The project SAHA – raiSe libyAn Higher education heAlth sector for the benefit of local society – reached its end, successfully celebrated on April 28th 2024 in Benghazi, Libya, during the project Final Conference hosted by the Libyan International University. 

Co-funded in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, the project aimed to raise the level of higher education in the health sector in Libya. 

In a nutshell, SAHA aimed to increase education readiness in response to today’s main challenges of Libya, especially within the field of healthcare services, employing the highest number of people and able to produce, faster than by any other means, social equity, wealth redistribution and the full exercise of health as a social right. 

SAHA therefore responded to the raising needs in Libya to:

• enhance the relevance of higher education in the field of Healthcare Management for the labor market and society; 
• improve the level of competences and skills in Libyan HEIs by developing new and innovative education programmes; 
• promote voluntary convergence of training offers in Healthcare Management of Libyan HEIs, with developments in this field in European HEIs;
• fostering a peaceful and safe environment for teaching, learning and doing research.

The Conference was opened by the President of the Libyan International University, Dr. Mohamed Saad Ambarek, sharing the floor with Professor Antonio Morone from the University of Pavia (SAHA Project Coordinator) and with a number of local stakeholders. 

Later joining on stage all the Libyan partner universities were represented, together with Federica Ferrero from the University of Pavia and Raniero Chelli from UNIMED. Speakers presented the main outcomes of the project and provided the audience with a taste of the legacy that the SAHA project leaves in Libya. In particular, special attention was given to the new Master in Healthcare and Management, to the training delivered in the course of the project implementation, and to the Policy Dialogue which led to the creation of a Strategic Agenda for improving the Health care system at local level.

Partners fully recognize the benefits of SAHA in the national context, referring to positive impact over the long-term, such as supporting the health sector by a new professional workforce capable of improving the health services in Libya, and the establishment of strong inter-university collaborations likely to increase transnational cooperation over time. In this perspective, at the end of the Final Conference, the Sustainability Plan of the project was officially signed by the representatives of the Partner institutions, marking the commitment to maintain alive the SAHA legacy in Libya and beyond.