Experiences of capacity strengthening in sanitation and hygiene research in Africa and Asia Posted on 11/03/2020 by guest244@aphrc.org PUBLICATIONS RESOURCES // PUBLICATIONS Journal Articles Experiences of capacity strengthening in sanitation and hygiene research in Africa and Asia Health and Wellbeing March 2020 The Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) Research Programme consortium is a programme funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) that aims to contribute to achieving universal access to effective, sustainable, and equitable sanitation and hygiene worldwide. The capacity development component is an important pillar for this programme and different strategies were designed and implemented during the various phases of SHARE. This paper describes and reflects on the capacity-building strategies of this large multi-country research consortium, identifying lessons learnt and proposing recommendations for future global health research programmes. In the first phase, the strategy focused on increasing the capacity of individuals and institutions from low- and middle-income countries in conducting their own research. SHARE supported six PhD students and 25 MSc students, and organised a wide range of training events for different stakeholders. SHARE peer-reviewed all proposals that researchers submitted through several rounds of funding and offered external peer-review for all the reports produced under the partner’s research platforms. In the second phase, the aim was to support capacity development of a smaller number of African research institutions to move towards their independent sustainability, with a stronger focus on early and midcareer scientists within these institutions. In each institution, a Research Fellow was supported and a specific capacity development plan was jointly developed. Strategies that yielded success were learning by doing (supporting institutions and postgraduate students on sanitation and hygiene research), providing fellowships to appoint mid-career scientists to support personal and institutional development, and supporting tailored capacity-building plans. The key lessons learnt were that research capacity-building programmes need to be driven by local initiatives tailored with support from partners. We recommend that future programmes seeking to strengthen research capacity should consider targeted strategies for individuals at early, middle and later career stages and should be sensitive to other institutional operations to support both the research and management capacities. Download CONTRIBUTORS SIMILAR PUBLICATIONS Journal Articles Women’s autonomy and reproductive health-care-seeking behavior in Ethiopia Journal Articles Women’s attitudes and beliefs towards specific contraceptive methods in Bangladesh and Kenya Briefing Papers Why do some men and women never test for HIV? Insights from Demographic and Health Surveys in Zambia and Lesotho General Who are the missing men? Characterizing men who have never tested for HIV from population-based surveys in six sub-Saharan African countries Technical Reports Voices for action: A report of community engagement on vulnerability and solutions to food and nutrition insecurity maasai community, Kajiado, Kenya* General Voices for action Journal Articles Vitamin a supplementation and stunting levels among two year olds in kenya: evidence from the 2008-09 kenya demographic and health survey* Journal Articles Use of anchoring vignettes to evaluate health reporting behavior amongst adults aged 50 years and above in africa and asia testing assumptions* Policy brief Unsafe abortion as a risk factor for maternal mortality in Liberia