Abstract
The increase in health research in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has generated large amounts of data and led to a high demand for biostatisticians to analyse these data locally and quickly. Donor-funded initiatives exist to address the dearth in statistical capacity, but few initiatives have been led by African institutions. The Sub-Saharan African Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) aims to improve biostatistical capacity in Africa according to the needs identified by African institutions, through (collaborative) masters and doctoral training in biostatistics. We describe the SSACAB Consortium, which comprises 11 universities and four research institutions- supported by four European universities. SSACAB builds on existing resources to strengthen biostatistics for health research with a focus on supporting biostatisticians to become research leaders; building a critical mass of biostatisticians, and networking institutions and biostatisticians across SSA. In 2015 only four institutions had established Masters programmes in biostatistics and SSACAB supported the remaining institutions to develop Masters programmes. In 2019 the University of the Witwatersrand became the first African institution to gain Royal Statistical Society accreditation for a Biostatistics MSc programme. A total of 150 fellows have been awarded scholarships to date of which 123 are Masters fellowships (41 female) of which with 58 have already graduated. Graduates have been employed in African academic (19) and research (15) institutions and 10 have enrolled for PhD studies. A total of 27 (10 female) PhD fellowships have been awarded; 4 of them are due to graduate by 2020. To date, SSACAB Masters and PhD students have published 17 and 31 peer-reviewed articles, respectively. SSACAB has also facilitated well-attended conferences, face-to-face and online short courses. Pooling the limited biostatistics resources in SSA, and combining with co-funding from external partners is an effective strategy for the development and teaching of advanced biostatistics methods, supervision and mentoring of PhD candidates.
Highlights
22 Dec 2020 version 1University of Oxford, Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article
Biomedical research plays a key role in strengthening health systems, identifying and addressing health needs, and in improving health through building a local evidence base which helps to inform policy and practice (Agnandji et al, 2012; Franzen et al, 2017)
There data generation from donor-funded health sciences research initiatives has increased in the past decade, which has been matched by increased governmental funding for healthcare from most African countries (Gezmu et al, 2011)
Summary
University of Oxford, Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AAS, NEPAD Agency, Wellcome Trust or the U.K. government. Support by GSK Africa Non-Communicable Disease Open Lab through the DELTAS Africa Sub-Saharan African Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) training programme is greatly acknowledged. Publication in AAS Open Research does not imply endorsement by the AAS
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