page_title: Franklin White
section_title: Capacity Building - International and Global
hierarchical_section_title: Franklin White / Career / Capacity Building - International and Global
caption_attribution_description: English: Aga Khan University
context_page_description: Franklin Marshall Matthews White is a Canadian public health scientist focused on capacity building for international and global education, research and development. He advocates:
  "Public health...must not be left to the international community to define; it is...the responsibility of the countries themselves to define their priorities. The global agenda should be viewed as complementary at best."
  "Health is mostly made in homes, communities and workplaces and only a minority of ill health can be repaired in clinics and hospitals."
  "Nations assess their public health human resource needs and develop their ability to deliver this capacity, and not depend on other countries to supply it."
context_section_description: In international roles, he emphasized capacity building for public health education, research, policy and program development. Based in Port of Spain, Trinidad as Director (1989–95), Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC/PAHO/WHO), a reference agency for 22 member nations, he emphasized resource mobilization. This was applied to: social and behavioral sciences, laboratory information systems and immunology; priority infectious diseases and epidemiology training; promoting a non-communicable diseases agenda; and guiding the regional response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. CAREC was later integrated within CARPHA, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, in 2013.  During his term as Director, CAREC, White served on the Commonwealth Caribbean Medical Research Council, on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, and had formal observer status at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Health Ministers conferences.
  Subsequently, based in Washington DC for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), promoting an evidence-based approach, in 1995 he guided development of a regional non-communicable disease (NCD) program focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.  Initiatives included the Declaration of the Americas on Diabetes (DOTA), a public-private partnership modeled after the St. Vincent Declaration, the CARMEN model of integrated NCD prevention and control, and recognition of cervical cancer, accidents and violence as priorities. He negotiated terms of reference for two new WHO Collaborating Centers: The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, to become Collaborating Center for Supportive Cancer Care (1996-2008); and Centro de Endocrinología Experimental y Aplicada (CENEXA), National University of La Plata, as Collaborating Centre for Diabetes Research, Education and Care (1997-2015).  He served on the Board of Appeal, and the Implementation Group: performance planning and evaluation system.
  As Noordin M Thobani Professor and Chair, Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, (1998-2003), he focused on South Asia, espousing the principle: "Public health…must not be left to the international community to define; it is primarily the responsibility of the countries themselves to define their priorities. The global agenda should be viewed as complementary at best...". At AKU he promoted population health, field studies, systems research, and community-based training. He guided the design and implementation of an MSc in health policy and management, and intervention evaluations in hard-to-reach settings (see map of Karakorum Highway), such as the Water and Sanitation Extension Program. He engaged in many locally conducted studies, including: childhood illnesses, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS/STI, reproductive health, health systems, environmental health, and NCDs.
  In association with University of Alabama at Birmingham (1999-2003), focused on initiatives in Pakistan, he chaired the US National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center: advisory and selection committee for the AIDS International Training and Research Program, and was Principal Foreign Collaborator for: the Maternal and Child Health Research and Training Program, and the International Research and Training in Environmental and Occupational Health Program. From 2004–9, he served on the International Advisory Board, National Action Plan, NCD Prevention, Control & Health Promotion, Pakistan.
  During the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan (2001–14), White published his views and concerns in scientific journals: on the case for an epidemiology of terrorism and the potential for successive waves of violence, lamenting the "lack of enlightened leadership... which has brought us to this...": the targeting of water supply infrastructure, "collateral damage" among children, and need for a stronger response from the global community, citing international law.
caption: Aga Khan University's Karachi campus.
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