2014 Annual Report Championing Evidence Use Changing Lives

Abstract

2014, the halfway mark of our 2012-2016 Strategic Plan, was a time for taking stock and reenergizing our efforts towards what we set out to achieve three years ago. We maintained our focus on the Center’s three core mandates: evidence generation, engaging policy and other decision makers with research evidence to drive change, and building the capacity of institutions and individuals across Africa to conduct sound and policy-relevant research. I am proud to report steady achievements in each of these core areas of work. Our notable programmatic achievements include publishing a record 180 peer-reviewed papers by our staff and fellows in our capacity strengthening initiatives and the successful launch of five technical reports. During the year, we also established and launched the APHRC micro-data portal that provides the wider public access to archived data sets from the Center’s research over the last ten years. We continued to influence programmatic and policy decisions and discourse at national, regional and global level. The year also saw us graduate the very first cohort of fellows of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) Program. In 2014, we had more achievements linked to our strategic objectives on expanding our regional reach and using biomedical approaches to address pertinent public health issues. Our research programs expanded to three new countries, and the number of multi-country research projects increased. Notably, our policy engagement and communications work expanded substantially to include multi-country policy outreach projects and vastly expanded regional networks to support evidence-based change. The Center also opened its very first laboratory as a first step towards strengthening our capacity in biomedical approaches to research. As the Center considers its next growth phase, plans for the second phase development of the APHRC Campus got a boost with the acquisition of an additional 3.1 acres of land next to our headquarters. The second phase development will include training and residential facilities to be used by our expanding research capacity strengthening initiatives. The development, once completed, will also significantly enhance the Center’s unrestricted funding base. The achievements in 2014 would not have been possible without every single one of our staff, partners and funders. I want to thank you very much for your continued support in our quest to improve the lives of Africans through policies and practices informed by robust scientific evidence.