Research institutions to receive assistance Graphic Business)

A UK-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Wellcome Trust, is supporting research institutions in six West and East African countries to develop research careers for post doctoral scientists at the cost of five million pounds. The beneficiary countries are Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Chad, Uganda, and Tanzania.
The funding which will be spread over the next five years, will be managed by an African research consortium for ecosystem and population health refereed to as Afrique One.
Afrique One Postdoctorate Fellowships in Ecosystem and Population Health, comprises eleven African universities and research institutions in the six member countries and is funded through the Wellcome Trust’s African Institutes Initiative.
The Afrique One Postdoctorate Fellowships programme seeks to support the next generation of African science leaders in the field of ecosystem and population health. To benefit, the consortium accepts the very best post-doctoral scientists to develop independent sustainable science programmes in each of the consortium’s core institutions.
Between October 17 and October 24 2010, the 3rd planning, training and evaluation workshop of Afrique One was held at Erata Hotel in Accra, Ghana where researchers and scientists as well as officials from Wellcome Trust met to deliberate on how best to make good use of the funding.
With more than 30 representatives, the workshop held series of presentations in plenary sessions, had discussions among a panel of experts, held a press conference as well as group discussion sessions and social events. Ghana’s Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) served as the host research institution during the conference period.
Taking into consideration the guidelines of Afrique One Consortium, the workshop was planned with the following goals: To finalise postdoctoral recruitment, to plan postdoctoral works, to build the capacities of financial officers and master the Afrique One programme finances.
Others goals were to train specific officials in communicating with the media and policy makers, to share on new changes related to the Afrique One concept and to revise the consortium governance.
To achieve the goals and proposed outcomes, an operational structure for the workshop was set up combining presentations during plenary sessions and group sessions to discuss specific issues that had been identified as relevant.
At a press briefing organised as part of the 3rd Planning and Evaluation Workshop the Head of Bacteriology Department of the Noguchi Memorial Institute on Medical Research, Dr Kwasi Addo, said many diseases which affected humans could be prevented if animal health was taken seriously and called for collaboration between medical doctors and veterinary doctors to find common solutions in fighting diseases.
The press briefing, according to the organisers was to build the capacity of media personnel on the One Health concept which is a co-operation between human and animal health to strengthen health systems.
Dr Addo explained that many of the diseases which affected human beings had links with animals and so if animals were taken care of properly, they could be prevented from getting sick and cited cases such as mad cow disease, Avian Influenza (bird flu), rabies, and bovine TB.
The Director of Afrique One, Professor Bassirou Bonfoh, indicated that the problem most African institutions faced was brain drain and therefore, made it difficult to build careers of African scientists at post doctoral level.
Professor Brian Perry of the Scientific Advisory Board, Afrique One Consortium, said the consortium had a mix of institutions and scientists from both Anglophone and Francophone Africa, who were now working together to raise the credibility of their organisations, of the science that they were engaged in and of human resources they were nurturing.
He explained that the training being offered by Wellcome Trust, will provide a fundamental basis to develop the capacity to manage and administer research funding.
For his part, Professor Jacob Zinsstag an expert who facilitated during the event, said Afrique One to build up research capacity for the betterment of human and animal health as well as welfare.
“A principal foundation of Afrique One’s work is to work closer between doctors, veterinarians and wildlife specialists,” he indicated.
Participants had the hope that the Afrique One project would help many of the scientists on the continent to benefit from the development of the continent.