The Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health Systems Support Research and Publication Interventions

The Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health Systems Support (SATBHSS) project is a regional project launched in 2016 with the aim of strengthening the health sector’s response to Tuberculosis and occupational lung diseases. It is implemented in four Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States: Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The African Union Development Agency – NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) and East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) collaborate to provide technical support in project implementation in the participating countries.

The project, which is funded by the World Bank aims at (i) improving the coverage and quality of TB control and occupational lung disease services; (ii) strengthening the regional capacity to manage the burden of TB and occupational lung diseases; and (iii) strengthening country-level and cross-border preparedness and response to disease outbreaks.

The project has placed emphasis on rolling out a standardised package of occupational health services and mining safety standards across the four countries. Project countries have in this regard spearheaded studies in different areas of occupational health and safety, with the view to create and share regional knowledge and support evidence-based policies and interventions. Publication of study results in peer-reviewed journals is an important step for communicating findings while providing an opportunity for the findings to be evaluated by the research community. Furthermore, development and dissemination of policy briefs communicates research findings to a diverse group of stakeholders for better translation of research into improvement of OHS (occupational health and safety) policies and services.

This has been identified as a major gap in the region and in the project countries. It is hence fundamental that focus is given on improving research and publication writing skills for increased knowledge exchange and utilization to address OHS challenges. This will increase project scalability and influence OHS and TB policy landscape not only in Southern Africa but in the continent and worldwide.

A series of training sessions are therefore being organized to equip OHS practitioners from project countries with knowledge on research and publishing results. The first session will be convened from 14 to 18 November 2020. The training sessions will use a practical approach and it is expected that countries will use their existing research topics to develop them further based on the knowledge obtained during the training.

1. Training objective

The objective of the training is to strengthen the skills and knowledge of OHS and TB practitioners in project countries in research and publishing findings in journals and policy briefs.

1. Expected outputs
2. At least 30 OHS practitioners trained on research and publishing findings in journals and policy briefs
3. At least four OHS research topics developed into proposals
4. At least four manuscripts for publication drafted from research studies that have been concluded by project countries
5. At least four policy briefs drafted from research studies that have been concluded by project countries
6. Increased knowledge on research and publishing findings in journals and policy briefs among trainees

1. Training approach

The training will be conducted in a series of two segments. The first training will be conducted virtually by a team of highly experienced resource persons. The trainers will use intensive, interactive hands-on training to ensure that by the end of the training countries will develop their research topics further as well as manuscripts and policy briefs from concluded studies. It is expected that the manuscripts developed through the training will be finalised post-training and submitted for publication within six months.

The second session will build on the first training to further develop the skills and knowledge of participants on data analysis and reporting writing. This training will be face-to-face, to allow for more interaction and practical exercised on data analysis and reporting writing. The participants in this session will be those that will have finalised data collection and during the session they will analyse and initiate the write of their report together with manuscripts.

Countries will be requested to nominate trainees for the two sessions who are participating in the current OHS and TB research and systems strengthening in the project countries. Prior to the training, participants will be requested to submit progress made and key challenges on ongoing research that will inform the design of training approach and post-training intervention. A list of concluded OHS and TB research that has been conducted in the project countries will also be submitted to inform training and practical exercises publication and policy brief writing. The trainees will also be of informed of publication opportunities and the approach that can be followed to publish.

In order to assess knowledge gained from the training, a pre and post training questionnaire will be administered. A report will be shared with all participants.

1. Key Topics to be covered

The training will focus on the following key areas:

• First training session:
• Developing research idea:
  • Setting up study objectives and hypothesis
• Sampling and data collection
• Developing manuscripts and publishing in a peer-reviewed journal (Vol. 1)
• Developing policy brief (Vol. 1)

• Second training session:
• Data analysis and report writing
• Developing manuscripts and publishing in a peer-reviewed journal (Vol. 1)
• Developing policy briefs (Vol. 2)

• Training Roadmap for the first session:

Training dates: 14 – 18 November 2020

The first training session will be conducted virtually. Information regarding the training platform will be shared with participants prior to the training.

For more information regarding the training contact: