Friday Newsletter
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Dear Centre leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Training and Resource Centre.  We hope you had a fruitful week.  We have the following items for your kind attention
  • Countdown: INDEPTH AGM 2017 a few weeks to go – 33/43 centres will attend
  • What Centre Leaders say about INDEPTH Network
  • Two New INDEPTH papers published this week
  • Two new HDSS sites in Asia apply for INDEPTH membership
  • Ministry of Health officer in Rwanda visits INDEPTH – a new site in Rwanda in the making?
  • MRC Unit The Gambia celebrates 70th Anniversary
  • Kaya HDSS in Burkina Faso evaluates the seasonal malaria chemoprevention intervention
  • Kaya HDSS in Burkina Faso takes a realist evaluation of the Missed Opportunities in Maternal and Infant Health project
1. Countdown: INDEPTH AGM 2017 a few weeks to go – 33/43 centres will attend
We will regretfully miss 10 centres this year. We hope that everyone will be able to attend ISC 2018 which in which we will celebrate INDEPTH’s 20th Anniversary (INDEPTH@20). This year the INDEPTH Annual General Meeting will be held from 11-12 December 2017 in Dubai, UAE and we are happy to inform that the leaders and representatives from the following member centre will attend.
Highlights of this year’s AGM:
  • All Board members will attend. The Board will meet on Sunday 10th December before the AGM opens on Monday 11tth December. The Board will review draft financial and progress reports for 2017, draft work plan and budgets for 2018 and will discuss financial sustainability of INDEPTH. 
With Prof Tumani Corrah as Chair, the Board will consider a report on the implementation of the Strategic Plan 2017-2021 and will discuss strategies for strengthening the Network’s scientific research.
  • The INDEPTH Executive Director will on behalf of the Board present the State of the Network at the end of 2017. He will show examples of great contributions by Working Groups and Centre Leaders towards creation and implementation of Network projects. However, he will lament over the difficulty in raising core support (untied, un-earmarked), a problem that doesn’t seem to be unique to INDEPTH at these times. Osman will assess progress of the Network in relation to its scientific, capacity strengthening, policy engagement, administrative and fundraising activities. He will end with the challenges faced over the year and will discuss solutions to addressing them.
  • INDEPTH will have a scientific interaction with UAE scientists on NCD research in INDEPTH and in the UAE from 11am to 4pm on Monday. An exciting programme awaits you. The scientific programme will end with the session on CHESS to prepare for the preliminary application to Wellcome Trust in mid January 2018.
  • Centre Leaders will meet whole day on Tuesday to discuss the welfare of INDEPTH. Among their activities is the usual BOARD ELECTION. We expect a keen contest this year as many centre leaders show readiness to serve on the INDEPTH Board.
  • A management consulting firm, ACCENTURE, will be with us to engage INDEPTH stakeholders on a potential new structure for the Resource and Training Centre which will be optimal for the Network’s current and future programmes.
2. What Centre Leaders say about INDEPTH Network
We are developing a webpage on comments leaders of INDEPTH member centres have about their Network. We have statements from 11/43 centres. We would like to encourage all centre leaders to leave us a word. These will be put together for INDEPTH’s 20th anniversary celebration next year.

See what your colleagues are saying about INDEPTH by clicking here. 

Please send your comments to felicia.manu@indepth-network.org who handles our communications activities.
3. New INDEPTH papers published this week
The INDEPTH Network continues to contribute towards knowledge generation through its publications and is excited to announce two publications this week.
Led by member centre in Bandim, A two-centre randomised trial of an additional early dose of measles vaccine: Effects on mortality and measles antibody levels, was published in  the Clinical Infectious Diseases, by Ane B Fisker Eric Nebie Anja Schoeps Cesario MartinsAmabelia Rodrigues Alphonse Zakane Moubassira Kagone Stine BybergSanne M Thysen Justin Tiendrebeogo  Boubacar Coulibaly Osman Sankoh Heiko Becher Hilton C Whittle Fiona R M van der Klis Christine S Benn Ali Sie Olaf Müller Peter Aaby.  Click here
On 28 November a new paper was published titled: The Ethics of Health Care Delivery in a Pediatric Malaria Vaccine Trial: The Perspectives of Stakeholders from Ghana and Tanzania.  It is worthy of note that the lead author, Claire L Ward was co-supervised by the INDEPTH Executive Director, Prof Osman Sankoh. Read more 
4. Two new HDSS sites in Asia apply for INDEPTH Membership
SEACO HDSS in Malaysia and icddr’b’s new urban HDSS site in Dhaka are the latest applicants from Asia, seeking INDEPTH membership. The Board will review the applications in Dubai. The INDEPTH Resource and Training Centre have made strong recommendations for acceptance.
5. Ministry of Health officer in Rwanda visits INDEPTH – a new site in Rwanda in the making?
Ms Valentine Dushimiyimana, Rwanda Biomedical Centre.
Ms Valentine Dushimiyimana, a senior regulatory affairs officer in the Medical Research Centre/Rwanda Biomedical Centre of the Ministry of Health of Rwanda paid a visit on 30 November 2017 at the INDEPTH Resource and Training Centre in Accra. The Ministry of Health is keen to strengthen health research capacity and one of the strategies being pursued is the establishment of an HDSS field site. The Accra team was excited about the visit and held good discussions with Ms Dushimiyimana. It is hoped that INDEPTH will provide support to the Ministry of Rwanda to achieve its objective.
6. MRC Unit The Gambia celebrates 70th Anniversary
The MRC Unit The Gambia is one of the founding members of INDEPTH. It runs the Farafenni HDSS in The Gambia. The MRC Unit Gambia has been in existence in the Country for the past 70 years. As part of activities marking the event, a symposium was organised with world leaders in global health participating. The activities will end in a Grand Dinner on Saturday 2nd December 2017 in Fajara. INDEPTH congratulates our member centre. It is worthy of note that our current Board Chair, Professor Tumani Corrah was a Director of the Unit for many years.
7. Kaya HDSS in Burkina Faso evaluates the seasonal malaria chemoprevention intervention
Our colleagues at Kaya HDSS in "conducted a case study, with a quantitative and qualitative mixed methods. Data were collected after two campaigns of implementation of the intervention, in 2014 and 2015, through a review of specific documents of SMC intervention, and individual interview with key informants (n = 21) involved at various levels in the implementation of the strategy and a household survey with the parents (n = 284) of eligible children for the SMC strategy in 2015 in the Kaya health district. The analysis framework focused on the fidelity of the intervention's content, its coverage, and its schedule, as well as the potential moderating factors, using the model proposed by Hasson, originally from Carroll." Read more...
8. Kaya HDSS in Burkina Faso takes a realist evaluation of the Missed Opportunities in Maternal and Infant Health project
Prof. Seni Kouanda, Kaya HDSS leader.
"Postpartum care (PPC) has remained relatively neglected in many interventions designed to improve maternal and neonatal health in sub-Saharan Africa. The Missed Opportunities in Maternal and Infant Health project  developed and implemented a context-specific package of health system strengthening and demand generation in four African countries, aiming to improve access and quality of PPC. A realist evaluation was conducted to enable nuanced understanding of the influence of different contextual factors on both the implementation and impacts of the interventions." Read more...
Policy Engagement and Communications