The University of Ghana, Legon, on Tuesday entered into an academic partnership arrangement with the Brown University of the United States to sharpen the skills of health professionals to address the challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS menace in Ghana and the West African sub-region. The partnership, which involves the University Of Ghana College Of Health, Sciences and the Brown University and its collaborators -Tufts and Yale Universities - will foster collaboration, leverage funding and implement a five-year strategic plan to train multi-disciplinary healthcare workforce with a focus on enhancing the response to HIV/AIDS challenges. It is being sponsored by Higher Education for Development (HED) of the United States of America and USAID. Speaking at the launch of the Partnership, the Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Aaron Lawson, said activities to be undertaken under the partnership should result in the college and the university becoming a centre of excellence in HIV education, research and development in Ghana. “I am extremely happy that this programme will be conducted by the College of Health Sciences because the establishment of the college as well as its vision makes it well placed for this,” he said, adding that the college had over the years built strong multi-disciplinary teams who undertook research into communicable and non-communicable diseases in its institutions. The institutions are the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Allied Sciences, Public Health, Pharmacy, Nursing and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research. The College of Health Sciences was established in 2000 to bring health training institutions within the University of Ghana together under one umbrella and also to develop newer institutions. Prof. Lawson said the launch signaled the beginning of the implementation of a five-year strategic plan (with a l0-year vision) to develop human resource capacity with a full set of skills to meet the challenges related to HIV/AIDS epidemic. Launching the partnership, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, lauded the initiative and said the West African region was part of a continent that had been affected by AIDS menace. He said the University of Ghana believed in strong partnership since it would enhance the reputation of the university. Prof. Aryeetey said the university was happy to be in partnership with the Brown University, which is known for excellence. The acting USAID Ghana Mission Director, Mr Peter Argo, said; “USAID is proud to be a partner to the Ghanaian government to help improve the quality of health services and empower individuals and communities to adopt good health practices. “This academic partnership provides an opportunity for shared learning and enhanced capacity building that will empower the College of Health Sciences to be more effective in the national HIV/AIDS response,” he emphasised. Prof. Tim Flanigan of Brown University said the partnership would provide the opportunity for students to undertake research geared towards dealing with the challenges associated with HIV/AIDS. Dr Susan Cu-Uvin of the Brown University said the university valued its relationship with the University of Ghana. The Representative of HED, Jeanne-Marie Duval, said the initiative represented a new opportunity to address the problems with HIV/AIDS.