Capacity Building and Sustainability –

Lessons from the INDEPTH Network

in moving from a

Project to an Institutional approach

1

Prof. Osman SankohExecutive Director

Accra, Ghana

UNICEF, Florence, Italy 15 Oct 2014

Outline

• Navrongo Health Research Centre

• INDEPTH Network

2

Prof David Ross, LSHTM Prof Fred Binka

•Ghana Vitamin A Supplementation Trial,

•(Ghana VAST)

•Navrongo Health Research Centre• (NHRC-GHS)

1988 -1992

Navrongo - Long-term partnerships with Northern Institutions

• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

• Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

• Masters programmes

• PhD programmes

Human Resource - 2014 Areas of Expertise - Navrongo

Bioethics

Biostatistics

Clinical /Field trials

Demography/Population

Health

Database Development

Epidemiology/Public Health

Entomology/Parasitology

Genomics /Genetics

Genomics /Genetics

Health

Systems/Economics

Health/Bio-Informatics

Information

Technology

Pharmacology

Project Management

Social Anthropology

Navrongo - Clinical Trials Unit

Artesunate extension study

2014:

• Long-term

neurocognitive

assessment of children

following an episode of

severe malaria

Human Resource - 2014 Ghana Health Service / Project Staff

Designation GHS Project Total

Director 1 0 1

Research Medical Officers 5 0 5

Research Fellows 4 1 5

Snr Research Officers 10 11 21

Research officers 3 31 34

Snr Administrative staff 1 6 7

Accounts staff 1 4 5

Junior /Field workers 2 149 151

Total 26 203 229

Percentage (%) 11.4 88.6 100

Ghana Health Service: Research Centres

Research and

Development

Division

Navrongo - 1993(Northern belt)

Kintampo - 2003(Middle belt)

Dodowa - 2005 (Coastal belt)

Formation of INDEPTH

The international role of the Navrongo Health Research Centre (Bed-nets, Vitamin A Supp, etc)

-- Rockefeller Foundation provided seed funding to Navrongo to lead establishment of a network of longitudinal community studies.

1998 INDEPTH Network was founded

Rationale for coming together

• Creating visibility for centres located mostly in rural areas

• Conducting multi-centre studies/trials

• Networking and sharing information/results

• Building knowledge partnerships

• Strengthening capacity for data, collection management and analysis

Important Dates - INDEPTH

• 1998 – Founding meeting in Dar es Salaam (17 HDSSs)

• 2001-2002

– First grants from Sida, Rockefeller Foundation,

Wellcome Trust and The World Bank

– First Executive Director appointed (Fred Binka) - 2002

• 2006

– First major grant - $17M awarded to INDEPTH directly

• 2007

– Second Executive Director appointed (Osman Sankoh)

• 2008

– Second major grant - $26.8M awarded to INDEPTH

directly

Activities – capacity strengthening and training

13

Focused on Merging &

Analyzing HDSS Data

• iSHARE2, OpenHDS

• Cause of Death

• Mortality Analysis

Focused on Capacity

Strengthening

• Social Science

• Scientific Development and

Leadership Programme –

MSc Fellowships

Investigating Important

Scientific/Practice Questions

• Universal

Health

Coverage

• Maternal &

Newborn

Health

• Migration &

Urbanisation

• Vaccination

and Child

Survival

• Adult Health

and Aging

• Environment

and Health

• Healthy

Transitions

into

Adulthood

• Indoor Air

Pollution

Expanding Footprint of HDSS

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Nu

mb

er

of

Liv

es U

nd

er

Su

rveilla

nce (

Lin

e)

Nu

mb

er

of

Sit

es (

Bar)

Year

14

15

Funding line

Reporting line

WG

Fu

nd

ers

Fu

nd

ers

Secretariat

Annual General Meeting / INDEPTH Scientific Conference

Board

SAC

Fu

nd

ers

WG

HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSSHDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS

WORKING GROUPS

Working Groups

Partnerships / Collaborations

(Universities)

WG

PROJECTS

Membership

Criteria

Governance Structure

Sustainability

42 Research Centres – 49 Field Sites

1. University Research – 21

2. Long-term National/International

Collaborations (IRD, Senegal; Wellcome

Trust/KEMRI, CDC/KEMRI, Kenya) – 12

3. Ministry of Health – 9

Funding for HDSS work: Core / Project

17

18

Current Core Support Funders of

INDEPTH