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PgDip winter school recap 2: Deep dive into the course with in-person lectures

14 July 2026

During the annual PgDip summer and winter schools, students travel from across the continent and even further for a week of in-person teaching, supplementing the online lectures throughout the rest of the year. At the recent winter school (29 June to 3 July), the PgDip lecturers introduced the remaining course study units for the year, further equipping students with the know-how to manage HIV/Aids in the world of work, considering the importance and relevance of inclusive health management.

Strategies for HIV prevention – Dr Tafadzwa Dzinamarira

This study unit covers every aspect of HIV prevention strategies. Dzinamarira started with a historical overview of HIV and its prevention in Africa, based on a decade-by-decade analysis of milestones, key phases and strategies as well as challenges since the 1970s. He emphasised that it is important to recognise the difference between risk and vulnerability in the context of HIV prevention. Risk is defined as the probability that a person may be infected by HIV (increased by certain behaviours), whereas vulnerability refers to an individual or community’s ability to avoid HIV infection (because of, for example, lack of knowledge, poor access to health services or cultural norms).

Dzinamarira looked at how prevention strategies can be combined for maximum impact. These include behavioural strategies (e.g. providing comprehensive sex education and counselling services and addressing stigma and discrimination), biomedical strategies (e.g. providing condoms and making pre- and post-exposure treatment available) and structural strategies (e.g. strengthening health service delivery, addressing gender equality and reducing poverty).

For these strategies to be successfully implemented, they must be financed. Dzinamarira talked students through various approaches, including increasing domestic financing, integrating HIV prevention into universal health coverage and leveraging diversified financing mechanisms. He pointed out that while donor transitions present short-term risks, they also create opportunities for sustainable, locally owned HIV prevention programmes that address both biomedical needs and the social determinants of HIV.

Therapeutic management and pharmacovigilance – Letlhogonolo Makhele

Therapeutic management examines the role of adherence, care and retention in care in achieving successful HIV treatment outcomes. Makhele introduced students to the HIV treatment cascade (also called the HIV care continuum) and the World Health Organization’s Multidimensional Adherence Model (MAM) as key frameworks for understanding why patients disengage from care or fail treatment despite the availability of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). The HIV treatment cascade is a public health model that outlines the five critical stages of HIV care, from initial diagnosis to viral suppression. Its purpose is to monitor individuals living with HIV and assess healthcare effectiveness. MAM is based on five interconnected dimensions of adherence: social and economic factors, healthcare system and team factors, condition-related factors, therapy-related factors and patient-related factors.

Makhele also explored the magnitude and consequences of non-adherence, methods for assessing adherence and evidence-based interventions used to improve retention in care and viral suppression. At its core, this unit emphasises the importance of a patient-centred approach to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets and strengthening long-term HIV programme outcomes.

The principles and practice of pharmacovigilance in HIV/Aids management focuses on detecting, assessing, monitoring and preventing adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with ART. Makhele discussed the burden of medicine-related harm, key pharmacovigilance concepts and reporting systems, methods for monitoring medicine safety and the role of healthcare professionals in identifying and managing ADRs. Makhele pointed out that pharmacovigilance is ultimately an important contributor to patient safety, treatment success and evidence-based HIV programme decision-making.

Mental health and wellness – Michelle Munro

As health systems increasingly adopt comprehensive models of care, mental wellbeing is no longer viewed as separate from health but as an essential component of it. In fact, modern understandings of health, including the definition adopted by the WHO, recognise health as encompassing physical, mental and social wellbeing rather than merely the absence of disease.

Munro explained that mental health and wellbeing are fundamental to the effective functioning of individuals, families, communities, organisations and healthcare systems. With this understanding as the foundation, she set out the benefits and importance of integrating mental health and wellbeing into an inclusive health management framework: it supports a holistic, equitable and person-centred approach to healthcare; improves physical and psychological outcomes; reduces health disparities; and enhances overall quality of life. This study unit also focuses on students managing their personal mental health and wellbeing.

A business perspective on HIV/Aids management – Prof Munya Saruchera

Bringing HIV/Aids management into the world of work, Africa Centre director Prof Munya Saruchera spoke to students about a business perspective on HIV/Aids management. The foundation of this study unit is the acknowledgement that HIV/Aids is at its core a strategic workforce or business issue, not just a health matter: it affects workforce availability, performance and productivity; it can result in increased absenteeism, health costs and loss of institutional knowledge; and it impacts morale, workplace stigma and employee relations.

The study unit is all about equipping students with practical tools to analyse and manage HIV-related workforce risks, align health and wellbeing strategies with organisational goals, create integrated HR policies and programmes that respond to the realities of HIV/Aids and gain a better understanding of the relationship between business and health. This is where strategic human resources management (SHRM) comes into play. SHRM aligns human capital with long-term organisational goals and focuses on proactive planning, capability development and competitive advantage. Saruchera talked students through the core elements of an effective and health-responsive HR strategy, namely a clear, non-discriminatory workplace policy, provision of health education and access to care and support services. Building a strategic HR scorecard with clear metrics for HIV interventions at work is crucial to success and Saruchera also explained what that entails.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and inclusive health management – Charissa Petersen

CSR speaks directly to the crux of inclusive health management, namely that healthcare outcomes are not created by healthcare systems alone, but by diverse determinants that include factors such as employment, gender equality and food security. Businesses and organisations have a direct as well as indirect influence on these determinants: they have an impact on, for example, whether people become vulnerable and whether communities become more or less resilient. That is why CSR is an important and practical mechanism for improving health outcomes at scale.

Petersen highlighted that CSR is not only about charity and donations, but about the relationship between business, society, health and development, including legal, ethical and discretionary expectations. In South Arica, CSR sits within a history of exclusion, a legal transformation architecture and a moral demand for inclusive growth.

Essentially, CSR is about creating value beyond profit in support of a healthier, more equitable and more sustainable society. Petersen explained that organisations achieve this through various channels, including ethical leadership, social investment, sustainability, stakeholder engagement, community development, human rights and health and wellbeing initiatives. Petersen used HIV/Aids and the epidemic’s impact on individuals, the world of work and community as a case study to illustrate why effective health management requires collaboration between multiple stakeholders rather than healthcare interventions alone.

This study unit aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills to understand CSR concepts and sustainability principles, analyse the effectiveness of CSR interventions and community impact initiatives and apply CSR principles to contemporary health and development challenges. Ultimately, it is about answering the question of how organisations can become part of the solution to society’s most pressing challenges.

Ethics, leadership and HIV management – Dr Zeenat Yassin-Burns

Yassin-Burns introduced students to the critical topic of ethical leadership in managing HIV/Aids. She discussed:

How ethical principles guide decision-making in HIV/Aids prevention, treatment and care
The social and ethical challenges and complexities surrounding HIV/Aids, including stigma, discrimination and equitable access to healthcare

The importance of ethical leadership in promoting human rights, fairness and community-centred responses

Research methodology – Dr Chioma Ohajunwa and Dr Burt Davis

Credible, relevant research is critical to addressing new problems and questions relating to managing HIV/Aids effectively in the world of work. The PgDip research methodology study unit introduces students to scientific research and the research process, from the importance of research in challenging claims and separating fact from fiction to the practicalities of identifying research ideas and formulating research problems. Students learnt that the four-step process of questioning, collecting evidence, analysing and answering the questions underpins all research, whether qualitative or quantitative – the two main research methodologies.

Ohajunwa introduced students to qualitative research, starting with the philosophical grounding and concept of qualitative research and the different types of research approaches in qualitative research. Based on this foundation, she explained the different qualitative research designs and data-gathering methods, including the different types of sampling. Ohajunwa also introduced students to indigenous research methodology as a critical research paradigm, emphasising the relevance of local knowledge and context within research.

To help students get to grips with the quantitative research, Davis started by exposing some of the common myths surrounding quantitative research, such as:

“It is just about numbers”: Numbers serve as tools and evidence – the goal is to understand people and improve lives.
“Quantitative research cannot explain human behaviour”: In many instances, it is possible to monitor human behaviour such as attitudes and beliefs.

Davis explained that quantitative research is premised on the fact that abstract ideas can be measured systematically and therefore analysed. Using the nursing profession as a practical example, he talked students through the process of beginning a quantitative study, from identifying a real-world problem that needs to be investigated to formulating an appropriate research topic, problem and question and clarifying the research objectives.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) – Dr Burt Davis

The purpose of the M&E study unit is to teach students the basic concepts and principles so that they can link the theory to action in their workplace. One of the core principles that Davis highlighted is that M&E should be integrated into programme management, with everyone involved in a programme playing a role – M&E is not something that only specialists can do. While the term M&E has gained prominence over the past 30 to 40 years, the underlying principles have existed for more than a century, starting with evaluating public education and public health programmes in the early 1900s.

Davis explained that monitoring, which is ongoing, answers questions about who is doing what, where, when and how often and with what resources related to an activity in a programme. The ultimate aim is to determine whether activities are progressing as planned. Evaluation is a standalone ‘project’ and measures how well a programme has met expected objectives and/or to which extent changes in outcomes can be attributed to the specific programme. In terms of outcomes, M&E does not simply label a programme as a success or a failure. Instead, it provides systematic evidence about a programme’s performance, effectiveness, strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.

Davis pointed out that South Africa has made significant progress in institutionalising M&E, with M&E being well established in the public sector and among large donor-funded organisations. Nevertheless, M&E remains underdeveloped in many small and medium-sized NPOs and NGOs that face challenges such as limited financial resources, lack of dedicated M&E personnel and weak systems for collecting and managing data.

In addition to the PgDip course content, the winter school featured a host of guest speakers who shared their insights on various aspects of developing Africa’s health workforce in line with the winter school theme – read more about those sessions here.