria: National Center of Public Health and Analyses
  14. Burkina Faso: Institut National de Sante Publique
  15. Burundi:
  16. Cabo Verde: Instituto Nacional de Saúde Pública
  17. Cambodia:
  18. Cameroon: Direction de la Lutte Contre la Maladie, les Épidémies, et les Pandémies
  19. Canada: Public Health Agency of Canada
  20. Canada: Institut national de santé publique du Quebec
  21. China: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
  22. China:
  23. Colombia:
  24. Costa Rica:
  25. Côte d'Ivoire :
  26. Croatia: Croatian Institute for Public Health
  27. Cuba:
  28. Czech Republic:
  29. Denmark: Statens Institut for Folkesundhed
  30. Denmark: Statens Serum Institut
  31. Ecuador:
  32. El Salvador: National Institute of Public Health
  33. Estonia:
  34. Ethiopia :
  35. Finland: National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)
  36. France: Santé publique France
  37. Georgia:
  38. Germany: Robert Koch Institute
  39. Germany: Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung
  40. Ghana:
  41. Ghana: Ghana Health Service
  42. Guatemala: Centro Nacional de Ciencias de la Salud
  43. Guinea: Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire
  44. Guinea: National Institute of Public Health Guinea
  45. Guinea Bissau: National Institute of Public Health
  46. India:
  47. Iran Islamic Republic: Institute of Public Health Research
  48. Ireland:
  49. Israel: Israel Center for Disease Control
  50. Italy:
  51. Jordan: Jordan Ministry of Health
  52. Kazakhstan: National Center for Public Healthcare
  53. Kenya: Kenya Medical Research Institute
  54. Kenya: Kenya National Public Health Institute
  55. Liberia: National Public Health Institute of Liberia
  56. Libya:
  57. Macedonia FYR: Institute for Public Health of the R. Macedonia
  58. Madagascar: Ministère de la santé publique
  59. Malawi:
  60. Mexico:
  61. Moldova:
  62. Mongolia :
  63. Morocco:
  64. Morocco:
  65. Morocco: Direction of Epidemiology and Disease Control
  66. Mozambique:
  67. Myanmar:
  68. Myanmar:
  69. Nepal: School of Public Health and Community Medicine B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
  70. Netherlands: Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
  71. Nigeria: Nigerian Institute of Medical Research
  72. Nigeria:
  73. Nigeria: National Primary Health Care Development Agency
  74. Norway: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
  75. Pakistan:
  76. Palestine:
  77. Panama: Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies
  78. Papua New Guinea: National Department of Health
  79. Peru : Peruvian National Institute of Health
  80. Poland :
  81. Portugal:
  82. Portugal:
  83. Republic of Korea:
  84. Russian Federation:
  85. Rwanda:
  86. Saudi Arabia: Centers for Disease Control
  87. Serbia:
  88. Sierra Leone: Ministry of Health & Sanitation
  89. Slovenia: National Institute of Public Health
  90. Somalia: National Institute of Health
  91. South Africa: National Institute for Communicable Diseases
  92. Spain: Carlos III Health Institute
  93. Sudan: National Public Health Institute
  94. Sweden: Public Health Agency of Sweden
  95. Syria: Center for Strategic Health Studies
  96. Tanzania: National Institute for Medical Research
  97. Thailand: National Institute of Health
  98. Timor Leste: National Institute of Public Health
  99. Togo:
  100. Tunisia:
  101. Turkey:
  102. Uganda:
  103. Uganda: Uganda National Institute of Public Health
  104. Ukraine:
  105. United Kingdom England: Public Health England
  106. United Kingdom Wales: Public Health Wales
  107. United States: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  108. Vietnam:
  109. Zambia: Zambia National Public Health Institute
  110. Zimbabwe: National Public Health Institute

Organization

IANPHI is managed by an executive board and secretariat. Executive board members consider and vote on issues of strategic direction and policy and on project and funding recommendations. There are currently 14 active members on the executive board:
The IANPHI Secretariat is based at the, and the US Office is located at the Emory University Global Health Institute in Atlanta, GA.

IANPHI long-term projects

IANPHI's long-term projects help public health systems in low-resource countries respond to modern public health challenges, improve outcomes, and support healthy populations and strong economies. These intensive multi-year engagements develop and strengthen national public health institutes, moving them forward on a continuum from those least developed to those with a comprehensive and coordinated scope of public health responsibilities. Currently, IANPHI has ongoing long-term projects in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo.