INTREC Key activities
What we’ve done so far
INTREC started work in January 2012, with a ‘kick-off’ meeting in Umeå, Sweden, at which all six of the Consortium partners were represented. Following on directly from this, the first substantive ‘Work Package’ of the project was initiated, which involves undertaking a needs assessment in each of the seven participating countries. Seven high quality INTREC Social Scientists (ISSs) have been recruited to do this work, one from each of the target countries, and most of them from HDSS sites involved in the SAGE network. The Asian ISSs are coordinated through Gadjah Mada University, while the African ISSs are coordinated through INDEPTH headquarters in Accra and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
The ISSs met together with trainers from Sweden, South Africa and Indonesia at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for a week’s training in February 2012, and they are now engaged in researching and drafting county reports that will include the following components:
- An epidemiological review, focusing on Non-Communicable Diseases among adults;
- A review of all SDH-related post-graduate courses currently available in the country;
- A literature review on activities, actors and institutions engaged in social determinants issues in their country;
- Findings from a series of interviews with key stakeholders from national and local level.
ISS training in Gadjah Mada University, February 2012
Meanwhile, a ‘concept mapping’ exercise is also underway. In this participatory qualitative research technique, 160 INDEPTH scientists have been asked online to consider what their training needs would be if they wanted to conduct research into health inequities and the social determinants of health in their countries. The responses we receive, representing the collective wishes of the scientists, will constitute the ’demand’ side of the coin, in contrast to the ‘supply’ side, which will consist of the courses currently being taught on SDH-related issues in schools of public health in the respective countries (as identified in ‘2’ above). A core task of INTREC will be to fill the gap between what is currently being provided on the supply side with what is wanted on the demand side.
Update on Activites by the Workpackages
Please click on the following link for all other activities undertaken by the various workpackages