CISMAC partners

Pakistan
 

Aga Khan University is a unique hybrid: an institution of academic excellence that is also an agent for social development. With campuses in 6 countries spanning 3 continents, the University is a leading source of medical, nursing and teacher education, research and public service in the developing world, which prepares men and women to lead change in their societies and to thrive in the global economy.

In the field of maternal and child health, the University’s researchers have contributed to influential global research series on newborn survival, stillbirths, pneumonia and diarrhoea, adolescent health and malnutrition. Beyond research, the University has also broken new ground by applying scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective community interventions that demonstrate how mother and child health can be improved in remote, rural areas.

Through its Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, the University serves as a platform for exchange of ideas, development of innovative research and training programmes, and an advocate of evidence-based programmes that will help the developing world meet key commitments under the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. 
www.aku.edu/

Ethiopia
 

The School of Public Health (SPH) works towards advancing knowledge in public health that will contribute to the improvement of the health of individuals and populations in Ethiopia, East Africa and beyond.  It is dedicated to the training of health professionals in public health; to the discovery, application and dissemination of new knowledge; and to the promotion of health and prevention of disease in communities and populations, in collaboration with governmental, non-governmental and international agencies. Many national and international institutions such as John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of Bergen, Harvard School of Public Health and the United Nation Population Fund chooses to associate with SPH because of the experience of mutual learning through collaborative research and training.  As a pioneer in public health training in Ethiopia SPH attracts students from all over the country and provides them with hands-on experience in public health principles and practice. The first PhD Public Health training programme in Ethiopia was launched at the School in 2003. The SPH research is focused on health problems of major importance, such as sexual and reproductive health, child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and environmental health.
www.aau.edu.et

Norway
 

Improving health outcomes for the poor and vulnerable is crucial for human development and for the promotion of social justice. Knowledge and technology that may substantially improve the health conditions of poor populations are widely available. The main challenge is timely delivery of quality services to those who in need. There remain enormous obstacles to implementing health systems that deliver quality services, as well as being able to overcome the economic and social factors that are determinants for poor health and barriers to care.

CMI has a strong record of research and policy advice in low and middle income countries. CMI competencies are based in the social sciences; studying health systems and focusing on health service delivery. Its inputs to CISMAC will mainly be in the areas of behavioural economics and measurements of the economic outcomes of interventions. In addition, it will contribute to highlighting such areas as health worker performance, health worker motivation and demands for health services.
www.cmi.no

Ethiopia

The School of Public and Environmental Health at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences of Hawassa University in Ethiopia has an extensive experience in operational research of national priorities, client satisfaction surveys, quality of care assessments and public health interventions. As part of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, it contributes to the work of the teaching at the referral hospital in the South of Ethiopia that serves more than 12 million people. The College has years of experience in collaborating with national and international institutions and currently collaborates with WHO, CDC, USAID and UNFPA as well as a series of universities and NGOs within and outside the country.
https://www.hu.edu.et/

Norway

Innlandet Hospital is one of the largest hospital trusts in Norway and consists of 10 divisions with health services over 41 sites in the counties of Hedmark and Oppland. It has six somatic and two psychiatric hospitals. Across these hospitals, decentralized services of both psychiatric and somatic illnesses can be found. Maternal and child health have been among the main research priorities of this institution. The pediatric epidemiology group with extensive experience in observational and interventional epidemiology will participate in various CISMAC projects, particularly those which is carried out in India and Nepal. 
www.sykehuset-innlandet.no

Uganda

By being a leading and transformational institution for academic excellence and innovation in health sciences in Africa, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, aims to improve the health of the people of Uganda through innovative teaching, research and provision of services responsive to societal needs. It is the oldest medical training unit in East Africa; having trained medical and health professionals for over 80 years. It also has a strong background and competency in the conceptualization and undertaking of randomized controlled trials pertaining to nutrition and infectious diseases in Africa. The clinical teaching disciplines of the College of Health Sciences are currently integrated with the Mulago Hospital.
mak.ac.ug

Norway

The vision of NIPH is to improve public health. It has a strong background and competency in public health surveillance and monitoring. It acts as a national competency institution on issues related to forensic science, physical and mental health, prevention of communicable diseases and prevention of harmful environmental influences. It collaborates with the WHO, EU, EEA and national health authorities in and outside of Norway including in low- and middle-income countries on global health issues.
www.fhi.no

India

The Centre for Health Research and Development, Society for Applied Studies (CHRD-SAS, ), with research as a full time preoccupation, focuses on prevention of diseases, deficiencies and disabilities of public health importance  with special emphasis on newborns, children and mothers through large intervention trials, impact assessment of interventions, exploratory research around proof of concept and policy research. It is amongst the few groups in India that conduct community-based or cohort studies with large sample sizes (largest almost 100,000 children under two years of age followed up for one year) in the urban resettlement neighborhoods of South Delhi, and Faridabad and Palwal districts of Haryana. It has skills and experience in regulatory aspects of product development, post marketing surveillance and large scale project management.  CHRD-SAS investigators have made globally recognized scientific contributions and are well known for their capabilities in community health, nutrition, cognition, epidemiology, social science, infectious diseases, population based clinical research and cohort studies, advanced data management and biostatistics, and technology evaluation and diffusion. CHRD-SAS has a data management centre which is consistent with ICH-GCP and FDA requirements and has cleared an audit to conduct data management of phase III vaccine trials.

sas.org.in

India

Established in 2009, the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), aims to fast-track health care solutions that will meet the needs of rapidly developing and transitioning India. It aims to improve the health of the most disadvantaged. THSTI forms a pivotal node in a broader cluster of institutes, which specialize in translational research. The synergy engendered by the cluster creates a unique institutional ecosystem where multidisciplinary research can be conducted, and ultimately translated to targeted medical innovations that will improve public health.

THSTI has a strong background and competency as an interdisciplinary research centre where research on the biological basis of childhood health and disease leads to knowledge-driven interventions and technologies that can be sustainably implemented. The Paediatric Biology Centre (PBC) is the THSTI entity CISMAC will collaborate with for a trial to measure the efficacy of zinc in young infants with serious bacterial infections.
www.thsti.res.in

Nepal

The Department of Child Health (DCH) at the Institute of Medicine, University of Tribhuvan, has a strong background and competency in intervention research, with a special emphasis on maternal and child health. It strongly supports the CISMAC goal of merging estimation of the impact of health interventions with postgraduate training. Participation in CISMAC will enable DCH to continue expanding its 17-year collaboration with the CIH, training postgraduates in international health as well as in intervention research and their clinical and epidemiological methods. The CISMAC collaboration will strengthen the University’s and country’s academic development as well as encourage the implementation of health programmes aimed at improving maternal and child health.
tribhuvan-university.edu.np

Norway

The Centre for International Health (CIH) is a centre at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Bergen that aims to initiate and foster education and research relevant to important health problems in LMICs. It holds a leading position in Scandinavia in international and global health. The centre conducts research in a variety of areas such as maternal and child health and nutrition, HIV infection, tuberculosis, reproductive health and malaria, and is also involved in vaccine development for important infectious diseases. Fourteen professors as well as 53 postdoctoral fellows and PhD students are presently employed at CIH. Capacity strengthening linked to research projects African and Asian countries is a high priority for the centre.
www.uib.no/en

South Africa

A vibrant, equitable and sustainable African university, the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, aims to provide high-quality, international-level education and research that will contribute  to the advancement of knowledge, which is both socially and ethically relevant, and which can be applied to the scientific, technological and social- economic development of South Africa and the wider world.

The Effective Care Research Unit (ECRU) at the University of Fort Hare and linked to the University of the Witwatersrand and Eastern Cape Department of Health has a strong background and competency in randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based health care to improve maternal health in South Africa and beyond. Based in a hospital complex, ECRU has access to a large population base and facilities for participating in major clinical trials.
www.ufh.ac.za

Zambia

The School of Medicine (SOM) at the University of Zambia aims to provide excellent tertiary education and training in health sciences in order to address current and emerging health needs. The Department of Public Health at the SOM has a strong background and competency in public health and epidemiology, and the Department’s Zambia Core Epidemiology research group has been involved in intervention research and health policy research for the last 10 years, in close collaboration with the CIH. The Department is very keen to further expand this collaborations with via CISMAC in the field of intervention research. The aim is to generate knowledge and provide evidence that can influence policy and contribute to the welfare of the Zambian people. Through this collaborative work under CISMAC, the research group would like to contribute to the country’s efforts in reducing the disease burden, especially that of mothers, newborns, children and adolescents. It also strongly supports CISMAC’s approach of merging excellent science with careful measurements of health intervention impacts and linking these research activities closely with postgraduate training.
www.unza.zm

Switzerland

The Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (MCA) leads the WHO’s efforts to improve the health of these population groups.  MCA promotes and supports research, and focuses on developing, evaluating and delivering interventions that reduce the disease burden of mothers and young children in LMIC.  The work with CISMAC expands and consolidates MCA’s long-standing collaboration with the CIH and provides MCA with an additional opportunity to promote intervention research led by LMIC institutions and strengthen these institutions’ ability to conduct high quality studies to improve maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/en