Welcome to ISHReCA

      With the increasing population and the modernization of more area in Africa, without the amelioration of the educational standard of the population, a noted delay will be register for a good plan to strengthen health research capacity in Africa.
      with new technology facilities, we can overcome many problems by coming together.

We in Africa must first be organized and then face our reality, accept and take it as a basis. Subsequently act for a better future, but on safe and solid bases.

I do agree with your opinion on the need the update the contents of education in most university. Actually we have to define the problems African countries are facing and anticipate the ones to come, think contextual solutions and look for specifics profile ie accurate Humam ressources to properly address those problems.
For me, RESEARCH SHOULD BE ORIENTED INTO PROBLEMS SOLVING.

Africans could receive help from without, but I'm convinced that permanent solutions can only originate from Africans themselves

We in Africa must first be organized and then face our reality, accept and take it as a basis. Subsequently act for a better future, but on safe and solid bases.

Dear Ntiekfidele
African health situation is extremely morbid,with the significantly high prevalence of tropical and infectious diseases.The world knows about this,including the(WHO) AND and its entire organizations,leave a part poverty,illetracy,wars conflicts and refugee disasters.Not only well known,more over our goverments are fighting either positively or negatively among all these situations.
We all know and we are all resposible of what is going on. Since we are scientists,the overveiw of (ISHReCA) must be shouldered by us equaly.The out side fund is limited,conditioned,ristricted and always evaluated and recruted.
Letus obtain the funds on basis of ethics,morality and sustainability,because many donors are perfect in that sense.Then wehave to utilize every penny in promoting our research capacity and reduce the burden on our citizins,simply by provision of health servse.
There are so many ways to shake govermental arms to grasp on our (Their) nation development. Simply if we follow the strategies ceated by our discussions,we can fullfil our goal,by the way it is a single one : Strong Health Research Capacity& Promoting Health Profession. Thereafter the out side world will come to learn from us in open space.UNLIKE the past and nowadays,Every instant the whole globe,now and in the past used to learn ON US. NOT from us.Development will steer. I think this is well known to every body,leave a part the scientists

When I read the information about establishing who is who in research in Africa from our Principal,(Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda), I was very excited about it. We are now on the the way and right track to organiasing ourselves and eventually speak with one voice on African Health problems. I promise to be active in this endevor.

Dear Kaddu,

I welcome your opinion and plan ahead of the African Health Problems, Currently an working with my founded NGO called COTFONE based in Masaka and we hae undertook several reseach in our areas of operation however we need more collaboration on the matter so that we can fully accoplish and work out the researched problems like Effects of HIV/AIDS in Masaka etc.

Could you please always liaise with me to also be part of your initiative an a research at the same time an implimenter.

Best regards

Muddu Yisito Kayinga
CEO
COTFONE
P.O Box 589
Masaka-Uganda
Tel:+256 782 920 995 ; +256 481 660 301
Email: ymkayinga@gmail.com
Website: www.cotfone.org

Research- focused initiatives in Africa, trusts, huage research centres,NGOS, pharmaceutical companies,regional institutes,african research centres,universities, acadamic faculties .. are all good candidates to support CAPACITY . In fact we need to contact them,not only that but even WHO. representatives at every direction and to extend along arm towards African Union..
Our aim to involve every [SAY] into [ACTION].The fact that all these organisations are commited to health research and its capacity.
By so doing our Overview objectives can smoothly squeezed to influence and authorty. The outcome will bee legalised and sustained commitments to grow later in form of regulatins .. rules or at least govermental agenda.
So this Initiative needs very collaborative participations in its Overview

As we have moved from the era of information scarcity to information over-abundance, more research into appropriate translation mechanisms and conveyance systems that drive policy makers (among the many research users) to use research recommendations much more often in reforming their respective health systems is required. Current methodologies,though useful, need a lot of research-informed re-designing.

Timothy Musila
Senior Health Planner
Planning Department
Ministry of Health
P.O. Box 7272, Kampala, Uganda

Timothy,

I agree with you but I strongly believe research must go beyond policy to practice or else research publications might be knowledge display on paper. Africa policy makers must sit up!

Alexander

I believe that that human capital in research ethics across Africa is an evolving phenomena. I also believe that this has to be a holistic approached among investigators and ethicist on the one hand and African Governments on the other to necessitate the allocation of resources in this direction. The proliferation of public health, medical, and social institutions across the continent have attracted international attention in strengthening research ethics across Africa. I think fundraising should commence with African stakeholders before soliciting assistance from elsewhere.

In the field of financing, donors or funders should add a principal component in the criteria of funds allocation, a character or morality report, because the funds must be given to those who have an optimistic view and not only from a CV or publications.
The field players must feel their efforts rewarded. We must therefore rethink the partnership protocols to ensure that all players know the project and taking the leading, most important being the health, well being. This last aim must be the overriding factor of projects evaluation and therefore funding.

Dr CHUISSEU D. D. Pascal
Higher Institute of Health Sciences
Université des Montagnes
P.O. Box: 208 Bangangté
Republic of Cameroon
Tel.: +237 7563 8096
      +237 3310 6177
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The question I would like to ask is how often do we put our research findings into practice? I know research should play a cycle role that is; Research to policy to practice and then back to more research on outcomes of the practice. There has been a quantum of papers published on researches done in Africa. Can we ask ourselves how many of these have been put into practice? We clearly lack the capacity to practice our findings.

Capacity building in the area of bridging the gap between research and practice needs to be strong not only for researches but also for policy makers. Policy makers may not get the time to read our research papers but can see the reality if discuss with them on one one.

Alexander
PSSMC
Ghana

Dear Alexander
I agree.Politicians are far away from health research,another gap to bridge.They may come to know about health problems and the importance of disease,but they do not have the drive to deal since it does not shake A chair.Sometimes scientists may threaten goverments.LET them get assured,then violate,invade,squeeze our selves into govermental bodies and ministries including fair enough(Ministries of Health),injecting human welfare as accepted agenda supported by public awareness and propaganda,as in some African countries. This may turn over as govermental winn to encourage them more towards political achievment through health service.It seems as along way to ride.
But politics is the main player in Africa and we,as solely scientists can play some politics for health sake.This is to put research into act.Another important Overview is to strengthen research cpacity,the most neglected by politics. Our arm needs to be longer towards politicians linking national security with health and epidemics,share donors,partnerships,shake organsations,raise public awareness and never get frustrated..never yield.
I must emphasize the fact that we must not buy our "wealthy" health data cheap,we had to have it all and the world at least concerning (Tropical Science).Then,i am sure we will gain international (LEADERSHIP).

Nice Comment Elhassan. I am in line with you. My question again is how can we bridge the gap between researcher's findings and politicians as to make policies to implement what we find. I don't think we need to frighten them with a "scare crow" but I believe Africa need to build innovative skills in advocating for research practice. Remember, politicians are always looking for opportunities to score points in their career. I think it is time to look at marketing and communication in research so that we can market and advocate very well to strategically meet the demands of our politicians by that way making our findings implementable in our communities.

Alex.
Ghana

Alex, thats a good point i rememeber one day we were having disemination meeting and a politician was in attendance. Since he was an opposition guy he just picked negatives of the research findings to castigate the rulling government. On the other hand there is need work closely with government. If possible like involving someone from the responsible department like department of Health and from time to time be in contavt with policy makers. I remember one of our research project contributed alot on how SWAP was implementated in my country because we kind of were closely working with department of health.

Mafayo Phiri
REACH Trust
P.O. Box 1597
Lilongwe
Malawi

 

Alex, thats a good point i rememeber one day we were having disemination meeting and a politician was in attendance. Since he was an opposition guy he just picked negatives of the research findings to castigate the rulling government. On the other hand there is need work closely with government. If possible like involving someone from the responsible department like department of Health and from time to time be in contavt with policy makers. I remember one of our research project contributed alot on how SWAP was implementated in my country because we kind of were closely working with department of health.

Mafayo Phiri
REACH Trust
P.O. Box 1597
Lilongwe
Malawi

 

Excellent debate. I will enlarge your question Alex, by asking how we can bridge the gap between researcher's findings, politicians and society. I think bridging the gap separating scientific productions from the society is even more important than welding the gap between researchers and politician (I do not mean that the latter is not a serious problem) .

I above assertion may sound utopistic since many would sustain that many African countries are still far from been democratic to think of the people influencing the choice of decision makers. Nonetheless, the unstable democratic wind that blew in the 90s has made many political entrepreneurs to understand the importance of the community (voters, to use a more political term). Hence, without undermining the importance to bridge the gap between researcher's findings and politicians, i also believe that a better communication, not only with the politicians, but also with the people (especially the poor and vulnerable part forming the majority of the African society) will not only help researchers to be considered by politicians but will also bring the researchers nearer to the people - which i consider more important.

It is widely approved that who has the people, has the politician. Thus, researchers while looking at the politician should not forget that no politician works in a vacuum, even the rudest dictator. Hopefully, despite all the blocks, many countries in the continent are slowly climbing the tedious hill towards democracy. Consequently, many politicians, despite the reluctance, are learning to know, no matter the slowness, that real power is in the people and that they are simply delegates.

In short, dear Alex, I think we are overestimating the power of our politicians. The politicians are important but, making research user friendly seems more important. Many good research works remain in the academic environment and never touch the needy part of the society. I think it is time for researchers to work for the people and with the people. Once the politicians will notice that they are isolated you will see that they will join the winning boat. Without generalizing, I humbly think that many politicians are more interested in success, but hardly think of building infrastructures leading to success. I fear that putting much hope on the politicians, we maybe waiting for godot.

Great! Interesting line of observations. I must say I have enjoyed your comments and observations. Democracy is inevitable we Africans need to work hard to achieve.

It may seems we have overestimated the power of our politicians but the fact is that they are in control. The resources (money, enforcement,etc) lies within their jurisdiction hence making them very influential in the implementation of our findings. It is quite a challenging task but I believe a right communication strategy need to be adopted.

Involving the societies or communities is very important but the fear is for how long can we sustain that without a policy backing and provision of resources to implement our findings. Most of our communities are poverty driven and lack the human resource and technical knowledge to apply whatever we may impact on them. It is time we researchers work closely together with community developers such as NGO's and CBO, in order to take up our findings to source for funds and continue from there. Even that may not be sustainable unless there is constant flow of support or the community develop strategies to support the implementation without external support.

This is my view.

Dear colleagues this is a very important initiative. We should encourage a democratic science and technology policy making agenda that integrates research and development so that Africa may realize its potential in creating wealth and well-being for its people. I believe that the forum can be an engine to promote this by developing advocacy and lobbing strategies especially in health research and development. The politicians, civic leaders, administrators and researchers should encourage all inclusive dialogues to develop evidence based policies that are appropriately responsive to our dilemma and challenges.
Prof. Job Isaac Jondiko
Maseno University.

Developing demogratic national policy can be achieved in many ways.We need to put an eye on the government representatives,like ministries of health (Control Programs) which can be utilized in research by being involved with researchers in thier claimed Programs. In my country, we used to have a strong relationships with the professionals leading these programs.The fact that every country has got such administrations or semilar ones, i supposethat it is not difficult to embark them into health research,thus to get them ideas about specific health problems and let them share the descision making as (health policy).The trend of sharing science between government authourities and academic research sectors,centers,institutues,projects and universities will definitely create a healthy comefortable,invironment for the sake of demogratic national policy to impliment research products in health provision,political recommendations,health protocols
The golden gain of researchers is the ease to negotiate,diccuss health problems research, and research once again and projects implimentations with goverment officials.More over the international involvement by funds and drive strengthens the subject forwards.