By 2007 , a plan was formulated and brought to South Africa , to a meeting convened by the Wellcome Trust that was meant to inaugurate the African Institutions Initiative .
“ I called the organizers and shared with them the ideas we had been talking about over the years and I went to the meeting . There were more than 40 universities from sub-Saharan Africa and many UK universities as well ,” said Dr . Ezeh . “ The UK universities in attendance were well-prepared . They already mapped out who their partners were going to be and what they were going to work on .”
The second day of the meeting brought African participants together to discuss ways to build and strengthen the capacity of doctoral research in Africa , the first of several conversations that continued in February 2008 in Dar es Salaam and now comprised 18 institutions .
That meeting was focused on a single agenda : to develop institutional ownership of strong doctoral training programs for junior faculty members from each of those institutions , including research centers that would serve as models for research excellence .
Each successive meeting provided opportunities for faculty and administrators from different disciplines to interact with one another and develop a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach to improving health and wellbeing in Africa . “ So that is how we began . Our idea then was to create a program that could train junior faculty to get their PhDs , but most importantly , to do good research , with a focus on population and public health that recognizes that health
Farewell Message is not just the absence of disease , especially in the broader context of social determinants of health ,” he said .
After 10 years , CARTA has supported nearly 190 fellows , with more than 40 graduates . Together they have published close to 500 peer-reviewed articles and earned over US $ 5 million in research grants as principal investigators . This , Dr . Ezeh , describes as the “ right output that we want to see ”.
The future of CARTA is bright – and its potential is unbounded . “ These programs have to be owned by the universities , so in the past year we have started conversations about how to institutionalize the innovations that we have brought into doctoral training in African universities , to make them available to every student ,” he said .
Another best practice for CARTA to transfer is the how of teaching at the university level , so as to create centers of innovative pedagogy . “ It is not just the routine didactic teaching where lecture notes and reproduced during exam time ,” he said . “ It ’ s more about being able to use innovation to facilitate learning , and bring experts from outside who may never have gone to university but are actually innovators in their own ways .”
Broadening CARTA ’ s focus beyond public and population health is another possible avenue for the future , said Dr . Ezeh . “ Africa ’ s contribution to the STEM disciplines ( science , technology , engineering and mathematics ) has been dropping by about 2 % every year . How do we build strong capacity and expertise for us to contribute knowledge in these areas ?” The solution , the impatient
optimist said , is for synergy across universities , particularly those on the continent , bringing institutions together “ to do more than we can do on our own ”.
Watch this interview on the CARTA website https :// youtu . be / izcirso-7PI
Dr . Alex Ezeh biographical sketch
• He joined APHRC in 1998 ( then a program of the Population Council in Nairobi ) as a Senior Research Fellow .
• In 2000 , he was appointed APHRC ’ s Interim Director and in 2001 appointed the Executive Director .
• Prior to joining APHRC , he worked at ORC / Macro International where he provided technical assistance to governmental and non-governmental institutions in several African countries in the design and conduct of Demographic and Health Surveys .
• Dr . Ezeh has more than 20 years of experience working in public health and has authorWed numerous scientific publications covering the issues of population , demographics , health and health metrics .
• He received his PhD in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania ( USA ) in 1993 . He also has an MA in Demography from the same university ( 1991 ), and an MSc in Sociology from the University of Ibadan , Nigeria ( 1988 ).
Prof . Sharon Fonn , CARTA co-director : “ The important thing to recognise about Alex is that he could be anywhere in the world and at a high level but he is here in Africa because that ’ s where he is values and commitments are . I suppose it is those common values that I certainly share with him .”
Prof . Akinyinka Omigbodun , CARTA board member : “ I didn ’ t get to meet Alex in person until ten years ago but our paths had crossed at the University of Pennsylvania where he obtained his PhD . His colleagues spoke a lot about him , two of who were my friends , spoke positively about him and I wondered , who was this guy ? Then we ran into each other in South Africa and he was talking so much about developing research in the African continent . He was so excited !”
Prof . Anne Nangulu , CARTA focal person Moi University : “ Alex has a lot of energy , passion and vision for this continent . I am privileged to have interacted and worked closely with him . His passion is infectious to the entire consortium and while we will miss him , I am glad to have known him over the years .”
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