The Executive Director of the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health in Developing Countries (INDEPTH), has underlined the need for the training of more scientists in developing countries to transform their poor and emerging economies.

Dr Osmah Sankoh said developing countries needed a crop of scientists who could understand the intricacies of their development challenges and ensure better health and well-being of the people.

Making the call in a report he presented on the network on behalf of the Board of Directors of INDEPTH at its annual general and scientific meeting (AGSM) in Pune, India, on Wednesday, Dr Sankoh charged senior scientists in the developing countries to mentor young ones to build their capacities.

The AGSM, which is on the theme: “Poverty, Health and Demographic Dynamics-Evidence from South-South Collaboration” and being hosted by the Vadu and Ballargarh Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites (HDSS) in India, brought together senior scientists, researchers, data and field officers as well as 22 young scientists from countries in Africa, Asia and the Oceania, where INDEPTH’s HDSS are located.

According to Dr Sankoh, mentoring from senior colleagues helped build the confidence of younger ones who, with time, would also become experts in their fields of work.

He said INDEPTH was currently involved in a number of health-related projects. He named some of the projects to include Adult Health and Ageing, Malarial Control and Trial Alliance (MCTA), Vaccination and Child Survival, the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies (INESS) of antimalarial, Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Others are Anti-retroviral roll-out study, Study on Epilepsy, Demographic and Health Transitions in developing countries, Mortality Analysis, Social Autopsy, Cost of Illness, Monographs on Fertility Levels and Trends and Mortality Levels, Patterns and Trends.

He said the network would in future research into health systems, tuberculosis, antibiotic resistance, typhoid surveillance and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a disease caused by pollution and is said to be the fourth major cause of death in the world.

He said in 2008, INDEPTH introduced a fellowship programme under its HDSS-Universities collaboration where four fellows were posted under the programme to sites in Nairobi and South Africa and the Dodowa and Kintampo sites in Ghana.

“All four fellows have completed their fellowship year and have been offered permanent employment by the sites,” he said, adding that the programme would be expanded to three other sites.

According to him, as part of a collaborative effort, the network was linking local universities to HDSS sites and linking HDSS sites to national statistical systems, as well as integrating HDSS into comprehensive National Health Information Systems.

As a way forward, Dr Sankoh called on all members of the network to contribute to translating research findings into policy changes at the various levels.

The Board Chairman of the network, Dr Seth Owusu Agyei, who is also the Director of the Kintampo Health Research Centre, earlier launched a book on Migration and Urbanisation: The dynamics of migration, health and livelihoods: INDEPTH Network perspective.

He also launched a supplement on Non-Communicable Disease: Prevalence of physical inactivity in nine health and demographic surveillance systems in Asia.

In an election held later, Dr Seth Owusu Agyei from Ghana retained his position as Board Chairman while Dr Peter Aaby from Guinea Bissau, Dr Ali Sie from Burkina Faso, Dr Honorati Masanja from Tanzania and Dr Sanjay Juvekar from India were appointed to the Board.

Members who were retained are Dr Kayla Laserson from Kenya, Dr Cheikh Mbacke from Senegal, Dr Andreas Heddini from Sweden and Dr Osmah Sankoh, the Executive Director of the Network.

Source: Daily Graphic - Daily Graphic