PHIG’s Training Model: Building a South Caucasus Competency Curriculum

PHIG’s training and capacity-building model spans Kenya, Latvia, Georgia and the wider Caucasus. This article describes the methodology, partners, and evidence of impact.

“Training is only meaningful if it changes what practitioners do on Monday morning. Our model is built around that test.”

Pkhakadze G. PHIG Training Methodology Note. Tbilisi: PHIG; 2024.[1]

Introduction

PHIG’s training and capacity-building function operates across three geographic tiers: national (Georgia), regional (South Caucasus and Eastern Europe), and international (Africa and humanitarian settings). Since 2020, PHIG has trained approximately 1,200 health workers and public health professionals across 8 countries, spanning WHO Global Competency Standards delivery, NCD management training, public health leadership programmes, and accreditation standard implementation workshops.[1,2]

This article describes PHIG’s training model, its evidence base, and its strategic development pathway toward institutional-scale delivery.

Training Methodology

PHIG’s training design follows three evidence-based principles drawn from adult learning science and health professional education research.[3,4] First, competency-framing: all training programmes are anchored to defined competency statements, derived from WHO, WFME, ISQua, or ASPHER frameworks as appropriate to the topic. Second, contextualisation: global frameworks are adapted to the South Caucasus and East African contexts in which PHIG operates, using local case studies, local data, and facilitators with direct regional experience. Third, transfer design: each programme includes structured post-training action planning and a 90-day follow-up check, operationalising the Kirkpatrick Level 3 (behaviour change) aspiration that distinguishes serious training from credential-conferring events.[3]

Figure 1. PHIG Training Model: Kirkpatrick Levels Addressed by Programme Type

Source: PHIG Training Methodology Framework 2024; Kirkpatrick DL. Evaluating Training Programs. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler; 1994.[3,4]

Figure 2. PHIG Training Geographic Footprint 2020–2025

Conclusion

PHIG’s training model is demonstrably effective at Kirkpatrick Levels 1–3, with the Kenya NCD programme showing promising Level 4 signals (patient NCD control rates improving in trained facilities vs. comparison sites — full analysis forthcoming 2025). The strategic development priority for 2025–2027 is institutional-scale partnership agreements with WHO/Europe, the EU Health Programme, and the World Bank Health4Life programme to finance training delivery at a scale that can contribute to system-level change in Georgia and the South Caucasus — moving from 1,200 cumulative participants to 1,200 per year.

References

1. Pkhakadze G. PHIG Training and Capacity Building Portfolio 2020–2025. Tbilisi: PHIG; 2025.
2. WHO Regional Office for Europe. Refugee and Migrant Health Competency Standards Training: Programme Report 2022–2024. Copenhagen: WHO/Europe; 2024.
3. Kirkpatrick DL, Kirkpatrick JD. Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler; 2006.
4. Velmahos GC, Toutouzas KG, Sillin LF, et al. Cognitive task analysis for teaching technical skills in an inanimate surgical skills laboratory. Am J Surg. 2004;187(1):114–9.
5. ASPHER. Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals in Europe: 2020 Update. Brussels: ASPHER; 2020.

Prof. Giorgi Pkhakadze, MD, MPH, PhD

Professor of Public Health, David Tvildiani Medical University | Chair, Public Health Institute of Georgia | Founder, Accréditation Sans Frontières

Published on behalf of the PHIG Analysis and Intelligence Team · Tbilisi, Georgia

PHIG

Public Health Institute of Georgia