Dear Centre Leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Secretariat. We hope you have had a good week.

We have the following items for your attention:

1. INDEPTH adds new health and demographic data to its online data archives

It’s another milestone for the INDEPTH Network! On July 1 2015, the Network added new health and demographic data to its publicly available online data archives.

The INDEPTH Data Repository now includes data from 20 HDSSs (further 4 to be released later) covering 11 countries while INDEPTHStats now includes data from 30 HDSSs covering 15 countries.

A press release statement issued by the Network said “the two unique online data archives continue to build and strengthen capacity for research data management, health and scientific research in LMICs as well as improve access to fully documented high quality longitudinal datasets by the scientific community and health policy makers worldwide”. Read more

2. Marcel Tanner hands over Swiss TPH leadership to Jürg Utzinger

Prof Marcel Tanner (right ) hands over Swiss TPH leadership to Prof Jürg Utzinger

On 30 June 2015, after 18 years as Director, Prof Marcel Tanner, is handing over the leadership of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Swiss TPH, to his successor Prof Jürg Utzinger. Under Tanner’s leadership, Swiss TPH has become an institution of world renown. About 700 employees, researchers & health specialists from over 60 nations are committed to improving health locally, nationally and globally. Prof Tanner is the current chair of the INDEPTH Network.

With Marcel Tanner as Director since 1997, the Institute has evolved in terms of content and structure. Where formerly questions about the biology of infection from diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness were at the forefront, there grew with Tanner the belief that disease, health and staying healthy can only be understood in an overall context: Living conditions, environmental and cultural influences. Under Tanner’s leadership, the Institute forced the inter-disciplinary, systemic approach. „The context between health and social systems is crucial,“ says Tanner.

Today anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnologists work closely with veterinarians, doctors, biologists, statisticians and economists. Together they aim to improve the health situation particularly of vulnerable groups of the population. „The complex issues surrounding health and disease can only be solved in a mix of disciplines and methods“, says Tanner. With Marcel Tanner, Swiss TPH reacted flexibly to global challenges. So now the study of chronic diseases is one of the core concerns of the Institute. With the integration of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine of the University of Basel, Swiss TPH reached a critical size and could strengthen its activities in the area of environmental epidemiology, pulmonary/respiratory illnesses and public health in Switzerland. Read more

3. MRC head visits INDEPTH on Ebola collaboration

Mr Jalloh (3rd right with glasses) in a group photo  with Prof Sankoh and other INDEPTH staff 

The Director of Medical Research Council (MRC), an organization that played a very important role during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone visited INDEPTH Network Secretariat in Accra, Ghana, on 29 June 2014. Mr. Abdul Jalloh and the INDEPTH Executive Director Prof. Osman Sankoh, discussed various avenues of collaboration including the use the INDEPTH platform to establish a new surveillance system in the Ebola hit areas in Sierra Leone.

Primarily MRC is involved in community health and primary health care, operational research and human resources for health, with a focus on pregnant and lactating women and children, but that was until May 2014 when a new threat to healthy communities in Sierra Leone emerged: Ebola Virus Disease.

MRC has supported the national Ebola Virus Disease outbreak response with several inputs including the provision of ambulance services and the purchase and distribution of disinfection and protection supplies and community education. Mr. Jalloh visited the US last year as part of a Sierra Leonean national delegation to source support for the Ebola response.

INDEPTH Network is engaged in a partnership to research the Ebola Virus Disease in Sierra Leone. The partnership comprises INDEPTH, MRC, Centre for Health Research and Training (CHaRT) Sierra Leone, and UMEA, Sweden. This new partnership includes a diverse group of experts to undertake research on the response to the Ebola epidemic at individual, community and organizational level.

The experts include Prof. Sankoh (INDEPTH), who has a lot of experience in managing research programmes in low- and middle-income countries. Prof. Muriel Harris (CHaRT Sierra Leone) with expertise in health promotion and behavioural science; Prof. John Kinsman (UMEA Sweden) is with specialty in global health; Dr. Heidi Jalloh-Vos and Mr. Abdul Jalloh (MRC Sierra Leone), who are medical researchers with a wealth of experience in running field research and quality assurance of data collection and processing.

Others in the group are Dr. Johannes John-Langba (CHaRT Sierra Leone) and Mrs. Hussainatu Abdullah, a social development and gender development experts respectively. Dr. Mamusu Kamanda (INDEPTH) is a Postdoc working with INDEPTH Network in the area of Education.

Mr. Jalloh, Mrs. Abdullah, Dr. John-Langba and Dr. Kamanda attended a Partnership Strengthening Workshop in Johannesburg , South Africa, from 23- 25 June 2015 which was organized by Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance as part of their programme for ‘Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises’ (R2HC).

4. Call for Papers: 2016 European Population Conference, Mainz, Germany

The European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) invites contributions to the next European Population Conference (EPC2016) to be held at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, 31 August - 3 September 2016.

EPC2016 is a general scientific population conference where the topic "Demographic Change and Policy Implications" will receive special attention.

Abstracts/papers must be submitted only via the conference website: http://epc2016.princeton.edu. Submissions should be made to one of the conference themes, which will be developed into a series of sessions by the Convener of each theme. The deadline for submissions is 15 December 2015.

At the EPC2016 only one submission as a first author is allowed. Participants may, however, co-author other papers or posters. Submissions may take the form of an abstract although full papers are preferred. Authors will be informed about acceptance of their submission by early March 2016.

5. Call for TDR International Postgraduate Scholarship for Academic Year 2015/2016

Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta, Indonesia invites suitably qualified candidates to apply for a place in the following full-time postgraduate programmes, with a focus on Implementation Research for the 2015-2016 academic year, commencing December 2015. The scheme, which is provided by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases based at the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland, provides full scholarship. Only applicants from low- and middle-income countries of WHO South-East Asia and West Pacific regions are eligible. Please see attached for details or click for details

6. 3rd UIA Associations Round Table Asia-Pacific

This will take place on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September 2015 in Bangkok at the Centara Grand at CentralWorld.

The Union of International Associations (UIA) Round Table is an opportunity to learn through networking and through practice. Meet decision-makers and staff members from other international associations and share experience and knowledge to help you run your organisation better.

This year's programme includes presentations and workshops on governance, communication strategies, working with volunteers in the field and at management levels, and public relations, with speakers from the United Nations office and from non-governmental associations. Click for details