2022 INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES IN RESEARCH- LIST OF AVAILABLE PROJECTS

DEADLINE: April 14, 2022
OPEN JOB

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an international non-profit, non- governmental organization that carries out high quality, policy relevant-research on population, health and education issues facing sub-Saharan Africa. The Center has internship opportunities listed below housed in its Research and Research Capacity Strengthening Divisions for a period of 3-6months starting Mid-April 2022.

 Project One

Project Title:  Urban Education III

 Unit: Research: EYE

 The urban Education project seeks to ensure improved access to quality education for children living in the urban informal settlements through evidence–based advocacy in three countries in East and West Africa – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. The project has been ongoing since 2015 and currently is in its third phase, which seeks to create targeted attention on education for the urban poor in sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this, evidence generation through primary data collection and secondary data analysis is key. Primary data collection is targeted to take place in Uganda and Tanzania while in the other countries data analysis on existing secondary data sets will be done. The project also seeks to engage in policy engagement activities at the national and regional level.

Specific Objectives:

  • An improved understanding of the status of schooling of children living in urban poor households in Uganda and Tanzania;
  • Consolidate evidence on urban education through secondary data analysis and education projections for selected countries in East and West Africa;
  • A sustained and expanded voice and reach of urban education in SSA.

The intern will be expected to be flexible, a keen listener, focused and willing to learn. The individual will be expected to have basic quantitative skills and she/he will be involved in the daily activities of the project during the internship period and will support in the analysis of the quantitative data.

What a student might expect during their placement

The student will be expected to participate and or contribute to the following:

  • Review protocol and tools in order to acquaint her/himself with the project.
  • Support in data management and analysis of the project data. This will help the intern gain skills on data management and analysis as well as on application of relevant software.
  • Support in conducting rapid review of evidence – to strengthen existing evidence and compilation of indicators of interest.
  • Participate in report writing for Uganda which will ensure she/he gains skills in report writing – especially presentation of results and literature review.
  • Participate in internal meetings, training, brown bags and other project related activities as guided by the supervisor.

 Project Two

Project Title: Improving the quality of child-care centres through supportive assessment and ‘communities of practice’ in informal settlements in Nairobi

 Unit: Human Development (ECD)

 The Community of practice recently completed field activities and data have been analysed and presented to decision makers and the community. In the coming months will focus on further engagements with the key stakeholders in the community and decision makers (government) to jointly finalize with the integration approach and plans for scale up. This will involve meetings and discussions with key representatives at different levels. Alongside this, we will be writing up reports, manuscripts, blogs and policy briefs from the findings. We would like the intern to participate in the community engagements (including facilitation of the discussions), actively participate in manuscript writing particularly literature review and drafting of the background section of at least one of the manuscripts with supportive supervision from the PI and input from the rest of the team. The intern will also support drafting blogs and policy briefs from the results, and leading on at least one of these outputs. The intern will engage in planning/brainstorming meetings to sketch out the different activities. The candidate should have an academic background and some experience and interest in child care, nurturing care framework, early childhood development, childcare and community engagement. They are expected to have at least beginner’s level scientific writing and communication skills.

What a student might expect during their placement (max 600 words):

It is expected that by the end of the internship period, the intern through hands on participation should have obtained more experience and enhanced skills in community engagement, engaging with decision makers, reviewing and critiquing scientific literature, manuscript writing, and communication of research to non-scientific audiences through blogs and policy outputs. The intern will also gain more theoretical knowledge and practical aspects in paid child care including potential models and their effects as well as possible strategies for their implementation to scale.

 Project Three

Project Title: Evaluating the effectiveness of the Kidogo model in empowering women and strengthening their capacities to engage in paid labor opportunities through the provision of quality childcare: an exploratory study in Nakuru County, Kenya

Unit: Human Development (ECD)

 The GROW 11 project is currently implementing midline data collection. In the next couple of months, we will be focusing on data analysis and writing up reports and manuscripts publications from the midline and baseline data. We would like the intern to engage in developing manuscripts particularly literature review and drafting of the background section of at least one of the manuscripts with supportive supervision from the PI and project manager, and will work with the Project research officer and the rest of the team for input. The intern will also support drafting blogs and policy outputs from the findings, leading on at least one of these products. The intern will engage in planning/brainstorming meetings to sketch out the outputs. The candidate should have an academic background and some experience in women empowerment, childcare or early childhood development from a behavioral methodological approach. He/she is expected to have at least beginner’s level scientific writing and communication skills.

What a student might expect during their placement

The intern will be involved in quantitative and qualitative data analysis and scientific writing. She/he will also be exposed to proposal writing.

Keywords:  Mother and Baby Friendly Initiative, breastfeeding, human milk banking, child nutrition

Project Four

Project Title: Supporting the writing of manuscripts documenting the impact of APHRC short course trainings.

Unit: Training Unit

The Training Unit continue to conduct short course training in a number of areas. Each time a training workshop is conducted, we administer an Immediate Post-Training Evaluation survey (IPTES) to assess how participants experience the training. In addition, about six months post-training, we administer a follow-up evaluation survey (FES) to assess the impact of the training. The Intern will follow-up with those who have not completed the FES; clean and merge both IPTES and FES data; support data analysis and manuscript writing; and arrange for all meeting with co-authors. If time allows, the Intern will be requested to begin analysis of ADDRF data so as to support preparation of a paper documenting the impact of ADDRF.

 What a student might expect during their placement

The Intern will acquire data management and analysis skills; skills in scientific writing; quantitative analytical skills (e.g., using Stata, R, or SAS); qualitative analytical skills (e.g., using Nvivo).

Keywords: data analysis; scientific writing

Project Five

Project Title: Evaluation of the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition for COVID 19 prevention: The inclusion of people with disabilities, older people, and older adults with disabilities

 Unit: UWB

Persons with disabilities and older people comprise a significant proportion of the world’s population, with around one in every seven people having some form of disability, one in every eleven people aged over 65 years or more, and 46% of aged people (60 years or more) having disabilities.  The World Report on Disability demonstrates that the average health of people with disabilities is far worse than people without disabilities, alongside lower employment, education, and economic status. COVID-19 has made this group even more vulnerable. They face a greater risk of infection to the virus and are prone to suffer severe circumstances leading to hospitalization, intensive care, or even death. These risks are heightened with age or with the presence of any underlying medical conditions. To tackle the transmission of COVID-19 among people in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), including persons with disabilities and older people, the UK Government and Unilever introduced the Hygiene & Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC) to raise awareness on hand hygiene behaviors. However, the effectiveness of HBCC among persons with disabilities and older people remains unknown. This study aims to evaluate the inclusiveness and effectiveness of HBCC-funded projects designed to limit the risk of COVID-19 among persons with disabilities and older people in Kenya to improve such programs and inform others.

What a student might expect during their placement

In this internship, the student will take part in the following types of tasks:

  • Document review and Data analysis.
  • Report preparation.
  • Presentation of findings from the internship program.

 The following are some potential benefits to the students who contribute to the HBCC study:

  • Mentorship from a group of diverse, global researchers who can provide insights on the inclusiveness and effectiveness of WASH-related projects designed to limit the risk of various diseases, including COVID-19 among persons with disabilities and older people, and processes of stakeholder engagement/collaboration to ensure research application and impact.
  • Participation in regular meetings, webinars, and other events with global experts in the field of WASH, the persons living with disabilities, and the older.

Project Six

Project Title: Improvement of water services supplied by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company in Kibera, Kenya

Unit: UWB

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions prevent water-related diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and typhoid by interrupting fecal-oral disease transmission. The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) provides clean water and sewerage services to the residents of Nairobi City County and ensures that all stakeholders receive high quality water regularly and efficiently to its customers including those in the informal settlements within Nairobi. The study aims to generate evidence to support the improvement of water services using NCWSC-provided water in Kibera, Nairobi. The study would include evaluating water originating from NCWSC service lines, and water from NCWSC boreholes.

The study will involve a mixed-method evaluation. Quantitative data collection methods will entail a household survey, structured observation, and sampling of stored drinking water. Qualitative data collection will include key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with various stakeholders selected through purposive sampling to understand water quality perceptions, needs, and practices. Lastly, large-scale (20-30 L) water samples will be collected from NWSC and alternative sources for exploratory sequencing analyses focusing on viral pathogens. This study is expected to generate new scientific and operational evidence that will inform optimization of water supply interventions at NWSC and in similar urban informal settlements across the globe and, ultimately, contribute to reducing the burden of WASH-related infectious diseases.

What a student might expect during their placement

In this internship, the student will take part in the following types of tasks:

  • Data collection (surveys and sample collection).
  • Report preparation.
  • Engagements with key stakeholders.
  • Presentation of findings from the internship program.

The Intern will benefit from this study in the following ways

  • They will work closely with the field team and the lab team to understand water sample collection and analysis procedures.
  • They will learn the process of community entry and engagement.
  • They will interact with diverse researchers with diverse backgrounds, relevant to their areas of interest.
  • Participation in regular meetings, webinars, and other events with global experts in the field of WASH.

Keywords: Water supply, Kibera, water quality assessment

Project Seven

Project Title: Reckitt Study (Handwashing in Low-income settlements in Kenya)

 Unit: UWB

Handwashing with soap is necessary in promoting the public health of communities as it contributes to prevention of adverse health outcomes such as diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infections. Availability of handwashing facilities, which are necessary for handwashing to happen, is notably low in Sub Saharan Africa. Poor households in this region are especially disadvantaged as they lack handwashing facilities at the household level, an indicator used to determine access to hygiene facilities by global monitoring bodies. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of compound led initiatives on hygiene practices and maintenance of hygiene facilities in low-income settings in Kenya. The study will be a multistage study where mixed methods and exploratory research will inform a small-scale trial. The first phase will explore hand hygiene behaviours and their determinants in the settlements, through qualitative and quantitative methods. The second phase will build on results from the first phase to co-design appropriate handwashing facilities and community led approaches for managing these facilities. Activities in this phase will entail co-designing appropriate handwashing facilities and the accompanying messaging to encourage handwashing with soap. The final phase will evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions on handwashing practices in the settlements. The study will be conducted in three cities in Kenya, to provide a reflection of different urban environments in Africa, and a comparison of hand hygiene practices in three different contexts.

What a student might expect during their placement

As this is a study just beginning, we will have the intern involved in Community engagement and entry activities, for them to have an understanding of processes and procedures in gaining community entry and the key ‘gatekeepers’. We also hope that the intern will be part of the training of field staff, and be involved in translation, updating, and piloting of the study tools. The intern will gain skills in Quantitative and Qualitative data collection in low-income settlements, and will gain first-hand knowledge in challenges and experiences that field staff go through during data collection. They will also be involved in Qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and if possible, gain knowledge in the use of software for quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The intern will also be involved in report writing. Depending on time and availability, the intern will take part in co-designing of interventions to promote handwashing with soap in low-income settlements.

Keywords: Handwashing, community participation, co-design, low income settlements

Project Eight

Project Title: The Zero Hunger Initiative

Unit: Human Development (MCW)

The Zero Hunger Initiative envisions a food secure, well-nourished and healthy population, living in a green, clean and healthy environment, in peace and harmony in the spirit of “Ubuntu” in 2050. The vision promotes human, social and cultural values through a human-rights based approach to development. The core of the vision is to ensure self-reliance in acquisition of adequate, safe and nutritious food for all residents of Nairobi, through local production of foods. This will be through various approaches including promotion of urban and peri-urban-farming, including promotion of edible landscaping in the community and public spaces, such as schools. We are currently implementing a research & innovation project, aiming at more sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems in 10 African cities including Nairobi. The project, Healthy Food Africa, aims to test the feasibility and effectiveness of innovative urban farming in Korogocho and Viwandani informal settlements of Nairobi. The specific objectives of the project include: 1. To explore the acceptability, adoptability, reach, enablers and barriers of urban farming and interventions to curb unhygienic food handling and food wastage among food vendors 2. To assess the effectiveness of urban farming in reducing household food insecurity 3. To assess the effectiveness of urban farming in improving dietary diversity among children aged between 6 and 23 months, adolescents and women 4. To assess the effectiveness of urban farming in improving the nutritional status of women, children and adolescents 5. To determine the impact of urban farming on women’s and youth’s empowerment 6. To assess the perceived effects of interventions to curb unhygienic food handling and food wastage among food vendors on food safety and wastage Rev. Feb 2021 Project activities will be implemented by APHRC in collaboration with a select number of qualified community organized groups (COGs) based in the two study sites. The COGs have been trained on: innovative urban farming methods, the food and nutrition security concept, agribusiness, resources-oriented development and human-centered design approaches, project management and financial management among other aspects. The COGs will be expected to recruit and train community members on urban farming to ensure spread and sustainability of the project. For greater effectiveness and sustainability of project activities, the project will also gradually undertake to establish a community of practice of COGs. The project will use implementation research design, with a before-and-after evaluation and continuous monitoring and adaptation. The study will employ a mixed-methods approach. Baseline and end line household surveys will be used to collect quantitative data on sociodemographics, household food security and farming practices, women’s, adolescents’, and children’s dietary diversity and nutritional status, and women and youth empowerment. We recently completed baseline data collection and we are about to start implementation of urban farming and food safety interventions. The interns will therefore contribute to data management and analysis and field activities including support with intervention implementation. They will also be involved in other relevant activities such as report writing and preparing papers for publication for more learning. The intern should have a background in Statistics and have knowledge and experience of analyzing large datasets using statistical packages (e.g. STATA, SPSS, R).

What a student might expect during their placement

The Intern will be involved in data management and analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), report writing, drafting papers for publication and data collection, but they may also be involved in other relevant project activities. The intern will gain skills in scientific writing, data management including data cleaning, data analysis and reporting and data collection.

Keywords: Food security, nutrition, urban farming, food safety, healthy food

Project Nine

Project Title: Challenging the Politics of Social Exclusion – Calculus of Sex Program

Unit: PDRH

The Population Dynamics, Sexual, Reproductive Health, and Rights Unit evaluated the effectiveness of the Calculus of Sex Program on the reduction of adolescent/teenage pregnancy and school dropouts in Mombasa and Bungoma Counties in Kenya. The evaluation sought to assess the effect of the MSK project intervention, aimed at reducing unplanned adolescent and teenage pregnancy and school dropout rates in the two counties. A draft report was submitted to MSK in July 2021 as a deliverable, with the project baseline data still available on the APHRC portal. The team intends to utilize the data to draft manuscripts for publishing. The project team seeks an intern to support data documentation, analysis, and manuscript writing from this data.

What a student might expect during their placement

The intern should be conversant with data management using Stata. The project intern will conduct data documentation, analysis, and drafting of manuscripts.

Keywords: Data analysis, data documentation, manuscript writing

Project Ten

Project Title: Challenging the Politics of Social Exclusion (Incidence of abortion survey in Liberia and Sierra Leone)

Unit: PDRH

APHRC through its Population Dynamics and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Unit is implementing the Challenging the Politics of Social Exclusion (CPSE) project. This multicounty project that focuses on 7-countries within the sub-Saharan Africa aims to support the full domestication and implementation of regional, sub-regional and national commitments on sexual and reproductive health and rights. We achieve this through evidence generation and capacity strengthening of our research, policy and advocacy partners. We have just completed data collection for two abortion surveys in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The two surveys have yielded massive data that needs to be cleaned and analysed, and manuscripts developed. An intern with data analysis and writing capabilities would be very instrumental in offloading most of these data. The CPSE team therefore seeks an intern who would fit in these roles for a period not less than 3 months.

What a student might expect during their placement

The intern is expected to be knowledgeable on data analysis, management, and the use of Stata software. Upon joining the team, the intern will work on data management across two research projects and contribute to data documentation, including data cleaning, labelling, codebook development, and project description.

Keywords: Data management, data analysis, data documentation

Project Eleven

Project Title: Challenging the Politics of Social Exclusion (CPSE) – Sexual and Gender Minority

Unit: PDRH

The African Population and Health Research Center has been implementing the ‘Challenging the Politics of Social Exclusion (CPSE) project since November 2018. The project aims to generate, synthesize and manage evidence to support advocacy efforts for policy change on three focus issues: increasing access to safe abortion, and upholding the rights of women, young people, and sexual and gender minorities. The project is implemented in seven sub-Saharan African countries: Malawi, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Zambia. At this time in point, the work on sexual and gender minorities includes several activities including scoping reviews, policy desk reviews, and three empirical studies. We are embarking on scientific writing for three studies, and data collection for a study in Kenya. Joining a vibrant team, CPSE’s sexual and gender minority area offers a great opportunity for interns with an interest in research related to sexual and gender minorities or sexuality to start or strengthen their career journey. The skills required include qualitative and quantitative data collection and primarily analytic skills including data entry, transcriptions, and coding; editing; presentations, manuscript writing; results-based management processes, and knowledge management.

What a student might expect during their placement

The intern will work with experienced researchers on qualitative and quantitative data analysis. They will assist in data cleaning, transcriptions and coding, and documenting study findings reports. They will assist in planning and conducting study validation and dissemination. They will be involved in scientific writing including training and will be supported in working on a manuscript that supports their projects.

Project Twelve

Project Title: Ethnography of infanticide in Senegal

Unit: PDRH

In countries such as Senegal, where abortion law appears to be one of the most restrictive laws in the world, women facing unplanned pregnancies may be forced to resort to illegal abortion or infanticide for those who did not succeed in securing abortion. These women and people who support them risk prosecution, which may lead to heavy fines and imprisonment. We are conducting an ethnographic study to explore women’s experiences with infanticide (or baby dumping) and the subsequent prosecution to understand 1) the factors underlying infanticide and the pathways to committing infanticide or dumping a new born; 2) document the prosecution process and the consequences of the prosecution/imprisonment in women and their relative’ lives (including stigma, biographical disruption, etc.). The data collection consists of participant observation during lawsuits and women’s life in prison and in their community (for those who completed their sentence). The observations are complemented by in-depth interviews with women who have been prosecuted for infanticide (or new born dumping) and abortion, partners and relatives of women prosecuted, and key informants such as police officers, lawyers, judges, prisons officers, and NGOs. The project was substantially delayed due to delays in obtaining the approvals and the COVID-19 restrictions in Senegal, and is supposed to end in March 2022. While we managed to collect enough data, the remaining time to the closure of the project will not allow us exploit the data as expected. Therefore, we are seeking to recruit an intern who would support in analyzing the data and drafting manuscript from it. Given the qualitative nature of study and the data, we would like to recruit an intern with an anthropology/sociology background and fluent in French.

What a student might expect during their placement

The intern is expected to support the following activities:

∙ Data management and analysis.

∙ Manuscript writing.

Keywords: Infanticide, abortion, women, prison, prosecution, Senegal

Project Thirteen

Project Title: Barriers and opportunities to safe abortion in humanitarian settings in East Africa

Unit: PDRH

APHRC, in collaboration with Ibis Reproductive Health and Ipas, is conducting a multi-country study in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Uganda and Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. The aim of this study is to describe the abortion experiences of women and girls living in humanitarian contexts, and to generate a representative estimate of the abortion incidence, rate, and ratio. This study is seeking to fill the gap on evidence on abortion experiences among women living in humanitarian contexts and on the barriers and facilitators to expanding abortion access in these contexts. Ultimately, we hope that these findings can aid in the development of programs and policies to increase access to safe abortion. This is a mix-method study, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. APHRC is leading the qualitative component, which includes a formative phase during which we will conduct 20-30 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with women, who have experienced abortion, community health volunteers (CHVs), and other key actors, as well as four focus group discussions (FGDs) with women of reproductive age. During the main survey, we will also conduct 60 IDIs with a subset of the quantitative survey respondents who will be recruited through peer-to-peer recruitment strategy. Given the qualitative nature of APHRC contribution to this project, we would like to recruit an intern with an anthropology/sociology background, who will support the study, and use the data for his/her thesis.

What a student might expect during their placement

 The intern is expected to support the following activities:

∙ Site visits.

∙ Data management and analysis.

∙ Manuscript/thesis writing.

Keywords: Abortion, PAC, women, self-managed abortion, barriers, humanitarian setting, Kakuma, Bidibidi

Project Fourteen

Project Title: Kinship, Nuptiality, and Child Health Outcomes in a Low Income Urban Area

Unit: Human Development (MCW)

This project is a mixed-method, longitudinal five-year study being carried out in the two communities within the Nairobi Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS), Korogocho and Viwandani. The project builds on the success of an earlier project to develop and test the Kinship Support Tree (KST) to assess the quantity and quality of support from kin to single mothers and their children in a slum context in Nairobi, Kenya. The quantitative methodological approach will seek to develop a new measure of union formalization to examine the relationships among kinship support, union formalization, and infant/child development outcomes. The union formalization measure will capture the process of recognizing unions socially and/or legally. The study run by APHRC with a starting sample of 1250 children aged 0 – 24 months with mothers aged 18-29 and collect data on the children, mothers, and selected kin two times per year. This will be supplemented with qualitative follow-up assessments once a year on a subsample of mothers, biological fathers, and current partners.

 Specific Objectives:

  • Develop a time-varying measure of union formalization that captures the involvement of kin in the protracted process through which unions are formalized.
  • Examine the effects of union formalization and kinship support on children’s physical growth and early childhood development (ECD).
  • Assess the extent to which union formalization moderates the effect of kinship support on physical growth and ECD outcomes and kinship support mediates the effect of union formalization on physical growth and ECD.
  • Assess the extent to which key intermediate outcomes, namely, breastfeeding/nutrition.
  • Maternal mental health, illness management, and child stimulation explain the relationships among kinship support, union formalization and physical growth, and ECD.
  • Examine the change in child outcomes across 6 waves of data collection.

The project is currently in the second year and about to start the wave 1 of quantitative data collection. The intern will be expected to be flexible, keen listener, focused and willing to learn. The individual will be expected to have basic quantitative skills and she/he will be involved in the daily activities of the project during the internship period.

The student will be expected to participate and or contribute to the following:

  • Review protocol and tools in order to acquaint her/himself with the project.
  • Participate in spot checks during the survey. This will be instrumental in learning about the data, procedures of data collection as well as well contribute to the projects data quality checks.
  • Participate in debriefs at the field level and project team level. This will ensure she/he gains skills in project management and coordination.
  • Participate in the data review workshops – which provides skills on data collection and management.
  • Participate in internal meetings, training, brown bags and other project related activities as guided by the supervisor.

Project Fifteen

Project Title: The Zero Hunger Initiative (II)

Unit: Human Development (MCW)

 The Zero Hunger Initiative envisions a food secure, well-nourished and healthy population, living in a green, clean and healthy environment, in peace and harmony in the spirit of “Ubuntu” in 2050. The vision promotes human, social and cultural values through a human rights based approach to development. The core of the vision is to ensure self-reliance in acquisition of adequate, safe and nutritious food for all residents of Nairobi, through local production of foods. This will be through various approaches including promotion of urban and peri-urban-farming, including promotion of edible landscaping in the community and public spaces, such as schools. We are currently implementing a research & innovation project, aiming at more sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems in 10 African cities including Nairobi. The project, Healthy Food Africa, aims to test the feasibility and effectiveness of innovative urban farming in Korogocho and Viwandani informal settlements of Nairobi. The specific objectives of the project include:

1. To explore the acceptability, adoptability, reach, enablers and barriers of urban farming and interventions to curb unhygienic food handling and food wastage among food vendors.

2. To assess the effectiveness of urban farming in reducing household food insecurity.

3. To assess the effectiveness of urban farming in improving dietary diversity among children aged between 6 and 23 months, adolescents and women.

4. To assess the effectiveness of urban farming in improving the nutritional status of women, children and adolescents.

5. To determine the impact of urban farming on women’s and youth’s empowerment.

6. To assess the perceived effects of interventions to curb unhygienic practices.

Project activities will be implemented by APHRC in collaboration with a select number of qualified community organized groups (COGs) based in the two study sites. The COGs have been trained on: innovative urban farming methods, the food and nutrition security concept, agribusiness, resources-oriented development and human-centered design approaches, project management and financial management among other aspects. The COGs will be expected to recruit and train community members on urban farming to ensure spread and sustainability of the project. For greater effectiveness and sustainability of project activities, the project will also gradually undertake to establish a community of practice of COGs. The project will use implementation research design, with a before-and-after evaluation and continuous monitoring and adaptation. The study will employ a mixed-methods approach. Baseline and end line household surveys will be used to collect quantitative data on sociodemographics, household food security and farming practices, women’s, adolescents’, and children’s dietary diversity and nutritional status, and women and youth empowerment. We recently completed baseline data collection and we are about to start implementation of urban farming and food safety interventions. The interns will therefore contribute to data management and analysis and field activities including support with intervention implementation. They will also be involved in other relevant activities such as report writing and preparing papers for publication for more learning. The intern should have a background in Statistics and have knowledge and experience of analyzing large datasets using statistical packages (e.g. STATA, SPSS, R).

 What a student might expect during their placement

 The Intern will be involved in data management and analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), report writing, drafting papers for publication and data collection, but they may also be involved in other relevant project activities. The intern will gain skills in scientific writing, data management including data cleaning, data analysis and reporting and data collection Rev. Feb 2021 Keywords: Food security, nutrition, urban farming, food safety, healthy food.

Project Sixteen

Project Title: Kenya National Adolescent Mental Health Survey

Unit: PDRH

The Kenya – National Adolescent Mental Health Survey (K-NAMHS) is a national survey of adolescent mental health that aims to determine the burden of mental disorders and healthcare services available for adolescents (aged 10-17 years) in Kenya. Data on prevalence, risk and protective factors of adolescent mental disorders, service use, perceived need and barriers to access to mental health services were collected. Data collection was completed in 2021, with a randomly selected sample of 5155 adolescents of age 10-17 years and their caregivers. We have also completed data cleaning and will start data analysis and report writing soon. We aim to produce a report and policy engagement products such as policy briefs to share key findings with policy makers and stakeholders of adolescent mental health in Kenya. We hope that findings from the study will be used to promote the importance of mental health in children and adolescents, and resource allocation for such services. In addition, scientific papers will be written and submitted for publication.

We would like to host an intern (PhD or a Postdoc) who will be working with the team on data analysis, writing manuscripts and writing communication materials such as policy briefs for research uptake. The activities the doctoral intern is likely to undertake are embedded in the larger KNAMHS project – writing the study report, policy engagement materials and manuscripts. The intern will also have the opportunity to participate in dissemination workshops and engage with stakeholders of adolescent health and mental health in Kenya. What a student might expect during their placement.

What a student might expect during their placement

The intern will participate in multiple activities- including quantitative data analysis using statistical software (STATA), writing policy briefs, manuscripts and reports and engaging with policy makers and stakeholders.

APHRC is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the protection of vulnerable persons.