INDEPTH Leadership Programme

The INDEPTH Leadership programme is a capacity development programme aimed at developing the next generation of scientists in the developing world. It is a two years MSc Programme in Population-based Field Epidemiology developed in collaboration with the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. The course focuses on five areas: epidemiology; biostatistics and data management; demography and other social sciences; information technologies for demographic and health surveillance; and leadership. The course takes two years with a substantial amount of field-based training component at three learning sites. The learning sites are Navrongo (Ghana), Africa Centre (South Africa) and Ifakara (Tanzania) HDSS sites.

The key objectives of the Scientific Development and Leadership Programme are:

1. To develop a genre of African scientists from INDEPTH sites and elsewhere through practical on-the-job training in a unique masters programme that combines epidemiology, biostatistics, demography and other social sciences with a focus on demographic and health surveillance in developing countries.  The scientists should be able to:

  •  identify key biomedical and public health problems that may be addressed by epidemiological or demographic studies and design solutions to those problems;b. have the appropriate analytical skills and can understand, plan and execute field-based scientific research; and
  • have good communication skills to make research results understandable to diverse audiences.

2.   To develop the capacity of scientists in the INDEPTH Network to

  • have negotiating power to engage external collaborators;
  • compete effectively for international resources; and
  • take leadership roles at their workplaces.

INDEPTH Scientific Development and Leadership Programme.(Re-entry Grant)