Volume 07| July 31, 2018
News & Updates
CARTA trains 60 faculty and administrators in annual workshop in Malawi
 
Sixty Faculty and Administrators staff from eight African partner institutions with skills that will make them more responsive to and supportive of research, research training, doctoral and postdoctoral fellows.
 
The three-day training at the College of Medicine, University of Malawi ran from July 16-18, 2018 . To date, nearly 630 administrators have been trained in the annual workshops. The opening ceremony was graced by Malawi’s Secretary of Education, Justin Saidi and the University of Malawi Vice-Chancellor Prof John Kalenga Saka ( pictured on the right ) .
 
The FAS Workshop, in its eighth year, is a forum for the staff (including junior and senior staff, librarians, deans of postgraduate schools, finance officers, research managers, registrars, IT managers, public relations and communication officers) to discuss ways to strengthen the training of the doctoral fellows while at the same time reinforce the capacity of the institutions within the consortium.
 
The Malawian Newspaper, The Nation , r eported the discussion from the workshop here. More details and photos on the workshop here .
World Breastfeeding Week 2018

The World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from August 1-7 to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world.

Breastfeeding, says the World Health Organisation, is the best way to provide infants with the nutrients they need.

CARTA Cohort Four fellow Sara Nieuwoudt from the University of the Witwatersrand has published a paper titled: Frontline health workers and exclusive breastfeeding guidelines in an HIV endemic South African community: A qualitative exploration of policy translation. Attached here is an infographic that summarizes the paper by unpacking some key issues around breastfeeding practices and policies in South Africa.

Institutional Postgraduate Supervision Workshop in Malawi

CARTA in partnership with the Africa Center of Excellence in Public Health and Herbal Medicine (ACEPHEM) of the University of Malawi brought together 65 participants from Malawi, Kenya and Zambia for the Institutional-based Supervision Workshop in Malawi.
The five-day hands-on and interactive training from July 23-27, 2018 provided a platform to discuss the status of research and doctoral training in Africa.

The workshop was led by five facilitators—Peter Ngure (CARTA), Florah Karimi (CARTA), David Kariuki (University of Nairobi, Bernard Thole (University of Malawi), Lydia Njenga (University of Nairobi), Adamson Muula (University of Malawi), and Ademola Ajuwon (University of Ibadan). More details here about the second such workshop on capacity building for postgraduate supervisors .
CARTA makes presentation on the program at the 3rd Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa Annual Grantees Meeting that was jointly organised by the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the DELTAS Africa Sub-Saharan African Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics training program at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. 

The meeting was part of the DELTAS Africa Midterm Evaluation exercise, as opposed to an exclusive DELTAS Fellows conference as had been initially anticipated. The DELTAS Fellows conference will now take place in 2019. This year’s theme was ‘ The view from halfway .’
CARTA Cohort five fellow Felix Khuluza from the University of Malawi has been appointed by the State President of Malawi Arthur Peter Mutharika to the National Board of Directors of Pharmacy Medicines and Poisons Board (PMPB). Read about the appointment that was announced on July 13.


Two Cohort Eight Fellows Christine Minoo Mbindyo and Getrude Shepelo Peter from the University of Nairobi were among 100 participants from 22 different countries who attended the 31st annual residential summer course in epidemiology from June 11 to July 6 in Italy.
The four-week long residential course consisted of one week of the pre-course and three weeks of the main course. They share their experiences in this article .


Cohort Eight Fellow Samuel Mwaniki from the University of Nairobi participated in a three-day intensive course on the basic knowledge about diagnosis, management and research in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The one-week course in Bertinoro, Italy from June 12-25, 2018 was a stimulating opportunity to interact with faculty drawn from world renowned STI research and practice leaders, and thus the privilege to learn from the best in the field.



Cohort Five Fellow Jepchirchir Kiplagat research quoted in article in Kenya’s HealthyNation magazine of the Daily Nation on the need to include older people in HIV services given that the population of people with HIV is steadily growing older, due to the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy. 
The Joint Advanced Seminar (JAS) 3 for Cohort Six fellows is currently ongoing at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria ( photo on the left taken on during the opening day on July 30 ) The month long JAS ends on August 24, 2018.




CARTA graduates Francis Fagbamigbe Adeniyi (Cohort Two) and Charles Drago Kato (Cohort Three) will attend the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) Affiliates Conference , to be held in the United Kingdom from August 6-8, 2018.
The 2019 Rolex Awards for Enterprise . It supports and celebrates individuals whose ground-breaking and impactful projects are helping to expand knowledge of our world and improve the quality of life on the planet. We are looking for visionaries with world-changing ideas in the areas of applied science and technology, exploration and the environment. Send your nominations to rolexawards@rolex.com by Friday, August 10, 2018. More information on how to apply/nominate someone click here .

DFID-supported GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian innovation fund is open. More details here.

For other opportunities check the CARTA website
Share with us any news and updates such as published papers, policy briefs, community engagement activities, scholarships, won a grant, attending or about an upcoming conference, a call for applications/funding/papers. Share before August 16, 2018 to be included in the next CARTA news & updates.