Improving Health By
Strengthening Research Capacity

The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) has been making a difference in the health of Kenyans for over 40 years. It currently runs more than 80 health care programs in Kenya, ranging from setting up a health clinic in the Kibera slums of Nairobi to working with trucking companies and commercial sex workers to prevent and control the spread of HIV/AIDS.

AMREF-Kenya takes pride in its extensive experience in delivering community-based primary health care and in training both professional and traditional health care workers. Recognizing a need, however, to strengthen its capacity to conduct research that will improve its ability to meet the health needs of Kenyans, AMREF-Kenya has formed a unique partnership with two Canadian research institutions--McMaster University and the Father Sean O'Sullivan Research Centre, together with a Canadian NGO--the Salama Shield Foundation. Together, these four institutions are addressing AMREF-Kenya's concern that it is able to evaluate the impacts of its programs, base program planning decisions on the best available information, and share what it has learned with other African NGOs and the rest of the world.

Within AMREF, the project seeks to create an organizational culture that underscores the importance of research as a key arm of its activities. Training is being provided to project managers and co-ordinators in how to use the most up-to-date research and evaluation tools, as well as in research design and report writing.

This ground-breaking project which focuses on two priority health and development concerns -- trauma and injury prevention & adolescent sexual and reproductive health offers a new model for how NGOs can - if not must - work in the future to achieve sustainable health programs.