CPN‐Africa hereby wishes to inform all eligible “Young” African Scientists about the FP7‐Africa‐2010 
Call topics that were proposed by Africans and are directed mainly towards Africa’s research needs in 
the areas of Health, Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology. The deadline for this Call is the 14th of 
January, 2010. In view of getting European partners with whom to collaborate in the writing and 
implementation  of  their  projects,  CPN‐Africa  is  offering  fellowships  to  eligible  “Young”  African 
Scientists to sponsor a 4‐week trip to Europe to search for and find European partners with whom to 
write up and submit a project related to this call. To view the downloadable call for fellowships please click here.
 
More information on this call can be found on the CORDIS website of the European Commission, and 
some institutions searching for partners are also presented in the CIRCA website.

The PRD College announces a call for applications for advanced training in biomedicine and development. PRD College will award up to 24 fellowships to MD graduates registered for PhD, PhD Students or Post-
Docs from Africa and Europe. The programme starts in January 2010 and will last for two and a half years.

Students should have institutional support for this activity. The intensive training courses will be taught by
researchers from partner and other Institutions; Partner institutions are:
• University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
• Makerere University, Uganda
• International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), South Africa
• Tropical Disease Research Center, Zambia
• Mbeya Medical Research Programme, Tanzania
• Stockholm University, Sweden

For more details please download the PRD Call for Applications.

UNV Internship programme open for applications

Irish Aid is funding sixteen positions as part of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Internship programme in 2010.

The purpose of the programme is to help develop the next generation of Irish development workers and to provide individuals who want to work in the Irish overseas development sector the opportunity to gain field experience with the UN in some of its missions around the world. Interns will be placed as project officers with UN agencies located mostly in one of Irish Aid’s programme countries; Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. However some placements may also be in other countries in which Irish Aid provides support e.g. Cambodia, Laos, Sierra Leone and the Ukraine.

Interns will work in a UN field office for a period of 12 months (non-renewable) and will receive a stipend to cover basic living expenses and travel. Successful applicants will work in one or more of the following areas: education, gender, environment, health, HIV and AIDS, water and sanitation, governance, emergency and rehabilitation, communications, food security and rural development.

For more information and an application form please visit www.irishaid.gov.ie.

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Toolkit HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Health Systems Strengthening

Part 1: The M&E system and Global Fund M&E requirements (60 pp. 2.2 MB)

Part 2: Tools for monitoring programs for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and health systems strengthening

• HIV (92 pp. 1.9 MB):

• Tuberculosis (56 pp. 1.7 MB):

• Malaria (64 pp. 1.9 MB):

• Health Systems Strengthening (72 pp. 1.9 MB):

It is becoming increasingly important for countries to be able to report accurate, timely and comparable data to national authorities and donors in order to secure continued funding for expanding health programs. Most importantly, they need to be able to use this information locally to strengthen evolving programs.

The purpose of the toolkit is to provide guidance on developing robust M&E systems, to gather a selection of standard indicators to manage results and to monitor the impact achieved by the programs in HIV, TB and malaria, including health systems strengthening.

If you need assistance in downloading the document, please contact:

carol lombard
deputy director
population & development information and knowledge centre
department of social development
clombard@dsd.gov.za
http://www.population.gov.za

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of chronic disabling infections affecting more than 1 billion people worldwide, mainly in Africa and mostly those living in remote rural areas, urban slums or conflict zones. Beyond their negative impact on health, NTDs contribute to an ongoing cycle of poverty and stigma that leaves people unable to work, go to school or participate in family and community life.

Whilst “the big three” infections - AIDS, TB and malaria - have caught the world's attention, these other disabling and sometimesfatal infectious diseases in Africa have, until very recently, been receiving relatively little attention from donors, policymakers, and public health officials.Yet NTD control represents a largely untapped development opportunity to alleviate poverty in the world’s poorest populations, and therefore has a direct impact on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Five European Foundations – Cariplo, Gulbenkian, Merieux, Nuffield and Volkswagen – have developed an initiative that will strengthen African research capacity in neglected tropical diseases and related public health research. The Fellowship Programme"Neglected Communicable Tropical Diseases and Related Public Health Research" aims to build up a cadre of African researchers in the field, strengthening African research institutions in the process.

WHO is currently focusing on 14 neglected tropical diseases:
Buruli ulcer – Leishmaniasis – Chagas disease – Leprosy – Cholera/Epidemic diarrhoeal diseases – Lymphatic filariasis – Dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever – Onchocerciasis – Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease) – Schistosomiasis – Endemic Treponematoses (yaws, pinta, endemic syphilis…) – Soil-transmitted helminthiasis – Trachoma – Human African trypanosomiasis

Note: The current call for proposals is now open and the deadline for the first stage applicationsis 15 May 2009.They should be sent to ntd2009@gulbenkian.pt.

Please visit the Neglected Tropical Diseases website for further details.