West and Central African Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health Research

 

High rates of maternal death and teen pregnancy persist in West and Central Africa. Research and programming efforts are not sustainably reducing these rates. The challenge is how to link the evidence on useful health interventions with evidence on how to deliver the interventions effectively. This project aims to build the foundation for delivering better maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health care by addressing this gap and enhancing the capacity of researchers and leaders. Bridging gaps and barriers to better health outcomes A partnership of leading West and Central African health researchers and institutions has designed this project through a series of regional dialogues. The partners will build a bilingual knowledge base for use by research and training institutions to develop academic programs, short courses, and mentoring programs. They will support continuous capacity development through the following activities: -Develop and conduct summer schools for researchers, health officials, journalists, and civil society -Provide small research grants -Design and manage mentoring programs for emerging leaders -Develop a website and a vibrant community of practice Through this process, the partnership aims to bridge the geographic and linguistic divides that fragment efforts across the region. Project partners include: -Ghana Health Service -West African Health Organisation -L'Institut supe¿rieur des sciences de la population -African Media and Malaria Research Network -Universite¿ de Yaounde¿ I -Laboratoire d'e¿tudes et de recherche sur les dynamiques sociales et le de¿veloppement local -College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus Eleven other institutions are members of the partnership. It covers nine Francophone and Anglophone countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Co¿te d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal.