Capacity development for health research in Africa: experiences managing the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship Program

Caroline W Kabiru,Alex C Ezeh,Susan W Wambugu,Chimaraoke O Izugbara

doi:10.1186/1478-4505-8-21

Abstract

Africa's progress depends on her capacity to generate, adapt, and use scientific knowledge to meet regional health and development needs. Yet, Africa's higher education institutions that are mandated to foster this capacity lack adequate resources to generate and apply knowledge, raising the need for innovative approaches to enhance research capacity. In this paper, we describe a newly-developed program to support PhD research in health and population sciences at African universities, the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (ADDRF) Program. We also share our experiences implementing the program. As health research capacity-strengthening in Africa continues to attract attention and as the need for such programs to be African-led is emphasized, our experiences in developing and implementing the ADDRF offer invaluable lessons to other institutions undertaking similar initiatives.

Highlights

Several challenges face university education in sub-Saharan Africa
Students in graduate programs on the continent lack role models and mentors, strong academic and research networks, opportunities to participate in international conferences, and exposure to strong research environments
We provide an overview of one response to the challenges facing graduate-level training in Africa: the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (ADDRF) Program, a program funded under International Development Research Centre (IDRC)'s Southern Junior Researchers Awards program

Summary

Introduction

Several challenges face university education in sub-Saharan Africa. Unprecedented growth in student enrolment, rising from 337,000 in 1980 to an estimated 4,000,000 in 2004 and the expansion of training programs, especially at the undergraduate level, have occurred at a time when per capita funding for universities is being reduced [1]. Runs the Southern Junior Researchers Awards program which primarily supports PhD studies in developing countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa [7]. The UK Department for International Development (DfID) supports awards for developing countries under the Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships Awards This funding scheme supports post-graduate studies for citizens from one Commonwealth country who are pursuing post-graduate education in another Commonwealth country [8]. The Ford Foundation supports the International Fellowship Program (IFP), which provides fellowships to support post-graduate studies in the Foundation's grant-making areas for citizens of IFP countries or territories (Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam) [10]. We provide an overview of one response to the challenges facing graduate-level training in Africa: the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (ADDRF) Program, a program funded under IDRC's Southern Junior Researchers Awards program. As capacity-strengthening for health research continues to receive attention in Africa, our experiences as implementers of the ADDRF offer funders and research capacity-strengthening institutions something to learn from

Discussion

Conclusions

Findings

13. Africa Call

Retaining Teaching Capacity in African Universities