CALL FOR APPLICATION FOR A SHORT TERM CERTIFICATE COURSE ON IMPROVING POLICIES AND PROGRAMS FOR PREVENTING MATERNAL MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA.

 

The Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI) is a World Bank supported program at the University of Benin aimed at building capacity within West and Central Africa’s tertiary educational system for implementing high quality training and applied research for reproductive health professions to tackle policies and programs for reducing the region’s high burden of fertility, unsafe abortion, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS.This program is being implemented by the University of Benin in collaboration with partner institutions – the University of Ibadan, the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), the University of Ghana, the University of Cotonou (Republic of Benin), the University of Niger, Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Maryland and the University of Toronto. 

 

As part of its mandate, the Centre calls for applications from Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies in West and Central Africa for admission of appropriate in-service personnel into a 2-week Certificate Course on Improving Policies and Programs for Preventing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in the Region.

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the course are in four folds:

To update the knowledge of participants on trends in maternal morbidity and mortality in the region, and its social and medical determinants.

To build the knowledge and capacity of participants on appropriate policies and new interventions for preventing maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide, with implications for the West and Central African region.

To provide examples of successful programs for preventing maternal morbidity and mortality in Africa that can be taken up by responsible Departments and Agencies in the region;

4) To assist participants to develop concept papers for improving policies and programs for maternal mortality prevention in their communities of interest – with the idea to assist participants in expanding the concept papers into full scale fundable and implementable proposals on their return to their places of work.

 

WHO SHOULD APPLY

We strongly advice that Course Applicants should be those currently working on promoting maternal health in public and private sectors in countries in West and Central African region. Ideally, applicants should be cohorts (teams) from Federal, States, Local or regional government organizations and should comprise a public sector maternal health provider or director, a private sector provider/implementer, a policymaker (responsible for guiding policies on maternal health), a Nurse/Midwife and an NGO staff working on maternal mortality prevention in a defined area. Individuals with interest in maternal health research and programming, desirous to increase their knowledge and skills on preventing maternal morbidity and mortality are also encouraged to apply.

 

WORKSHOP DATES

The workshop dates are September 28 to October 9, 2015. Arrival is September 27, while Departure is October 10, 2015. 

 

METHOD OF APPLICATION

Applications with names of nominees and their current portfolios should be forwarded to the Desk Officer of CERHI on or before September 20, 2015. Applications should include the CV of the nominees, and a one-page short description of the maternal mortality challenge that exists in the focal area of the participants to be addressed during the workshop. All applications should be returned with a bank draft for N50, 000 ($300.0) being the workshop fee (excluding accommodation, feeding and other incidentals) drawn in favour of “Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation, CERHI”.

 

Applications should be submitted in triplicates to:

Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI)

C/o Deputy Registrar, School of Postgraduate Studies

University of Benin, 

Ugbowo Campus, Benin City. Nigeria

 

Professor J.U.E. Onakewhor

Centre Project Coordinator