Capacity development has been a fundamental
building block of global health and human development
programs for the past three decades.5 While
there is increasing attention given to the importance
of strengthening the capacity of health systems and
institutions — particularly in low- and middle-income
countries,6 much of what is considered capacity building
continues to focus primarily on increasing individual
capacity through training and education.7 The
organizational capabilities necessary for providing
sustainable competency development are often not
addressed.8 In higher income countries, universitybased
global health programs have expanded rapidly
with an approximate tripling of educational programs
in North America every five years since 2000.9 Massive
student demand has contributed to this growth
which has focused on the education, training, and
mentorship of individual students.10 This rapid
growth has driven the discussion of global health competencies.
11 There is much convergence across these
global health competency initiatives which specifiy an
impressive array of interdisciplinary and interprofessional
sets of moral, intellectual, scientific, and process
competenices.