Annual Report 2003

The year 2003 brought along a series of challenges and huge expectations on the Network since several milestones were achieved in the previous year. These included the launch of the INDEPTH Strategic Plan; securing core funding was from the Rockefeller Foundation, Sida/SAREC and the Wellcome Trust; securing project funding from the World Bank; and the launch of the Network’s first monograph, Population Health and Survival at INDEPTH Sites in the series Population and Health in Developing Countries. Consequently, 2003 was viewed as the year to “deliver the products”. This report provides INDEPTH’s strides in 2003 to meet the challenge. It details the successes that were achieved in carrying out both research and capacity-building activities, as well as the challenges that were faced.

The thrust of the Network’s scientific work in 2003 concerned the following activities: efforts to produce new volumes in the INDEPTH monograph series; strides to collate and analyse cause of death data from member sites; moving from the significant findings by the INDEPTH Health Equity Study about the existence of inequalities and inequity in health in smaller areas, to designing pro-poor interventions; and developing a basis for integrating DSS data with census data. Pivotal among the Network’s capacity strengthening initiatives was the establishment