About us

What is Public Health?

Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organisational efforts of society. It focuses on population-level health rather than individual healthcare, aiming to create conditions that enable people to live healthier lives.

Key Areas of Public Health

  1. Epidemiology and Disease Prevention – Studying patterns, causes, and effects of diseases and injuries in populations to prevent outbreaks and improve health outcomes.
  2. Health Promotion and Education – Developing strategies to encourage healthy behaviours and lifestyles.
  3. Environmental Health – Addressing factors like air and water quality, sanitation, and climate change that affect health.
  4. Global Health – Tackling health issues that transcend national borders, such as pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, and access to healthcare.
  5. Health Policy and Management – Designing and implementing policies to improve healthcare systems, funding, and accessibility.
  6. Emergency Preparedness and Response – Planning for and managing public health crises, including infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and bioterrorism threats.
  7. Occupational Health – Ensuring safe and healthy working environments.

Public health professions or jobs encompass a wide range of roles, from frontline practitioners to policymakers and researchers. Below is a tiered classification based on the level of expertise, responsibility, and scope of influence within the field.

Tier 1: Entry-Level and Operational Roles

These roles involve direct service delivery, data collection, community engagement, and programme implementation.

  • Public Health Officer
  • Epidemiology Assistant
  • Community Health Worker
  • Health Promotion Specialist
  • Environmental Health Technician
  • Public Health Analyst (Entry-Level)
  • Health Educator
  • Infection Prevention and Control Officer
  • Occupational Health and Safety Technician
  • Food Safety Inspector

Tier 2: Mid-Level and Specialised Roles

These roles require specialised knowledge, professional qualifications, and some level of leadership or technical expertise.

  • Epidemiologist
  • Public Health Nurse
  • Medical Doctor (with a public health focus, e.g., Public Health Physician, Epidemiologist, or Health Policy Specialist)
  • Health Policy Analyst
  • Environmental Health Officer
  • Biostatistician
  • Health Economist
  • Infectious Disease Specialist
  • Global Health Specialist
  • Public Health Programme Coordinator
  • Occupational Health and Safety Officer
  • Social and Behavioural Scientist
  • Public Health Nutritionist
  • Health Communications Specialist
  • Medical Anthropologist

Tier 3: Senior and Leadership Roles

These professionals lead public health initiatives, design policies, and manage large-scale research and interventions.

  • Public Health Director
  • Chief Epidemiologist
  • Head of Health Policy and Planning
  • Senior Health Economist
  • Global Health Programme Director
  • Director of Environmental Health
  • Research Director (Public Health)
  • Health Systems Strengthening Specialist
  • Head of Disease Surveillance
  • Emergency Preparedness and Response Director
  • Dean of Public Health (Academic Leadership)

Tier 4: Executive and Strategic Leadership

These high-level roles influence global and national public health strategies, policymaking, and funding decisions.

  • Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Public Health
  • World Health Organization (WHO) Senior Official
  • Public Health Minister or Secretary
  • Executive Director of Public Health Organisations (e.g., CDC, UKHSA, ECDC)
  • Global Health Policy Advisor (United Nations, World Bank, etc.)
  • Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Public Health NGOs
  • National Public Health Chief Scientific Advisor
  • Senior Advisor in Public Health Governance and Ethics

Other Cross-Disciplinary Public Health Professions

These professionals contribute to public health through specialised fields such as law, technology, and social sciences.

  • Public Health Lawyer (Health legislation, policy advocacy)
  • Digital Health Specialist (Public health informatics, AI in epidemiology)
  • Health Data Scientist (Big data analysis for health trends)
  • Public Health Engineer (Sanitation, water safety, environmental health)
  • Pharmaceutical Public Health Specialist (Medicine access, antimicrobial resistance)
  • Public Health Ethicist (Bioethics, research ethics in health)

Public Health (Community) medicine is a branch of medicine that specialises in public health. Public health’s key responsibilities are the surveillance of the health of a population, the identification of its health needs, the development, promotion, monitoring and evaluation of policies and practices to protect and promote health, the development and evaluation of health services and public health research. Such broad responsibilities are delivered through a multidisciplinary workforce.

ARPHAWho are we?

ArPHA is a professional organization that champions the health of all people and all communities in the Arab world. Our role is to strengthen the public health profession through defining standards, strengthening practice and supporting all public health professionals, organisations and all those who contribute to the population’s health from all disciplines in their practice, work and endeavours. We speak out for public health issues and policies across the Arab World, and we lobby Governments, Health Ministers and organized groups within and outside the Arab World (e.g., Health Ministers Meetings, GCC Health Ministers Council, WHO EMRO Executive Committee and all other groups).

Our Vision

The Arab Public Health Association (The Association) aims to promote and protect people’s health in the Arab world and make strides toward healthy communities across all Arab countries.

Our Mission

  • The Association is a union of individuals, organizations, institutes and national associations working to improve public health and equity in health.
  • The Association promotes professional standards of public health practices through the solid scientific basis of public health, evidence-based public health policies, and a robust public health delivery system to secure the health of the entire population in the Arab world.
  • The Association reaffirms the principle of prevention and strengthens the capacity of its members to protect and promote the health of society and the environment.
  • The Association works to achieve the principle of partnership with all entities concerned with public health.

The Board

In the interim period and until the first Annual General Meeting, which we hope will be held at the same time as the 2nd Arab Public Health Conference in Tunisia in April 2016, the following Founding Executive Members will be the ‘acting’/’interim’ Board Members:

  • Dr Samer Jabbour (Lebanon)
  • Professor Nabil Kurashi (KSA)
  • Professor Tawfik Khoja (KSA)
  • Professor Salman Rawaf (UK)
  • Professor Habiba Bem Romdhani (Tunisia)

The Executive

The Interim Board has an Interim Registrar.

The Interim Registrar will ask for nominations and elections through electronic ballots for the entire Executive Team as outlined in the Constitution and Standing Orders.

The function of the Registrar as defined in the Constitution and the Standing orders is:

  1. The Registrar shall be responsible for:
  • the register of members of the Association,
  • publication of the Association list of members as directed by the Board,
  • Association elections,
  • the Standing Orders,
  • Association staff and headquarters, and
  • undertaking the functions of a ‘company secretary’ and ensuring that the Association is within the framework of law.

Convening meetings, preparing minutes

  1. The Registrar shall be responsible for convening General Meetings of the Association and meetings of the Board and of committees, for issuing notices of and for ensuring that minutes of all meetings are prepared and kept.

Annual Report

  1. The Registrar shall report to the Annual General Meeting of the Association and shall render an Annual Report to relevant authorities as and when needed.
  2. The Registrar shall not be an examiner.

The Office

Two Temporary Offices have been set up: one in Riyadh (At the GCC Executive Health Council for Health Ministers), and the second at WHO Collaborating Centre, Imperial College London.

Governance

Chapter 4 of the Constitution and Standing Orders details the ArPHA Governance.

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Please see the constitution for more.