Can accreditation be used for the development and improvement of public health education and if so, how? The problem with public health and its education is that it is still emerging and developing in many parts of the world whereas in other parts there are highly developed systems in place. Therefore if accreditation is to help education systems develop and improve all these different levels of development would need to be included in the accreditation processes. In order to achieve this accreditation will need to be more flexible, based on a formative approach to quality and focused on improving the health, knowledge and skills of the populations that public health education serves and is accountable to.