African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya.
Glob Health Action. 2010 Nov 12;3. doi: 10.3402/gha.v3i0.5693.
Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence that can generate a strong evidence base to address the region's socio-economic and health problems.
We describe the recently launched Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), which brings together a network of nine academic and four research institutions from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa, and select northern universities and training institutes. CARTA's program of activities comprises two primary, interrelated, and mutually reinforcing objectives: to strengthen research infrastructure and capacity at African universities; and to support doctoral training through the creation of a collaborative doctoral training program in population and public health. The ultimate goal of CARTA is to build local research capacity to understand the determinants of population health and effectively intervene to improve health outcomes and health systems.
CARTA's focus on the local production of networked and high-skilled researchers committed to working in sub-Saharan Africa, and on the concomitant increase in local research and training capacity of African universities and research institutes addresses the inability of existing programs to create a critical mass of well-trained and networked researchers across the continent. The initiative's goal of strengthening human resources and university-wide systems critical to the success and sustainability of research productivity in public and population health will rejuvenate institutional teaching, research, and administrative systems.
在全球范围内，撒哈拉以南非洲承受着最大的疾病负担。加强研究能力，了解不同非洲人群的健康社会决定因素，是解决健康不良驱动因素和制定干预措施以改善该地区健康结果和卫生系统的关键。然而，非洲显然缺乏卓越的研究中心，无法为解决该地区的社会经济和健康问题提供坚实的证据基础。
我们描述了最近启动的非洲高级研究培训联盟（CARTA），该联盟汇集了来自西非、东非、中非和南非的九所学术机构和四所研究机构，以及一些北部大学和培训机构。CARTA 的活动计划包括两个主要的、相互关联且相互加强的目标：加强非洲大学的研究基础设施和能力；通过创建一个人口与公共卫生合作博士培训计划，支持博士培训。CARTA 的最终目标是建立本地研究能力，以了解人口健康的决定因素，并有效地进行干预，以改善健康结果和卫生系统。
CARTA 专注于在撒哈拉以南非洲培养致力于网络研究和高技能研究人员，同时增加非洲大学和研究机构的本地研究和培训能力，解决了现有计划无法在整个非洲大陆培养大量训练有素且网络健全的研究人员的问题。该倡议的目标是加强人力资源和对大学研究生产力至关重要的系统，这将振兴机构的教学、研究和行政系统。
