Bangladesh’s child survival rate amazes BRAC founder Abed

Bangladesh’s child survival rate has amazed BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.

“I never thought I would see it in my lifetime,” the chairperson of one of the world’s largest NGOs said on Tuesday.
 
He was speaking at the 10 years celebration of the James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) of the BRAC University.
 
The school was established in 2004 with the collaboration with ICDDR,B and was named after James P Grant, who served 15 years as the Unicef executive director.
 
He was also known as a worldwide campaigner, who made simple, low-cost health solutions available to children everywhere.
 
Abed said the school was named “to commemorate the legacy of James P Grant”.
 
He said Grant’s global effort, begun in 1980, worked in Bangladesh as the under-five mortality rate reduced to around 45 per 1,000 lives birth.
 
His works had been “revolutionised” and “we see the great improvement of survival of children in the world,” Abed said.
 
Leadership of Grant inspired the school’s vision, “knowledge and know-how for health equity”.
 
Abed said he established this public health school in Bangladesh to make it the “best public health school” among the third world countries.
 

The three primary areas of activity in the school are related to education, research and advocacy.

Apart from class teaching for Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme, it also provides students with field training.

So far, 379 students have graduated from the school, and 51 of them were from African countries.

One of their graduates was at the forefront in fighting Ebola at Liberia. Students from 24 countries studied in this school.

BRAC Vice-Chairperson Mushtaque Chowdhury, who was the founding dean of the school, said 10 years were not a long time for an institution, but this school has created a lot of impact.

“We created demand,” he said. Before it was established, only government institutions were offering MPH.

“But now you’ll find almost every university teaches public health,” he said.

ICDDR,B Executive Director Prof John Clemens said in the changing world, the public health landscape was also changing.

He said when the school was established, everything was focused on MDGs, but now new development goals, SDGs, were coming with “broader and more comprehensive approach”.

“The future is very broad that will require slightly different kind of public health approach to meet the emerging challenges.”

Competent doctors and good healthcare management would be needed in the new changing world, Clemens said and suggested the school “to take a very holistic multidisciplinary approach of public health”.

The celebration of 10 years of the school brought together present and past faculties, and students at the BRAC Centre Inn.