EDCTP Workshop at World Health Summit 2019

28 Oct 2019 12:30 - 28 Oct 2019 17:30
Kosmos Karl-Marx-Allee 131a, 10243 Berlin - Saal 4- Africa
Type of event International meeting
Scope Capacity building in health research in low-resource settings

Capacity building in health research in low-resource settings

On 28 October 2019, EDCTP, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Institut Pasteur will host a workshop on ‘Capacity Building in Health Research in Low- Resource Settings’- How can funders and implementers better coordinate capcity building efforts in sub- Saharan Africa at the World Health Summit, in Berlin, Germany. The workshop is chaired by Dr Leonardo Simão and Dr Ole Olesen.

There is a wide range of initiatives, national as well as multi-lateral, aiming at strengthening health research capacity in resource limited countries, in particular on the African continent. Many of these initiatives generate important and noticeable results, but often in isolation and with little planning for long-term sustainability.

Coordination between different funders is mostly lacking, or modest at best, and the different programs are often developed and implemented without consideration of mutual reinforcement, leading inadvertently to competition, duplication or repetition. There is currently no easy way to access, deposit, and share information about existing or upcoming programs and events, which would allow individual organizations to design a new initiative that is compatible with existing initiatives. The end result is too often overcrowding of projects and funder-driven initiatives in a few institutions, countries and activity areas, while other locations and capacity gaps are completely forgotten.

This session will explore how the current myriad of capacity building initiatives can be better coordinated among funders, and between funders and recipient countries. The session will bring together a diverse group of organizations involved in different aspects of capacity strengthening, on both the demand and supply side. We will discuss whether an improved or de novo platform, such as an on-line “Open Capacity Strengthening Platform, can be established that would allow funders and implementers to share information and coordinate their efforts towards a more balanced and cost-efficient use of resources.

Speakers:
Prof. Hannah Akuffo
Senior Advisor, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida
Prof. Imelda Bates
Clinical Haematologist, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Dr Kundai Chinyenze
Senior Medical Director, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) 
Dr Dermot Mahler
Coordinator, World Health Organisation (WHO)
Respondents:
Dr Garry Aslanyan
Manager of Partnerships and Governance, world Health Organisation (WHO), Speical Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases 
Dr Hans Hagen
Deputy Director of the Center for Global Health, Institut Pastuer Center for Global Health