ACEPHAP Introduces Breakfast Meeting with its Collaborative Faculty Staff
Africa Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy (ACEPHAP) has introduced what it called Breakfast Meeting with its collaborative Faculty staff where issues on research, training, conference attendance and other academic issues will be shared with a view to implementing the core mandates of the World Bank grants requirements.
Speaking at the maiden edition of the meeting which took place at ACEPHAP's head office located at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), the Director of the Centre, Professor Hadiza Galadanci said the meeting was introduced to serve as an avenue where innovations by faculty staff would be shared and discussed with a view to getting collaboration with some of the centre's expertise for optimum execution.
Professor Galadanci explained that the breakfast meeting would be held quarterly, so that all the stakeholders in the centre's ACE project would have ample opportunities to share and discuss research and other academic innovations with a view to getting assistance in the implementation of their researches. 'We in the Centre are ready to offer assistance. If you require any assistance in the successful conduct of your research, we are ready to support you,” she said.
She said for the purpose of today's meeting which was the maiden edition, the Centre would share with the faculty staff three important issues; the modest achievements of the centre since the commencement of the implementation of the World Bank ACE project in 2019, what the Centre did to the faculties and the opportunities available in the Centre for the faculty staff to exploit.
Professor Galadanci told the meeting that the Centre won a World Bank grant of six million Dollars to implement the ACE projects. She added that funds from the World Bank were not released to the Centre until late 2021. She said though the lack of funds did not stop the centre as support from the University Management ensured that implementation of the ACE project started almost immediately.
Professor Galadanci disclosed that as a first step the Centre introduced five postgraduate training programmes; M. Sc in Public Health Nutrition and Policy, M. Sc Global Health and Policy, M. Sc Maternal and Child Health and Policy, M. Sc Public Mental Health and Policy and M. Sc Public Health Nursing and Policy. She said at the moment the Centre has 110 MSc regional and national students. The regional students are from 10 African countries such as Kenya, Cameroun, Niger, Senegal etc.
In the area of research, the Centre is implementing different research project grants from donor agencies. Such Donor agencies include: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nigeria's Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and World Health Organization. For example, the Centre had won E-MOTIVE Research Project Grants from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct E-MOTIVE Trial in collaboration with University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. It is being implemented in five countries of Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Pakistan. She also mentioned IVON trial grant also from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, and the COGENOME Study obtained from 54Gene Corporation.
She listed the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Grant obtained through collaborative efforts with 5 other Universities in Nigeria as well as the IVON Postpartum trial project grant which she said was aimed at contributing to the reduction of the significant burden of maternal morbidity and mortality associated with anaemia in postpartum period. The Director revealed that the Centre had achieved 145 publications.
On collaborations, Professor Galadanci mentioned the centre's collaborations with seven Universities in Kenya, Jigawa State Government on maternal health and nutrition, University Hospital Coventry, United Kingdom, Sheffield University, UK among other international and national collaborations.
On training, Professor Galadanci stated that the Centre had trained 1200 health workers and 364 people participated in its short courses. The Centre has also carried out training in Ghana and Kenya.
On the opportunities available at the Centre, the Deputy Director, Research, Professor Taiwo Amole spoke of two important grants being offered by the Centre to support faculty staff. She mentioned Travel grant and Seed grant. Travel grant is the support given to faculty for staff conference attendance and Seed grant is for research work. There was also capacity building training sponsorship. She advised faculty staff to take advantage of these grants.
Professor Amole also disclosed that the Centre was planning to move to digital education for all its Masters Degree programmes.
