A presentation by Osman Sankoh as part of the Sustainability and Ownership panel discussion at the International Symposium on Cohort and Longitudinal Studies in Developing Contexts, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence, Italy 13-15 October 2014

1. Capacity Building and Sustainability –
Lessons from the INDEPTH Network
in moving from a
Project to an Institutional approach
1
Prof. Osman Sankoh
Executive Director
Accra, Ghana
UNICEF, Florence, Italy 15 Oct 2014

2. Outline
• Navrongo Health Research Centre
• INDEPTH Network
2

3. •Ghana Vitamin A
Supplementation Trial,
•(Ghana VAST)
•Navrongo Health
Research Centre
• (NHRC-GHS)
1988 -
1992
Prof David Ross, LSHTM Prof Fred Binka

5. Navrongo - Long-term partnerships
with Northern Institutions
• London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine
• Swiss Tropical and Public Health
Institute
• Masters programmes
• PhD programmes

6. Human Resource - 2014
Areas of Expertise - Navrongo
 Bioethics
 Biostatistics
 Clinical /Field trials
 Demography/Population
Health
 Database Development
 Epidemiology/Public Health
 Entomology/Parasitology
 Genomics /Genetics
 Genomics /Genetics
 Health
Systems/Economics
 Health/Bio-Informatics
 Information
Technology
 Pharmacology
 Project Management
 Social Anthropology

7. Navrongo - Clinical Trials Unit
Artesunate extension study
2014:
• Long-term
neurocognitive
assessment of children
following an episode of
severe malaria

8. Human Resource - 2014
Ghana Health Service / Project Staff
Designation GHS Project Total
Director 1 0 1
Research Medical Officers 5 0 5
Research Fellows 4 1 5
Snr Research Officers 10 11 21
Research officers 3 31 34
Snr Administrative staff 1 6 7
Accounts staff 1 4 5
Junior /Field workers 2 149 151
Total 26 203 229
Percentage (%) 11.4 88.6 100

9. Ghana Health Service: Research Centres
Research and
Development
Division
Navrongo - 1993
(Northern belt)
Kintampo - 2003
(Middle belt)
Dodowa - 2005
(Coastal belt)

10. Formation of INDEPTH
The international role of the Navrongo Health
Research Centre (Bed-nets, Vitamin A Supp, etc)
-- Rockefeller Foundation provided seed funding
to Navrongo to lead establishment of a network
of longitudinal community studies.
1998 INDEPTH Network was founded

11. Rationale for coming together
• Creating visibility for centres located mostly
in rural areas
• Conducting multi-centre studies/trials
• Networking and sharing information/results
• Building knowledge partnerships
• Strengthening capacity for data, collection
management and analysis

12. Important Dates - INDEPTH
• 1998 – Founding meeting in Dar es Salaam (17 HDSSs)
• 2001-2002
– First grants from Sida, Rockefeller Foundation,
Wellcome Trust and The World Bank
– First Executive Director appointed (Fred Binka) - 2002
• 2006
– First major grant - $17M awarded to INDEPTH directly
• 2007
– Second Executive Director appointed (Osman Sankoh)
• 2008
– Second major grant - $26.8M awarded to INDEPTH
directly

13. Activities – capacity strengthening and training
13
Focused on Merging &
Analyzing HDSS Data
• iSHARE2, OpenHDS
• Cause of Death
• Mortality Analysis
Focused on Capacity
Strengthening
• Social Science
• Scientific Development and
Leadership Programme –
MSc Fellowships
Investigating Important
Scientific/Practice Questions
• Universal
Health
Coverage
• Maternal &
Newborn
Health
• Migration &
Urbanisation
• Vaccination
and Child
Survival
• Adult Health
and Aging
• Environment
and Health
• Healthy
Transitions
into
Adulthood
• Indoor Air
Pollution

14. Expanding Footprint of HDSS
3,500,000
3,000,000
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Number of Lives Under
Surveillance (Line)
Number of Sites (Bar)
Year
14

15. 15

16. Annual General Meeting / INDEPTH Scientific Conference
Partnerships / Collaborations
(Universities)
Funding line
Reporting line
WG
Funders
Funders
Board
Secretariat
SAC
Funders
WG
PROJECTS
WORKING GROUPS
WG
Working Groups
HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS HDSS
Membership
Criteria
Governance Structure

17. Sustainability
42 Research Centres – 49 Field Sites
1. University Research – 21
2. Long-term National/International
Collaborations (IRD, Senegal; Wellcome
Trust/KEMRI, CDC/KEMRI, Kenya) – 12
3. Ministry of Health – 9
Funding for HDSS work: Core / Project
17

18. 18
Current Core Support Funders of
INDEPTH