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Short course participant follow-up, 2010
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Research training for public health professionals is key to the future of public health and policy in Africa. A growing number of schools of public health are connected to health and socio-demographic surveillance system field sites in developing countries, in Africa and Asia in particular. Linking training programs with these sites provides import...
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... one of our goals is to create a cohort of students trained to do research on population and health in Africa, we followed up with the participants in the three short courses in 2006, 2007, and 2008. As shown in Table 2, as of 2010, we found that a large majority of participants have either completed advanced degrees, are continuing to work on their degrees, or have entered new advanced degree programs. Only four students who were enrolled in the advanced degree programs at the time they took the short course dropped out of those programs. ...
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... A seguir são apresentados os resultados de um estudo citado por Nutley e Reynolds 11 sobre a experiência da África do Sul quanto ao desenvolvimento de habilidades em como analisar, interpretar, sintetizar e apresentar dados 23 . ...
... A abordagem RED -reaching every district (alcançando cada distrito) 23 ilustra o valor da avaliação de intervenções de uso de dados, conforme os resultados abaixo citados por Nutley e Reynolds 11 . ...
Contexto: Na última década, o tema saúde digital vem sendo ampliado no Brasil, com a criação e expansão de legislações e ferramentas específicas. Em 2017, a Comissão Intergestores Tripartite aprovou a Resolução nº 19 sobre a estratégia de e-saúde para o Brasil. Esta resolução aborda a importância da coleta, manutenção e processamento de dados e informações de saúde e estabelece ações estratégicas para reduzir a fragmentação das iniciativas de saúde digital no Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), para promover o acesso da população a estes recursos de informação. As informações sobre saúde da população brasileira têm sido utilizadas para a promoção de políticas públicas específicas, porém, pouco se sabe sobre sua real utilização pelos profissionais, bem como sua influência na melhora efetiva dos desfechos em saúde dos pacientes.
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Método: Realizou-se uma revisão rápida com base em protocolo de pesquisa previamente definido. Buscas foram feitas em 28 de julho de 2022 na base da literatura eletrônica Pubmed, com limite para estudos publicados nos últimos dez anos, em inglês, português ou espanhol. O processo de seleção foi realizado em duplicata, de modo independente; a extração de dados foi realizada por dois revisores, de modo complementar. Não foi realizada a avaliação da qualidade metodológica dos estudos.
Resultados: Foram recuperadas 676 publicações. Apenas duas atenderam aos critérios de interesse desta revisão rápida e são apresentadas a seguir.
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As low-income communities are most vulnerable to climate-associated health concerns, access to healthcare will increase in importance as a key priority in South Africa. This study explores healthcare sustainability in the Agincourt sub-district, Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region in Mpumalanga, South Africa. A rapid assessment and response methodology (RAR) was implemented, which includes the examination of previous studies conducted in the sub-district, the mapping of healthcare facilities in the area, and the implementation of a facility infrastructure and workforce capacity investigation by means of key informant (KI) interviews at eight healthcare facilities. Findings indicate that the greatest need across the facilities relate to access to medical doctors and pharmacists. None of the facilities factored climate associations with health into their clinical care strategies. The necessity to train healthcare facility staff on aspects related to climate change, health, and sustainability is highlighted. Environmental health practitioners should also be incorporated in grassroots community climate adaptation strategies. Outcomes further indicate the need for the advancement of integrated healthcare and climate adaptation strategies that focus on strengthening healthcare systems, which may include novel technological approaches such as telemedicine. Policy makers need to be proactive and pre-emptive in finding and improving processes and models to render healthcare services prepared for climate change.
... This approach resulted in improved data quality, ownership, and use. To encourage evidence-based health programming and policy, public health students and practitioners in South Africa received training in how to analyze simple data sets so that they had the basic skills required for data use before they graduated (Williams et al., 2010). Others have focused on the importance of mentoring and site-based training for those already in district-level positions (Belrhiti et al., 2016, Edwards et al., 2015. ...
BACKGROUND
Although district health teams (DHT) in Uganda are supposed to monitor and support facilities to ensure
quality HIV data collection, reporting and use, they are often ill-equipped to do so. We implemented a
program designed to build the capacity of districts to manage and use their own HIV-related program data
and to assist facilities to collect and evaluate their own data.
METHODS
We conducted a baseline assessment of the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity of 38 districts. In the 10
worst-performing districts, we identified and trained district-level staff to become M&E mentors who in turn
trained and supervised facility-level staff. We collected information on action plans developed by facilities to
address major issues of concern. Following the intervention, we reassessed M&E capacity of the 10 targeted
districts.
RESULTS
Among the 38 districts assessed, one-half did not have a biostatistician, less than one-quarter had
staff trained in the basics of M&E or data analysis, and less than one-quarter had an M&E plan. The main
concerns of facilities included lack of updated data collection tools, lack of supervision, inaccurate data
recording, and limited ability to analyze and use data. In the 10 targeted districts, comparison before and after
the intervention showed that the number of districts with trained M&E staff increased (4 to 9), the number of
M&E plans increased (3 to 6), and the number using data for programming increased (4 to 8). Implementation
of action plans by facilities successfully addressed many issues and led to improved programming.
CONCLUSION
Challenges of district M&E in Uganda mainly result from a lack of skilled human resources. On-the-job
training and direct involvement of district staff to provide support to facilities can lead to improvements in
data quality and use.
... The current draft, under review by relevant stakeholders, outlines that MPH competencies should take into account the African health context which is characterised by epidemics of both communicable and non-communicable diseases [25]. The ailing health system and poor leadership and stewardship in the health sector, coupled with high burden of disease and emerging epidemics requires adequate and highly trained public health professionals [3,34,54]. The MPH programmes contribute to addressing competencies such as context-specific leadership, planning, and management [47]. ...
Background
The demand for highly skilled public health personnel in low- and middle-income countries has been recognised globally. In South Africa, the need to train more public health professionals has been acknowledged. The Human Resource for Health (HRH) Strategy for South Africa includes the establishment of public health units at district and provincial levels. Programmes such as Master of Public Health (MPH) programmes are viewed as essential contributors in equipping health practitioners with adequate public health skills to meet the demands of the health care system. All MPH programmes have been instituted independently; there is no systematic information or comparison of programmes and requirements across institutions. This study aims to establish a baseline on MPH programmes in South Africa in terms of programme characteristics, curriculum, teaching workforce and graduate output. MethodsA mixed method design was implemented. A document analysis and cross-sectional descriptive survey, comprising both quantitative and qualitative data collection, by means of questionnaires, of all MPH programmes active in 2014 was conducted. The MPH programme coordinators of the 10 active programmes were invited to participate in the study via email. Numeric data were summarized in frequency distribution tables. Non-numeric data was captured, collated into one file and thematically analysed. ResultsA total of eight MPH programmes responded to the questionnaire. Most programmes are affiliated to medical schools and provide a wide range of specialisations. The MPH programmes are run by individual universities and tend to have their own quality assurance, validation and assessment procedures with minimal external scrutiny. National core competencies for MPH programmes have not been determined. All programmes are battling to provide an appropriate supply of well-trained public health professionals as a result of drop-out, low throughput and delayed time to completion. Conclusion
The MPH programmes have consistently graduated MPH candidates, although the numbers differ by institution. The increasing number of enrolments coupled by insufficient teaching personnel and low graduate output are key challenges impacting on the production of public health professionals. Collaboration amongst the MPH programmes, standardization, quality assurance and benchmarking needs considerable attention.
... Many institutions have developed graduate degree programs in public health, either within existing medical schools or by developing schools of public health within existing universities. 33,34,[44][45][46][47][48] Prioritization of the development of curriculum and training in locally relevant health problems, 32,35,[49][50][51] investment in infrastructure, 18,52 and a focus on research competencies is common across many of these training and research programs. 18,[41][42][43] Despite an abundance of public health training efforts at the postgraduate level, and a small number targeting innovative undergraduate medical education, we see few efforts that combine these two approaches to train a new type of health science professional that can understand and act on both the "upstream" or distal causes of disease and the traditional proximate causes. ...
Sub-Saharan Africa suffers an inordinate burden of disease and does not have the numbers of suitably trained health care workers to address this challenge. New concepts in health sciences education are needed to offer alternatives to current training approaches.
A perspective of integrated training in population health for undergraduate medical and nursing education is advanced, rather than continuing to take separate approaches for clinical and public health education. Population health science educates students in the social and environmental origins of disease, thus complementing disease-specific training and providing opportunities for learners to take the perspective of the community as a critical part of their education.
Many of the recent initiatives in health science education in sub-Saharan Africa are reviewed, and two case studies of innovative change in undergraduate medical education are presented that begin to incorporate such population health thinking. The focus is on East Africa, one of the most rapidly growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa where opportunities for change in health science education are opening. The authors conclude that a focus on population health is a timely and effective way for enhancing training of health care professionals to reduce the burden of disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
... The paper's focus on HPSR + A stands in contrast to most of the available literature addressing capacity development for health in Africa [12][13][14][15], which focuses primarily on broader capacity development initiatives in fields such as population-based field epidemiology, demography and population studies, biostatistics, and public health. At the same time, the paper complements similar findings from an organisational capacity assessment [10] conducted by seven schools of public health in east and central Africa by covering different organisations and additional countries, as well as by considering specific courselevel characteristics. ...
Background
The last 5–10 years have seen significant international momentum build around the field of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR + A). Strengthening post-graduate teaching is seen as central to the further development of this field in low- and middle-income countries. However, thus far, there has been little reflection on and documentation of what is taught in this field, how teaching is carried out, educators’ challenges and what future teaching might look like.
Methods
Contributing to such reflection and documentation, this paper reports on a situation analysis and inventory of HPSR + A post-graduate teaching conducted among the 11 African and European partners of the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA), a capacity development collaboration. A first questionnaire completed by the partners collected information on organisational teaching contexts, while a second collected information on 104 individual courses (more in-depth information was subsequently collected on 17 of the courses). The questionnaires yielded a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, which were analysed through counts, cross-tabulations, and the inductive grouping of material into themes. In addition, this paper draws information from internal reports on CHEPSAA’s activities, as well as its external evaluation.
Results
The analysis highlighted the fluid boundaries of HPSR + A and the range and variability of the courses addressing the field, the important, though not exclusive, role of schools of public health in teaching relevant material, large variations in the time investments required to complete courses, the diversity of student target audiences, the limited availability of distance and non-classroom learning activities, and the continued importance of old-fashioned teaching styles and activities.
Conclusions
This paper argues that in order to improve post-graduate teaching and continue to build the field of HPSR + A, key questions need to be addressed around educational practice issues such as the time allocated for HPSR + A courses, teaching activities, and assessments, whether HPSR + A should be taught as a cross-cutting theme in post-graduate degrees or an area of specialisation, and the organisation of teaching given the multi-disciplinary nature of the field. It ends by describing some of CHEPSAA’s key post-graduate teaching development activities and how these activities have addressed the key questions.
... For any nation to sustain itself, capacity building must and should fundamentally be considered as a top priority. No country can realize its research and education goals without a determined indigenous workforce that is willing to establish that culture of growth within its institution (22). As a continent, Africa needs to develop the capability of its workforce to design, implement, and manage nutrition-and health-related programs. ...
Nutrition training and building capacity to provide a competent workforce to support national and regional efforts to combat malnutrition remain a major challenge in Africa and other developing regions of the world. The capacity to provide the necessary intellectual drive for nutrition research, policy, and practice in countries lacking in readiness for nutrition actions is imperative to improve the health of their people. To help address this need, the eNutrition Academy (eNA) was formed as a global partnership organization by the African Nutrition Society, the Federation of African Nutrition Societies, the Nutrition Society of the United Kingdom and Ireland, the ASN, and the International Union of Nutritional Sciences, supported by Cambridge University Press. The primary objective of this partnership is to provide an online learning platform that is free to access, enabling users to benefit from a wide range of learning materials from basic tools to more-advanced learning materials for teachers and researchers in developing countries. The goal of this article was to summarize the findings of a symposium held at the ASN Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2015, which explored the themes of international capacity development, with a particular focus on the African continent, online learning, and the eNA e-learning platform. Given the vast human capacity present in Africa that is poised to create new solutions to address the public health needs of the continent, now is an opportune time to establish South-North and South-South partnerships to develop the next generation of African nutritional scientists.
... The 14 research capacity strengthening trainings described in these papers include four which started in the [10][11][12][13] and the rest from 2000 or later [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] ( Table 1). Most programs took place in the southern African region [10,12,13,20], followed by Uganda [16,18]. ...
... The 14 research capacity strengthening trainings described in these papers include four which started in the [10][11][12][13] and the rest from 2000 or later [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] ( Table 1). Most programs took place in the southern African region [10,12,13,20], followed by Uganda [16,18]. Malawi [21], Nigeria [14], Cameroon [17], and the Democratic Republic of Congo [19] were also represented. ...
... Of the 14 training programs identified, eight covered multiple competencies [10-13, 16, 18, 21, 23], while six focused on a single research competency [14,15,17,19,20,22]. The most covered competencies included research ethics [10,11,14,15,18,19,22], research methods [10-12, 15, 18], data collection [10-13, 16, 18, 21], data analysis [10-13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23], research protocol/research design [10-13, 16, 21, 23], and writing a report or manuscript [10-13, 16, 21, 23]. ...
Research is essential to identify and prioritize health needs and to develop appropriate strategies to improve health outcomes. In the last decade, non-academic research capacity strengthening trainings in sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with developing research infrastructure and the provision of individual mentorship support, has been used to build health worker skills. The objectives of this review are to describe different training approaches to research capacity strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa outside academic programs, assess methods used to evaluate research capacity strengthening activities, and learn about the challenges facing research capacity strengthening and the strategies/innovations required to overcome them.
The PubMed database was searched using nine search terms and articles were included if 1) they explicitly described research capacity strengthening training activities, including information on program duration, target audience, immediate program outputs and outcomes; 2) all or part of the training program took place in sub-Saharan African countries; 3) the training activities were not a formal academic program; 4) papers were published between 2000 and 2013; and 5) both abstract and full paper were available in English.
The search resulted in 495 articles, of which 450 were retained; 14 papers met all inclusion criteria and were included and analysed. In total, 4136 people were trained, of which 2939 were from Africa. Of the 14 included papers, six fell in the category of short-term evaluation period and eight in the long-term evaluation period. Conduct of evaluations and use of evaluation frameworks varied between short and long term models and some trainings were not evaluated. Evaluation methods included tests, surveys, interviews, and systems approach matrix.
Research capacity strengthening activities in sub-Saharan Africa outside of academic settings provide important contributions to developing in-country capacity to participate in and lead research. Institutional support, increased funds, and dedicated time for research activities are critical factors that lead to the development of successful programs. Further, knowledge sharing through scientific articles with sufficient detail is needed to enable replication of successful models in other settings.
... The limited existing publications on research capacity building efforts from sub-Saharan Africa in particular focus on activities aimed at developing specific skills such as data analysis and protocol and/or paper writing. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] A collaborative priority between the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MOH) and Partners In Health (PIH), a non-governmental organisation working in Rwanda since 2005, is to develop research capacity among public sector health workers, particularly in rural areas. To that end, PIH leads a research capacity building process at sites across three MOH health districts, with the following three primary aims: 1) increasing con-sumption of research literature among health workers; 2) improving specific research skills; and 3) building research leadership. ...
Settings: Partners In Health Rwanda, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, leads a multipronged approach to develop research capacity among health workers, particularly in rural areas.
Objectives: To describe the characteristics of participants and to assess the impact of an introductory research seminar series in three district hospitals in rural Rwanda.
Design: This was a retrospective cohort study of seminar participants. Data were sourced from personnel records, assessment sheets and feedback forms.
Results: A total of 126 participants, including 70 (56%) clinical and 56 (44%) non-clinical staff, attended the research seminar series; 61 (48%) received certification. Among those certified, the median assessment score on assignments was 79%. Participants read significantly more articles at 6 and 12 months (median 2 and 4 respectively, compared to 1 at baseline, P < 0.01). There was also a significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in self-reported involvement in research studies (28%, baseline; 59%, 12 months) and attendance at other research training (36%, baseline; 65%, 12 months).
Conclusion: The introductory research seminar series provided an important opportunity for engagement in research among clinical and non-clinical staff. Such an activity is a key component of a comprehensive research capacity building programme at rural sites, and serves as an entry point for more advanced research training.
... Although some countries have national action plans on nutrition [32], they rarely include strategies to build capacity for research. Strengthening research capacity is critical to enable more policyand programme-relevant nutrition research and to respond to local community nutrition health concerns [26,33]. Moreover improved capacity was considered critical in building a stronger voice to advocate for political attention, as well as a positive incentive to avoid 'brain drain'. ...
Background:
Setting research priorities for improving nutrition in Africa is currently ad hoc and there is a need to shift the status quo in the light of slow progress in reducing malnutrition. This study explored African stakeholders' views on research priorities in the context of environmental and socio-demographic changes that will impact on nutritional status in Africa in the coming years.
Methods:
Using Multi-Criteria Mapping, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from 91 stakeholders representing 6 stakeholder groups (health professionals, food Industry, government, civil society, academics and research funders) in Benin, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. Stakeholders appraised six research options (ecological nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, community nutrition interventions, behavioural nutrition, clinical nutrition and molecular nutrition) for how well they could address malnutrition in Africa.
Results:
Impact (28.3%), research efficacy (23.6%) and social acceptability (22.4%) were the criteria chosen the most to evaluate the performance of research options. Research on the effectiveness of community interventions was seen as a priority by stakeholders because they were perceived as likely to have an impact relatively quickly, were inexpensive and cost-effective, involved communities and provided direct evidence of what works. Behavioural nutrition research was also highly appraised. Many stakeholders, particularly academics and government were optimistic about the value of ecological nutrition research (the impact of environmental change on nutritional status). Research funders did not share this enthusiasm. Molecular nutrition was least preferred, considered expensive, slow to have an impact and requiring infrastructure. South Africa ranked clinical and molecular nutrition the highest of all countries.
Conclusion:
Research funders should redirect research funds in Africa towards the priorities identified by giving precedence to develop the evidence for effective community nutrition interventions. Expanding research funding in behavioural and ecological nutrition was also valued and require multi-disciplinary collaborations between nutritionists, social scientists, agricultural and climate change scientists.
