The Africa Academy for Public Health (AAPH), a Tanzanian non-profit organization, conducted a five-day training on Health Research from October 21st to October 25th, 2024 at the CRDB Bank Plc Auditorium in Dar es Salaam.

The Research Capacity Building Initiative (RCBI) is a collaborative undertaking between Africa Academy for Public Health (AAPH) and various entities in the Government of Tanzania including the President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) Ministry’s Research and Publication Office. This training aligns with the National Research Agenda and the AAPH’s mission to advance public health priorities through research, capacity building, and knowledge translation. 

The initiative aims at enhancing health research skills among healthcare providers and managers at national and sub-national levels. Regional and Council Health Management Teams, for an example, are trained to identify priority health research areas, develop research proposals, conduct and manage ethical research, and ultimately make meaningful analysis and interpretation of health data.

The training aims to enhance the research capacity of health professionals in evidence-based decision-making and operational efficiency in health systems. Key areas covered include:

  • Understanding the purpose and operationalization of health research
  • Identifying priority health research areas at the council level
  • Developing health research proposals
  • Ethical principles in health research
  • Data collection, management, and analysis
  • Scientific report writing and dissemination

CRDB Bank Plc partnered with AAPH to host the first RCBI workshop at the Bank’s Headquarters’ Auditorium, setting off over 12,000,000 Tzs in cost. The five-days workshop attended by the Dar es Salaam Regional and Council Health Management Teams as well as the Police Medical Unit, Kilwa Road Police Regional Referral Hospital is a successful kick-off of the national agenda to boost research and health data use for health systems decision-making. This is a vivid demonstration of public-private partnerships’ impact in health systems’ strengthening by ensuring that healthcare professionals have capacity to contribute in informed public health strategies for improving our Tanzanian communities’ health outcomes.

Chief Guests included:

Dr. James Kengia – Coordinator Research and Publication – PO-RALG

Dr. Mohammed Mang’una – Regional Medical Officer – Dar es Salaam

Dr. Mary Mwanyika Sando – Chief Executive Officer at AAPH

Mr. Boma Raballa – Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) – CRDB

Mr. Mussa Kitambi – Director Corporate Banking – CRDB

ACP. Thomas Kawala – HIV and TB coordinator, Head Research, training and projects, from Police Medical Unit, Kilwa Road Police Regional Referral Hospital