Ezeh, Alex Chika, Izugbara, Chimaraoke O., Kabiru, Caroline W., Fonn, Sharon, 1958-, Kahn, Kathleen, Manderson, Lenore, Undieh, Ashiwel S., Omigbodun, A. O. and Thorogood, Margaret. (2010) Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa : the consortium for advanced research training in Africa (CARTA) model. Global Health Action, Vol.3 . ISSN 1654-9880

Preview

PDF WRAP-Thorogood_GHA-3-5693.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (139Kb)

Abstract

Background: Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence that can generate a strong evidence base to address the region’s socio-economic and health problems. Objective and program overview: We describe the recently launched Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), which brings together a network of nine academic and four research institutions from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa, and select northern universities and training institutes. CARTA’s program of activities comprises two primary, interrelated, and mutually reinforcing objectives: to strengthen research infrastructure and capacity at African universities; and to support doctoral training through the creation of a collaborative doctoral training program in population and public health. The ultimate goal of CARTA is to build local research capacity to understand the determinants of population health and effectively intervene to improve health outcomes and health systems. Conclusions: CARTA’s focus on the local production of networked and high-skilled researchers committed to working in sub-Saharan Africa, and on the concomitant increase in local research and training capacity of African universities and research institutes addresses the inability of existing programs to create a critical mass of well-trained and networked researchers across the continent. The initiative’s goal of strengthening human resources and university-wide systems critical to the success and sustainability of research productivity in public and population health will rejuvenate institutional teaching, research, and administrative systems.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, Public health -- Research -- Africa, Sub-Saharan, Medical education -- Africa, Sub-Saharan
Journal or Publication Title:	Global Health Action
Publisher:	Co-Action Publishing
ISSN:	1654-9880
Date:	12 November 2010
Volume:	Vol.3
Identification Number:	10.3402/gha.v3i0.5693
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Wellcome Trust (London, England), Great Britain. Dept. for International Development, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation
Grant number:	087547/Z/08/Z (Wellcome), B 8606 (Carnegie), 1100-0399 (Ford), 51228 (Gates), 2009-4051 (Hewlett), 2009 SCG 302 (Rockefeller)
References:	1. Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJ. Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet 2006; 367: 1747-57. 2. Skolnik R, Ahmed A. Ending the neglect of neglected tropical diseases. PRB Policy Brief, 2010. Available from: http:// www.prb.org/pdf10/neglectedtropicaldiseases.pdf [cited 8 November 2010]. 3. Crawford M, Watson R, Farley S. Strategic approaches to science and technology in development. The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series 3026, 2003. 4. Fonn S. African PhD research capacity in public health raison d’etre and how to build it. Global Forum Health Res 2005; 3: 80-3. 5. Gaillard J. The characteristics of R&D in developing countries. Sci Technol Soc 2010; 15: 77-111. 6. UNESCO-ADEA Task Force for Higher Education in Africa. Thematic studies synthesis. http://www.unesco.org/en/wche2009/ special-focus-africa/ [cited 7 July 2010]. 7. Schneegans S, Amelan R. The shifting fortunes of global science. World Sci 2006; 4: 2-7. 8. Gingras Y, Mosbah-Natanson S. Where are social sciences produced? In: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Social Science Council, eds. World social science report 2010*Knowledge divides. Paris, France: UNESCO; 2010, pp. 149-53. 9. Lansang MA, Dennis R. Building capacity in health research in the developing world. Bull World Health Organ 2004; 82: 764-70. 10. Hoba P. Open access: publishing for dissemination of African research. http://irs.aau.org/1603%20OpenAccPub.ppt [cited 20 March 2010]. 11. Ezeh AC. The Consortium for Advanced Research Training (CARTA). Presentation at 2nd Annual Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI), Providence, Rhode Island, 9 June 2010.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/3732

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item