UC Berkeley Global Research Training in Population and Health in Nigeria

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The proposed training program will enhance the capacity of two key departments at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, northern Nigeria, to carry out applied research in Population Health. ABU is the premiere university and main center for medical specialty training in northern Nigeria. Selected lecturers, researchers, and students at ABU's Departments of Public Health and of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (OB- GYN) will be trained and mentored by UC Berkeley faculty and distinguished professors from northern Nigeria. The long term objective of this five year effort is to create and maintain the Center for Population and Health Research (CPHR) at Ahmadu Bello University. Our intermediate objectives are to: 1) strengthen the population component of the ABU Master's Program in Public Health; 2) assist ABU meet its goal of offering a Ph.D. in Public Health; 3) enhance the research skills of investigatorsat the Department of OB- GYN; and 4) increase multidisciplinary collaboration between ABU and the UC Berkeley (UCB). We propose to meet these objectives - andthus confront the health and demographic problems inthe region - by carrying out the following activities: 1) organize and teach advanced short courses ontopics related to population and health research; 2) provide a scholarship to an ABU faculty member for Ph.D. studies in Public Health/Demography at Ibadan University, Nigeria; 3) train several cohorts of postdoctoral researchers at ABU; 4) organize visits by Nigerian trainees to UCB for mentoring and technical support; and 5) fund, promote, and mentor collaborative research between the two campuses. UCB faculty will give short courses on population and health designed for faculty, doctoral, and postdoctoral trainees at ABU. These will be intensive two week courses on biostatistics, demographic analysis, epidemiology, applied quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, and research ethics. UCB faculty will serve as mentors to trainees as they carry out collaborative research. During the final stages of their data analysis the trainees will be invited to the UC Berkeley campus as visiting scholars. This training program will greatly enhance ABU's capacity to carry out applied population health research and thus have lasting impact on efforts to extend access to quality family planning and reproductive health services to underserved populations across northern Nigeria.