Professor Friday Okonofua, Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI),
University of Benin,
Edo State, Nigeria

In 2019, the Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI) at the University of Benin in Nigeria sought international accreditation from the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA).  CERHI’s goal is to build capacity within West and Central African regions for short courses, Masters and doctorate degrees in the fields of reproductive health, health economics, public health and nursing.  The international accreditation process covered nearly 12 months beginning with curriculum validation and self-assessment, and ending with site visits by experts from the APHEA.  The result was the international accreditation of two short courses offered by CERHI as well as the institution’s full accreditation.

Our experience with the process was extremely rewarding. We went through processes in self-learning, consensus building that forged a common understanding by staff about quality curricular implementation, critical evaluation, and gaps assessment. Some of the most

important benefits we gained from the process included communal learning, self-evaluation, internationalization, quality assurance, and community impact. 

We strongly recommend APHEA to programs in low resource settings, because of the priority they gave to development impact in their assessment. They encouraged us to ensure that our students and graduates make substantive contributions in resolving the development challenges posed by population and high fertility in the West and Central African region. We believe this is a critical milestone to be achieved if development is to happen anytime soon in the region.

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Accredited 2019