Capacity Building In Africa Research Articles

Regenerative economy: A pathway to a future-ready, sustainable Africa

ABSTRACT Africa is experiencing a period of rapid economic growth, booming population, and migration as biodiversity is deteriorating and the climate is warming. Together, these represent grand societal and environmental challenges. The African Union and the United Nations both promote sustainable development, in which society and nature flourish as the economy progresses. However, achieving this goal is not self-evident. We discuss the concept of regenerative economy and propose it as a path forward for the African context. We identify three levers of action evident in Africa that promote the idea of regenerative economy: clean innovation in technology and business models, leapfrogging through decentralized communication and energy systems, and leveraging African values of horizontal collectivism. We present some case examples of how this can and does work but highlight that achieving regenerative economy en masse depends on scaling up business models, effective governance structures, and capacity building in Africa. If implemented correctly, regenerative economy can offer pathways to a future-ready, sustainable Africa.

Understanding the challenges of delivering radiotherapy in low- and middle-income countries in Africa

BackgroundAccess to high quality radiotherapy (RT) continues to be a major issue across Africa with Africa having just 34% of its optimal capacity. MethodsWe co-developed a survey with clinical, academic and policy stakeholders designed to provide a structured assessment of the barriers and enablers to RT capacity building in Africa. The survey covered nine key themes including funding, procurement, education and training. The survey was sent to RT professionals in 28 countries and the responses underwent qualitative and quantitative assessment. ResultsWe received completed questionnaires from 26 African countries. Funding was considered a major issue, specifically the lack of a ring fenced funds from the Ministry of Health for radiotherapy and the consistency of revenue streams which relates to a lack of prioritisation for RT. In addition to a significant shortfall in RT workforce disciplines, there is a general lack of formal education and training programmes. 13/26 countries reported having some IAEA support for RT for education and training. Solutions identified to improve access to RT include a) increasing public awareness of its essential role in cancer treatment; b) encouraging governments to simplify procurement and provide adequate funding for equipment; c) increasing training opportunities for all radiotherapy disciplines and d) incentivizing staff retention. ConclusionThis survey provides unique information on challenges to delivering and expanding radiotherapy services in Africa. The reasons are heterogonous across countries but one key recommendation would be for national Cancer Control plans to directly consider radiotherapy and specifically issues of funding, equipment procurement, servicing and training. Policy summaryThe study demonstrates the importance of mixed methods research to inform policy and overcome barriers to radiotherapy capacity and capability in LMICs.

Continental Survey of Access to Diagnostic Tools and Endovascular Management of Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Africa.

Rationale: Interventional neurovascular procedures are effective in lowering the burden of mortality and complications resulting from aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Despite the wide uptake of interventional neurovascular procedures in high-income countries, access to care in low- and middle-income countries remains limited, and little is known about accessibility in Africa. In this survey, we decided to assess access to diagnostic tools and treatment of aSAH in Africa.Methodology: A Google form e-survey was distributed to African neurosurgery centers accepting responses from January 4th to March 21st 2021. Data on accessibility to diagnostic tools, treatment methodologies, and interventional neuroradiology personnel in African centers were collected. Ninety five percent confidence intervals were computed for each variable.Results: Data was received from 36 neurosurgical centers in 16 African countries (16/54, 30%). Most centers were public institutions. Ninety four percent of the centers had the necessary resources for a lumbar puncture (LP) and a laboratory for the diagnosis of aSAH. Most centers had at least one computed tomography (CT) scanner, 81% of the centers had access to CT angiography and some had access to conventional angiography. Forty seven percent of the centers could obtain a head CT within 2 h of presentation in an emergency. Sixty one percent of centers provided clipping of intracranial aneurysms whilst only 22% of centers could perform the endovascular treatment. Sixty four percent of centers did not have an endovascular specialist.Conclusion: This survey highlights health inequity in access to endovascular treatment for aSAH. Lack of diagnostic tools to identify an aneurysm and a shortfall of qualified endovascular specialists are prime reasons for this. Our findings can inform health system strengthening policies including the acquisition of equipment and capacity building in Africa.

Building capacity for ‘energy for development’ in Africa: four decades and counting

ABSTRACT Since the establishment of the Climate Convention and its recent Paris Agreement, capacity building has been considered as a fundamental prerequisite for achieving the goals of the climate regime. Various institutional architectures have been explored, while the 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21) established the Paris Committee on Capacity-Building aiming to address needs and gaps, along with promoting current, emerging, and further capacity-building efforts. Efforts to build capacity have been underway for decades but have largely failed in their objectives as they were not designed from, and rooted in, the local context. Drawing from the author’s more than 40 years of personal experience in capacity building in Africa, this paper sheds light on the systemic challenges involved in building capacities. Arrangements that do not entail working on, or being led by, an agenda set by those in capacity needs are not, by definition, capacity mobilization or capacity building efforts. It is argued that capacity is tied to self-reliance and self-determination and thus ability to set and pursue the recipient’s own agenda must be at the core of development narratives. Key policy insights Self-reliance and self-determination are at the core of capacity development. Therefore, countries need to set and pursue their own agenda by creating and following a bottom-up and inclusive development narrative. Intellectual, financial, and other important resources need to fall under the control of local leadership. Partnerships and networks of research centres think tanks and similar institutions in the South should be created and maintained to build capacities. Climate change, while a global issue, must be addressed based on a deep understanding of the local and national contexts.

Systematic review and bibliometric analysis of African anesthesia and critical care medicine research part I: hierarchy of evidence and scholarly productivity

BackgroundResearch is an essential component of Anesthesia, and the contributions of researchers and institutions can be appreciated from the analysis of scholarly outputs. Such analyses help identify major contributors and trends in publication. Little is known about the state of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine (A.C.C.M.) research in Africa. We aimed to describe African A.C.C.M. research’s current landscape by determining its productivity per country and point towards possible ideas for improvement.MethodsThe authors searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) from inception to May 4, 2020, for articles on or about A.C.C.M. in Africa. Studies were selected based on their titles and abstracts. Rayyan software was later on used for data management in the review selection process. Then, the full-text of eligible articles were screened. Data were extracted, and the number of articles per physician anesthesia providers and provider density were calculated. Kruskal Wallis test and Spearman’s correlation were used, and a P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsOf the 4690 articles, only 886 (18.9%) were included in the analysis. The articles were published between 1946 and 2020 in 278 target journals. 55 (6.2%) articles were published in the South African Journal of Surgery, 51 (5.8%) in Anesthesia and Analgesia, and 46 (5.2%) in Anaesthesia. 291 (32.8%) studies were cross-sectional. 195 (22.0%) first authors were from Nigeria, 118 (13.3%) from South Africa, and 88 (9.9%) from the U.S.A. Malawi (1.67), Togo (1.06), and Sierra Leone (1.00) had the highest number of articles per provider. Whereas Ethiopia (580.00), Nigeria (336.21), and Malawi (333.33) had the highest number of articles per provider density.ConclusionWe identified the most and least productive African countries in A.C.C.M. research and a low-quality hierarchy of evidence in these publications. Hence, the study’s findings may aid in driving the A.C.C.M. research agenda and capacity building in Africa.

Addressing Craniofacial Anomalies through International Collaborations and Capacity Building

Craniofacial anomalies especially orofacial clefts (OFC) are one of the most common congenital anomalies in Humans. The global prevalence of OFC is 1/700 live births but could be as high as 1/500 in Asians or as low as 0.5/1000 in Africans. These differences in prevalence suggest that there may be different genetic and environmental contributions which requires collective experts across the world for the identification and understanding of genetics, genomics, and environmental factors as well as the interplay between these factors. International collaborations literally mean multi‐ethnic research to identify the causes, risk factors and opportunities for prevention of OFC by collecting data and samples from individuals around the world. The clinical ‐basic‐translational research required for OFC means requisite experts around the world, which then means training and capacity building. In this talk, the audience will have the opportunity to listen to how international collaborations around OFC is driving new discoveries and capacity building in Africa. Additional information on how multidisciplinary expertise in clinical medicine/dentistry, human genetics, developmental biology, anthropology, epidemiology, bioinformatics and implementation science is setting the stage for prevention of OFC will also be shared.Support or Funding InformationDE022378 and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant number 72429

Brief report: Global health initiatives and breast oncology capacity-building in Africa

IntroductionGlobal health initiatives provide exciting opportunities for capacity-building in low- and middle-income countries but data regarding how African clinicians characterize the most effective partnerships are lacking. MethodsWe surveyed attendees at two “Breast Cancer in Africa” symposia sponsored through a surgeon-led global breast cancer research collaborative. Respondents ranked their preferences for needs from American global health partnerships. Results399 African attendees responded (170 at the 2017 Ghana conference; 229 at the 2018 Ethiopia conference). Physicians comprised 41.1% of respondents; nurses 20.1% and medical students 27.6%. Ancillary hospital staff comprised the remaining 11.2%. Among clinicians, 75.7% ranked educational/training programs or donation of medical supplies as the highest-priority needs compared to only 20.4% ranking direct monetary support as the highest-priority need (P < 0.0001). ConclusionsOur survey study found that African clinicians prioritize training programs and donation of medical/hospital supplies above direct monetary support as their highest-value needs from global health initiatives.

Chinese agricultural technology transfer to African typical dry areas: practice and experience

Africa has experienced increasing aridity and higher frequency of droughts due to climate change during the half past century with possible adverse effects on agricultural production, especially in dry areas with low rainfall. Under the auspices of the Africa Water Action Program between the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Institute of Agricultural Environment and Resources, Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS-IAER) worked closely with domestic and overseas partners on technology transfer in Morocco, Zambia, Egypt, Niger and Ethiopia from 2008 to 2013. A drought early warning system has been established and validated, and drought adaptation technologies have been trialed, modified, demonstrated and extended in African countries, and this shows great potential to increase crop production, water and fertilizer use efficiency and desert control in rainfed areas of Africa. The project has continued for six years and is a successful case of technology transfer and capacity building in Africa. The knowledge and experience gained will be useful to researchers, technicians, aid agencies and policy makers who work on agricultural technology transfer for in dry areas of Africa.

2019 Julie S Denslow &amp; Peter Ashton Prizes for the Outstanding Articles Published in Biotropica

2019 Julie S Denslow &amp; Peter Ashton Prizes for the Outstanding Articles Published in <i>Biotropica</i>

Role of genomics literacy in reducing the burden of common genetic diseases in Africa.

BackgroundIn Africa, health practitioners and the current knowledge of the public on genetics and genomics is still very low and yet this has potential to reduce the burden of common genetic diseases. Many initiatives have promoted genomic research, infrastructure, and capacity building in Africa. What remains to be done is to improve genomics literacy among populations and communities while utilizing an array of strategies. Genomic literacy and awareness are key in the management of genetic diseases which includes diagnosis, prevention of complications and therapy. Africa is characterized by great cultural and language diversity thereby requiring a multidisciplinary approach to improving public and community genomics literacy and engagement. However, this is further complicated by having the fact that sub‐Saharan Africa is comprised of countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world.MethodsWe applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines to review genomic literacy in Africa using PubMed database.ResultsWe found very limited evidence of genomics literacy for genetic diseases in Africa.ConclusionWe propose a number of approaches that if adopted will significantly increase the genomic literacy and reduce the burden of genetic diseases in Africa.

Vaccine Production in Africa: A Feasible Business Model for Capacity Building and Sustainable New Vaccine Introduction.

Africa has the highest incidence of mortality caused by infectious diseases, and remarkably does not have the capacity to manufacture vaccines that are essential to reduce mortality, improving life expectancy, and promoting economic growth. GAVI has significantly helped introduction of new vaccines in Africa but its sustainability is questionable, and new vaccines introduction post-graduation is rare. Conversely, Africa with its high population and economy growth is an increasing potential market for vaccines. This study aimed to investigate how investment for vaccine production in Africa could be triggered and in which way it could be affordable to most African governments or investors. The investigation was based on a literature review and supplemented by online questionnaires directed to global vaccine stakeholders, African governments and regulatory authorities. In-depth interviews with experts in manufacturing capacity implementation and regulatory capacity building in Africa complemented the study. We also developed business plan scenarios including facility costs calculations and a possible investment plan based on expert opinions and publicly available information from pertinent sources. We saw that, governments in Africa, show interest in vaccine production establishments but only with external support for investment. The common regulatory functionality gap was the quality control laboratories to test vaccine lots before regulatory release. The global vaccine stakeholders showed less preference in investment for vaccine production establishment in Africa. The diverse political ambitions among African governments make it difficult to predict and access the market, a prerequisite for competitive production. A feasible solution could be a small production facility that would use technologies with high yield at low costs of goods to cover the regional needs. A respective antigen production facility is estimated to cost USD 25 Million, an affordable dimension for investors or interested African governments. Attractiveness for the African market is deemed to be high when targeting diseases almost exclusively for Africa (e.g., malaria or invasive non-typhoidal salmonella). With a smart 5 years tangible implementation plan, marketing agreements within existing regional collaborations and with a strong political will, an African government alone or together with an investor could convince global vaccine stakeholders and investors to support.

Management of Knowledge Transfer for Capacity Building in Africa

Between sporadic remittances and training of a qualified manpower mastering new technologies, what does Africa expect from its diaspora to fill its development gap in the current context of globalization? When it comes to capital building, defined as the process or strategy to endow or increase the technical, managerial, or intellectual skills of an individual or a group, its know-how or knowledge, and financial capital or purchasing power, the World Bank and other development partners seem to grant priority to remittances. This paper strongly suggests that attention may be granted to the transfer of scientific knowledge between Africa and its diaspora, as many believe that progressing knowledge would help bring out a neglected source of wealth to fight the scourges responsible for political and economic backwardness in industrial countries. The development models based on the diaspora’s contribution in several countries and regions of the world, particularly in Asia, show the importance of knowledge transfer in capacity building. Similarly, Silicon Valley in California demonstrates the role of emigrants in the knowledge industry. As the brain drain is a normal phenomenon of globalization, emigration of African professionals is no more an obstacle to Africa’s development. Rather, the African diaspora constitutes a pool of human and investment capital that can strongly contribute to the continent’s development. From our point of view, the diaspora has an important role to play in capacity building, provided respective governments come up with sound policies to promote its participation. The diaspora’s participation in nation-building without physical relocation on the one hand, and the existence of the first generation of retired researchers and academics organized into civil society associations such as AED (Association for Education and Development) in Cameroon, on the other hand, constitute the pipeline of knowledge transmission. African partners and its diaspora can build a genuine partnership to create sustainable and competitive scientific institutions in Africa on this foundation. Improved governance, leadership, regulations, and immigration policy of sending and receiving countries are necessary for transnational scholarly/economic engagement.

Neuroimaging in patients with sickle cell anemia: capacity building in Africa

### Sickle cell anemia neurologic complications The collaboration aims at exploring the relationship between the cerebral vasculature and neurologic complications in Tanzanian children with sickle cell anemia (SCA). Cerebral vasculopathy in internal carotid, middle, anterior cerebral, and posterior

Biblical Mathematics and Its Influence on Capacity Building in Africa

Biblical Mathematics and Its Influence on Capacity Building in Africa

Internationalization of Research Capacity Building in Africa: A Case Study of Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) Support for Addis Ababa (AAU) and Dar-Es-Salaam (UDSM) Universities

Internationalization of Research Capacity Building in Africa: A Case Study of Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) Support for Addis Ababa (AAU) and Dar-Es-Salaam (UDSM) Universities

Plant breeding capacity building in Africa

Plant breeding capacity building in Africa

Academic Mobility for Engineering and Technology Graduates in Africa: Lessons and Experiences from the Implementation

This paper was inspired by lessons and experiences arising from the implementation of an on-going academic mobility project supported by the Intra-ACP European Commission Program. Twelve universities (11 in Africa and the University of Gent in Belgium, Europe) in a consortium brokered by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Africa (RUFORUM) conceived and successfully put a proposal in response to the 2013 Intra-ACP Academic Mobility Call. The project “Mobility for Engineering and Technology Graduates in Africa (METEGA)” is on-going and entails academic mobility of 72 beneficiaries (44 at Masters level, 20 at Doctoral level, and 8 at the staff and faculty level) in sixteen countries of the five sub-regions in Africa. Africa is lagging behind in terms of numbers of graduate students in engineering fields. The METEGA project is one of the 15 partnerships on academic mobility supported by the EU Intra-ACP Academic Mobility Scheme; and constitutes significant a contribution towards increasing the number of graduate students in Africa. The project has provided opportunity to leverage resources among participating universities. The participating universities offered three and nine quality Doctoral and Masters training programs. This project represents a significant effort towards internationalization of higher education in the sciences and has served as an opportunity for graduates and faculty to gain skills, relevant experience as well as learn from the implementation process. This paper presents lessons and experiences of the METEGA project, including institutional and operational issues that can be used to inform future academic mobility arrangements in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Capacity for science in sub-Saharan Africa

During the past decade there has been an increase in funding for research capacity building in Africa. Two major European programmes are at a turning point: the Wellcome Trust's African Institutions Initiative is about to end, while their new initiative, DELTAS Africa,1 will be launched later this year. The European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is ending, superseded by Horizon 2020,2 with the transition of some research areas that are important to Africa into the expanded second phase of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership.

Capacity building through investment in people: key to Africa ' s development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a prologue to the issue of development in Africa and the critical need to build capacity through investment in people. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews relevant literature on the seminal issues of defining human development, promoting human development in Africa, new development deal for Africa and investment in human capital as key to human development. In addition, the paper provides a brief overview of the articles focusing on capacity building in Africa. Literature pertinent to the topic of development in Africa is provided. Findings – Understanding the meaning of development and human development in particular is not only a necessary but a sufficient condition to designing strategies and policies aimed at promoting human development in Africa. As established in this guest editorial, Knowledge, entrepreneurship and the mastery of information and communication technologies in this century should become Africa ' s best competitive advantage. Instead of people in Africa being consumers of knowledge they should strive to produce knowledge based on their indigenous, cultural, political and socioeconomic perspectives. To do this, African governments must be willing and able to invest in quality education. Originality/value – This paper introduces this special issue on capacity building for Africa ' s development. It reviews the literature on the meaning of development and human development, promoting development in Africa, new development deal for Africa and investment in human capital as key to human development and it gives an overview of the five papers included in this special issue.

The state of capacity building in Africa

How can we account for the actual state of capacity building in Africa? This paper attempts to respond to this question, building on the existing literature and statistical data available both within and outside the continent. Using the arguments put forward by different national and international institutions around the world, it is possible to trace the path followed by the capacity building process in Africa around change and human capital theories. Following the creation of ACBF in 1991 and thanks to the intervention of a number of development partners, capacity building practices have significantly influenced the functioning of African States, the implementation of educational systems, the expansion of microfinance, and the impact of multilateral trade negotiations. This paper suggests that capacity building in Africa still requires urgent and vigorous actions towards a qualitative and quantitative of scientists, for the coordination of the dispersed efforts made by various regional and sub‐regional institutions, and for the strengthening of individual and collaborative programmes aimed at developing African human resources in Africa.