Episode 4-Interview with Nang’andu Chizyuka

Utano Public Health Chats

In this episode we chat with Nang’andu, a health promotion specialist from Zambia about her 11 year career in public health.

We discussed:

• How Nana started her career in public health and what motivated her to focus on health in development
• Secondary prevention in Cervical cancer
• All things Cervical cancer
• What work she currently does and what that looks like on a typical day/week
• Monitoring and Evaluation in public health programs
• It's not just M&E
• Nana’s multi year experience and the different amazing work and areas she has worked in
• Digitalization of M&E and how Nana has taken it in stride
• What digital applications and platforms Nana uses in her work
• How her role requires her to be flexible, adaptable and translate between different kinds of experts
• How she has continued to learn new skills and dedicated time to that to keep up to date with the work
• The importance of prioritizing the population as a receiver of information and evidence generated in public health work
• Data for decision making - Decisions in health begin at the individual’s health
• Beyond data collection and M&E in public health work
• Data as an empowerment tool for people
• Nana’s definition of public health and what it means and looks like for her
• There is so much work to do!
• Frustrations and challenges working in public health
• What is Nana’s favourite thing about working in public health
• What keeps Nana working in public health?
• Public Health saves lives
• Skills that Nana has found useful in public health
• Top things that Nana recommends investing in while working in public health
• The value of relationships in public health work
• What she does when she feels demotivated in her work or in a slump
• The value of humanities and social sciences in public health with examples from a reproductive health program that Nana worked in
• The value of innovation in public health
• Who are we doing public health work for?
• Public health interventions need to be inclusive and not discriminatory
• Tips and words of wisdom to young people
• Challenges in career guidance and learning how to explore
• Visible women Zambia and mentorship for young women and girls