The Last Mile

After a brief hiatus, iCHORDS is excited to kick off a new podcast episode with the announcement of the iCHORDS Africa University Chapters!

Join Dr. Alison Krentel for a relaxed conversation with Martha Mberu, the newly appointed Regional Manager for Africa. In this episode, we introduce the new iCHORDS Africa chapters and hear directly from Martha about her vision for the chapters.

Listen to Martha as she shares her thoughts on the importance of engaging youth in the fight to eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), as well as her perspective on the future and potential of the university chapters.

Tune in for this exciting first look at the iCHORDS Africa Chapter and the person helping shape its future!

Economic terms such as effectiveness and efficiency are often used when evaluating programs, but what do these terms really mean? Tune in to hear Dr. McFarland from Emory University, and Dr. Dalaba from the University of Health and Allied Sciences, as they discuss the role that public health economics has in the fight against NTDs.

A full bio for Dr. McFarland can be found here.

A full bio for Dr. Dalaba can be found here.

Join Dr. Margaret baker, Dr. Beth Sutherland and Dr. Gemma Aellah to learn about the value and utility of qualitative research methods to enhance MDA.

The guide featured in the podcast can be found by following the link: https://www.ntdtoolbox.org/toolbox-search/guide-improving-mda-using-qualitative-methods

Speaker bios:

Gem Aellah is Research Fellow in Health and Social Science in the Global Health and Infection Department at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK. Gem is part of the  Social Science for Severe Stigmatizing Skin Neglected Tropical Diseases Foundation, a collaborative NIHR-funded research partnership across UK, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sudan, aiming to end the neglect of three skin-NTDs, podoconiosis, mycetoma and scabies, through bringing the social sciences to bear on these conditions. Gem has a broad-based social science background and takes a practical anthropological approach, bringing social science on pressing global health issues together with creative methods and outputs, spanning non-specialist and interdisciplinary audiences. Her current work uses anthropological methods to explore how skin-NTD policymaking happens. Previous work involved ethnography of everyday life within a Kenyan Health and Demographic surveillance site during scale up of HIV care and treatment. She is co-author of creative handbook of tools to help global health workers talk about uncomfortable ethical dilemmas when doing research and intervention across inequalities. Gem @jachunya

Elizabeth Sutherland received her doctorate in Maternal and Child Health from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked in program evaluation and implementation science research for more than 15 years and has worked in a wide variety of health areas. Dr. Sutherland is currently employed at RTI International, serving as the Evaluation and Research advisor for the Act to End NTDs | East project.

In this episode we hear from Geordie Woods from Sightsavers and Mack Giancola on how they used a participatory evaluation approach called: Outcome Harvesting to evaluate the Accelerate trachoma elimination programme.

Full speaker bios:

Mack Giancola has 15+ years of experience as an educator, public health leader, and evaluation consultant.  He specializes in participatory evaluation approaches like outcome harvesting by combining qualitative and quantitative approaches with facilitation and sense-making.  

 He is currently wrapping up his dissertation at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, School of Public Health Leadership. 

Geordie Woods is a technical advisor on neglected tropical diseases for Sightsavers, focusing on social and behavior change communication and the integration of water hygiene and sanitation programing into NTDs programs. He works with multiple organizations across these sectors, spearheading innovative partnerships. His areas of expertise include strategic communication design, mass media and community mobilization, and advocacy. Geordie was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea and worked subsequently for years in West Africa with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has an MPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Additional Resources:

Sightsaver's Accelerate trachoma elimination programme

Key facts on Trachoma from the WHO

Betterevaluation.org

This episode of the Last Mile Podcast will discuss how to conduct a successful focus group discussion with Dr. Doris Njomo from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Naomi Caplan and Dr. Mekuriaw Alemayehu from the NALA foundation.

Here you will find the link to the Beyond MDA report that is discussed in the podcast: https://www.nalafoundation.org/_files/ugd/50e284_2a0cef39ca2745c1a38fd3d16bc277a3.pdf

Here is a link to a quick guide on focus groups: https://www.ichords.org/ichords-research-methods-series-focus-group-discussion/

Full Speaker Bios:

Dr. Doris Njomo is a Principal Research Scientist in the area of social and behavioural studies at Kenya Medical Research Institute. Amongst other researchers, she has been conducting implementation research studies for Preventive Chemotherapy NTDs using mixed methods approach for over 15 years and has published several manuscripts and mentored postgraduate students on qualitative research methods.

Naomi Caplan is the Head of Learning & Innovation at NALA. Previously a teacher, her interest in addressing the root causes of poverty led her to pursue a career in public health. With an MSEd and MPH, she now oversees NALA’s educational arm, which includes designing assessments that inform, evaluate, and amplify the work.

Dr. Mekuriaw Alemayehu holds a PhD in public health, focused on visceral leishmaniasis and co-infection with HIV. He is currently a project manager for NALA Foundation as well as a postgraduate director and principal investigator of different projects at Gondar University in Ethiopia. Mekuriaw has 13 years of experience working with governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the WHO.

In this episode, we will be learning about Rapid Ethnography to get a better understanding of how this kind of research methodology can help us control and eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases. To help us navigate this topic, we have brought on two special guests, Dr. Padmalochan Biswal and Dr. Satyabrata Routray.

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iCHORDS Community of Practice is a platform for communication, collaboration and knowledge exchange within social and behavioural science research disciplines to address implementation gaps and current issues facing Neglected Tropical Disease programs. Given this, It is extremely important for iCHORDS to work together with other partners to understand challenges that are faced within communities so we as researchers can be responsive to needs.

Today we will be speaking to the Chair of Kikundi Leadership Council, a Community of Practice for NTD Program Managers in Africa - to learn more about some of the dynamic needs program managers are facing in the field.

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Health campaigns are defined as time-bound, intermittent activities that deal with particular epidemiologic challenges, quickly close delivery gaps or offer supplemental coverage for health initiatives. Integrating health campaigns can be used by programs and organizations to enable co-delivery and collaboration among public health efforts with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of several interventions. The notion of integration is especially salient in the WHO NTD 2021-2030 roadmap which emphasizes the need for cross-cutting approaches which include improving integration across NTD programs.

Given the importance of mass drug administration as a health campaign to control and eliminate some of the neglected tropical diseases, we set out to learn more about leveraging the power of campaign integration to improve NTD programs. In this episode, we speak to Mariana Sarmiento & Dr. Eva Bazant.

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Implementation Research (IR) is a systematic approach that recognizes, understands, and addresses implementation bottlenecks and identifies optimal approaches for implementing health interventions, strategies, and policies.

IR helps us improve our understanding of the challenges we face in the real world by enhancing our understanding of how real-world factors impact implementation. By doing so, IR sheds light on the intersection between what can be achieved in theory and what happens in practice.

Given the importance of IR as a tool to improve interventions in the neglected tropical diseases field, we set out to learn more about IR from Dr. Margaret Gyapong and Dr. Olumide Ogundahunsi.

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A request for proposal (RFP) is a document that announces a project, explains it, and invites eligible researchers or organizations to submit bids to complete it. Developing an effective research proposal to submit to the RFP, in public health and global health, is an essential step towards funding research initiatives.

Given the role of the proposal in outlining the steps that will be taken to answer a research question, we set out to guide our community towards some of the expectations of what makes a good research proposal. To help us navigate the do’s and don'ts of research proposals, we have brought on two special guests, Dr. John Amuasi (ARNTD) and Dr. Patrick Lammie (NTD-SC).

In this episode of The Last Mile podcast, you will:

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Links to the current request for proposals on COR-NTD:

1) New diagnostics for schistosomiasis monitoring and evaluation

2) Increasing Effectiveness of Delivery of Preventive Chemotherapy against NTDs