INDEPTH NEWS BULLETIN

No.8, March 2002

In this edition:
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR APPOINTED
The Board of Trustees of the INDEPTH Network has appointed Professor Fred Binka as the Executive Director of the Network's Secretariat in Accra, Ghana. The Secretariat is the permanent executive body of the INDEPTH Network. Professor Binka will lead a team that will include a Communications and External Relations Manager, an IT Manager, a Finance Manager and Administrative Assistant(s).

The main responsibilities of the Secretariat are to:

  • Identify key health and social issues and questions that need to be investigated;
  • Maintain donor relations and generate funding for network-level studies and evaluations;
  • Efficiently co-ordinate and support the conduct of network studies and evaluations;
  • Publish and disseminate results to impact health and social policy and practice;
  • Promote DSS and its capabilities; and
  • Position INDEPTH among regional and international institutions

Until his appointment, Professor Binka was the Co-ordinator of the Secretariat, a role he was asked to perform by the Board of Trustees after his two-year term of office as Founding Chair of the outgoing INDEPTH Co-ordinating Committee ended in January this year.

Fred Binka became an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana in 2001. The following is a selection of previous positions held by him: Public Health Specialist, Ministry of Health on secondment to the School of Public Health, University of Ghana; Medical Officer, Roll Back Malaria, World Health Organisation, Geneva; Director, Navrongo Health Research Centre. Ministry of Health, Navrongo; Epidemiologist and Head of Fieldwork, Ghana Vitamin A Supplementation Trials; General Duty Medical Officer, Liberty Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Nigeria; and General Duty Medical Officer, Ministry of Health, Ho, Ghana.

From 1996-1998, Professor Binka was a member of the National Malaria Advisory Committee that was set up to advise the Minister of Health on all matters related to Malaria control in Ghana. From 1994-1999, he was Honorary Research Fellow in epidemiology and population sciences at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He has served in various key committees of the World Health Organisation (WHO) including the following: Member, WHO Tropical Disease Research Task force on the Integrated Management of the Sick Child, Malaria; Member, WHO Tropical Disease Research Task force on Research Capability Strengthening; Chairperson, WHO Tropical Disease Research Task force on Malaria and Health Sector Reform; Chairperson, Multilateral Initiative of Malaria and WHO/TDR Task Force on capacity strengthening in Africa; and Member WHO/TDR, Steering Committee on Proof of Principle (PoP) and Steering Committee on Implementation Research (IR).

Professor Binka has also served in several committees of other international NGOs. To name a few examples: Member, International Advisory Committee, PATH CANADA; Member, Board of Directors, African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) Nairobi, Kenya; and Member, Research & Development Task Force, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI). He is a founding member of the international network “Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa (MARA)”, which is composed of malaria scientists working to create a continental malaria risk map for Africa. Secretariat based in MRC-Durban, South Africa.

Dr. Binka was the first recipient of Rudolf Geigy Award 2001 for excellence in science and for dedication and outstanding contributions to malaria control and health development in Africa. It was awarded by the R. Geigy Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. Fred Binka received his medical degree, an MB. ChB with a credit in community health from the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana in 1978 and an MPH with distinction from The Hebrew University, Jarusalem, Israel in 1988. In 1997 he received his PhD in epidemiology with a summa cum laude from the University of Basel in Switzerland. Fred Newton Binka was born in 1953 in Ghana. He is married with children.

THE INDEPTH NETWORK MEETS WITH DONORS IN LONDON

On March 4-5, 2002 the INDEPTH Network organised a donor meeting at The Wellcome Trust Building in Euston, London, UK. The meeting was graciously hosted by The Wellcome Trust, UK.

Representatives from the following donor agencies attended the meeting: The Wellcome Trust, the Rockefeller Foundation, SIDA/SAREC, WHO, European Union, Population Council, MRC, USAID, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Novartis Foundation, DFID, CHIRON and IDRC.

Other participants were representatives from academic and research institutions, the INDEPTH Board of Trustees and support staff, and members of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The title of the meeting was "Bridging the Gap: Taking the INDEPTH Network Forward". The Network presented its new structure to participants and emphasis was laid on the achievements the Network has made so far. The main purpose of the meeting was to have a platform for the Network to dialogue with donors who have funded it, as well as to engage potential new donors in charting the Network's way forward.

In the first presentation, the focus of INDEPTH on health and social issues and on reducing cost and complexity of studies was discussed. The second presentation justified the INDEPTH Monograph Series entitled Population and Health in Developing Countries and presented the newly published Volume 1 entitled Population, Health and Survival at INDEPTH Sites, published in 2002 by the International Development and Research Center (IDRC) in Ottawa, Canada. A summary of the key new research findings in the monograph based on 22 participating sites was presented. These included the seven new mortality patterns, six of which are based on Africa alone.

The Malaria Transmission Intensity and Mortality Burden Across Africa (MTIMBA) project was discussed in the third presentation as a further example of the achievements of the INDEPTH Network. In the fourth presentation, the INDEPTH Health Equity project was discussed. The presentation highlighted the efforts of the Network in the health equity research area. The final presentation concentrated on the new INDEPTH Strategic Plan, dealing with three key issues: 1) INDEPTH planning studies in high impact priority areas; 2) INDEPTH is advantaged in launching studies for donors, policy makers and other partners; and 3) The new INDEPTH governance and infrastructure will further improve efficiency and effectiveness.

INDEPTH Secretariat
P.O. Box GP14550 Accra
Accra, Ghana

Tel/fax (+233)21 254 752,

e-mail: indepth@africaonline.com.gh


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