Current Organisation

University of Yaounde 1

Current Job Title

PhD Student

Biography

Project Title

Strengthening Gender Capacity in Clinical Research within CANTAM Network (WISE)

EDCTP Project Call

Female PhD Fellowships

Host Organisation

Project Objectives

Contribute to the generation of a critical mass of skilled female clinical researchers in Central Africa institutions by developing a well structured program based on solid results.

Study Design

The PhD fellowship program will be set on 3 pillars based on strong regional and international collaborations and solid networking; Research work (field and lab work), Training platform and Mentorship

Project Summary

In Africa, a huge burden of communicable infectious diseases is still observed despite the increasing efforts of prevention and treatment. Since 2009, the CANTAM network while developing clinical research capacities in Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Republic of Congo (RoC) has always taken into account the under-representation of women in health research. Thus, from the beginning, a policy for specific recruitment of female students and scientists has been set up. To date, the steering committee includes three women and three men and CANTAM 1 and 2 have succeeded in training a total of 9 PhD females. However, in 2014, CANTAM network decided to develop a new strategy to increase the pool of female scientists and initiated a pilot project entitled "Women and Science" whose main objective was to promote “Girls in science” in local schools, to revise the negative stereotypes on female scientists and to establish a career development fellowship for female post-docs in Central Africa. The current health crisis due to COVID19 pandemic highlighted deficiencies of African health systems in managing outbreaks and the crucial needs for a pool of skilled female Ph.D scientists in clinical research in collaboration with the Ministries of Public Health, as well as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa. Therefore, CANTAM under the PhD programme WISE, aims at filling some discipline gaps in the Central region by: 1) Supporting 5 PhDs and 12 MSC in health sciences with a strong focus on immunology in order to fill in the regional gap in this discipline. 2) Strengthening the mentorship program for women scientists in Central Africa 3) Promoting the contribution of Women in health science in all CANTAM countries in collaboration with national decision-makers 4) Providing epidemiological data necessary for future clinical trials in the region .In order to achieve these objectives, a transparent and competitive candidate selection procedure will be set up, a call for applications will be spread through the CANTAM online system and other means in all Central Africa countries including Chad and Central African Republic. This ambitious project will be conducted using complementary competences of regional and international partners from Germany, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. At the end of the four-year period, CANTAM expects to have new research groups led by former female trainees established in Cameroon, RoC, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon and DRC.