2nd Summer Institute for New Global Health Researchers
Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre
Ifakara, Tanzania
July 25-29, 2005
The 2nd Summer Institute for New Global Health Researchers took place
at the Ifakara Health
Research and Development Centre (IHRDC) in Ifakara, Tanzania. Leaders
in global health research from IHRDC, Africa and Canada shared their
expertise and experiences with 21 new global health researchers from
Africa and Canada. For this Summer Institute, over 80 people
applied and 11 teams of two were accepted - one researcher from Canada
and one researcher from Africa - working on a joint project. Projects
ranged from the application of basic science (microbicide and genotyping
research for HIV control) to scaling up of an existing project to the
community (scale-up of the Sprinkles intervention in Ghana).
The 2nd Summer Institute was an excellent opportunity for participants to learn about the culture and language of Tanzania and to learn about the culture and language of global health research and ‘research to action’. The IHRDC, in particular, with their work in integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) and malaria control provided valuable hands-on experiences in translating research into action in Africa, and informed and inspired the new global health researchers.
Learning began even before the Institute. There was some initial
discussions and exchange of information electronically among participants
to share backgrounds, expectations and research to action challenges. Using
the recently developed electronic workspace of the CCGHR, discussions
were initiated and resources and presentations for the upcoming Institute
made available. By providing background readings, participants
had time at the Institute to attend brief seminars and interactive
workshops, and spend more time discussing key global health issues
such as the impact of globalisation, translation of research to policy
and use of local/indigenous knowledge. In addition, teams had
designated times set aside in which they discussed their projects. Each
team also worked with a facilitator who had expertise in global health
research and knowledge translation to plan how they could translate
their research to improve health.
This Institute was a success due to the great amount of time and energy that the host, the Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre (IHRDC)in Tanzania and the Coalition staff and planning team gave to this event. Generous contributions from many Canadian research centres also made this Institute possible. Contributions came from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the CIHR Institutes of Population and Public Health (IPPH), Aboriginal Peoples' Health (IAPH), Human Development and Child Youth Health (IHDCYH), Gender and Health (IGH), Infection and Immunity (III), and Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR), and CIHR's Knowledge Translation Branch.
Learn more about this Summer Institute...
News
Release: Researchers Meet to Improve Global Health