INTREC - INDEPTH Training & Research Centres of Excellence

Stakeholders' meeting in Accra, Ghana, 19-21 March, 2013

- Meeting programme

- Participant list

- Synthesis report

- Presentations

 

(click on photo to enlarge)

In setting the agenda for its next activities, INTREC held a three day international stakeholders meeting in Accra, Ghana, from the 19th-21st March at the Royal Richester Hotel. The meeting was hosted by the Secretariat of the INDEPTH Network in Accra. The theme was ‘‘strengthening research and policy on social determinants of health in low and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa.’’ Around fifty delegates attended the meeting, including academics from INTREC’s partner institutions in Europe and the USA, members of INTREC’s International Advisory Group (IAG), senior INDEPTH scientists and experts in the field of health policy and health research from seven African and Asian countries.

During the opening session, the Executive Director of INDEPTH, Prof. Osman Sankoh, welcomed all participants to Accra and gave a brief introductory presentation on the INDEPTH Network, informing the participants that the scientific vision of the Network was to generate robust scientific knowledge to guide evidence-based health and social policies and interventions at local, national and international levels. During his own welcome presentation, Prof. Peter Byass, Chairman of the INDEPTH Scientific Advisory Committee and Principal Investigator (PI) of the INTREC project, introduced the participants to the different partners of the INTREC collaboration, and he outlined the history and objectives of the project. In another presentation, Dr. Margaret Gyapong, leader of the Working Group on Social Science Research within the INDEPTH Network and also centre leader of the Dodowa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) site in Ghana, pointed out  that the INTREC project  could play an essential role in building the capacity of INDEPTH members to “analyze the wealth of data we collect within the various HDSS sites from a social science and SDH perspective.”

The theme of the second session was ”linking social determinants to health, health policy and health research”.  Prof. Lisa Berkman of Harvard University presented via video an overview of the social determinants of health approach and the  implications for global health research and policy. Other lively presentations in this session came from Prof. Pascale Allotey (IAG member from Malaysia), Dr YahyaIpuge (Ifkara Health Institute, Tanzania), and Prof. Charles Surjadi (IAG member, Indonesia).

In session three INTREC social scientists from Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Vietnam presented reports of their the analyses of key SDH policy issues and available training opportunities for health researchers in their countries. Dr. Joke Haafkens from the University of Amsterdam presented the results of a training needs analysis that was conducted among INDEPTH scientists in 7 African and Asian countries. Dr John Kinsman from Umea University gave a presentation on the methodology used in the needs assessment studies. He also identified some of the over-arching findings from the situation analyses which must be taken into account in the development of the INTREC training programs.

In session 4, senior scientists from Africa (Dr. Cornelius Debpuur, Ghana), Asia (Prof. Laksono Trinantoro, Prof. Abdillah Ahsan and Prof. Yayi Suryo Probandari, Indonesia) and Europe (Prof. Anita Hardon, the Netherlands) gave examples of the type of policy relevant evidence that may be provided by studies on social determinants of health.

An important session was held on the proposed INTREC training program for INDEPTH scientists and other stakeholders. Dr. Anna Mirny from Harvard University, USA presented the training proposal, and a wide-ranging discussion followed.  Valuable suggestions were given regarding, for example, the content and the relevance of the proposed program for researchers in various countries.

In the final session Dr. Raman Preet  from Umea University officially launched the INTREC website.

As part of the planned activities, on 21 March, participants undertook a field trip to the village of Dodowa in the Greater Accra District of Ghana, in order to acquaint themselves with operations at the Health and Demographic Surveillance System site.

With this meeting in Accra, the INTREC consortium has made important steps forward, both in developing its capacity building programs and in creating wider international support for the implementation of those programs among desicion makers in the fields of health policy and education and other relevant stakholders.