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Our Collaborating Partners
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHU), Boston University
(BU) Center for International Health and
Development (CIHD), and the World Health
Organization (WHO), lead a consortium of
outstanding organizations that serve as partners.
These partnerships have the collective
strengths of current research and service
programs in more than 50 developing countries,
collaboration with more than 100 institutions
in these countries, a broad range of
skills and research experience, ongoing studies,
and well-developed population laboratories.
The partners provide leadership in the
development of new interventions and have
a strong record of productivity and influence
on policy and programs. |
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Boston University (BU) Center for International Health and Development (CIHD):
Boston University (BU), through its Center for International Health and Development (CIHD), brings to the partnership: (1) extensive experience working with USAID, most notably through the Child Health Research Project’s Applied Research for Child Health (ARCH) project; (2) a multidisciplinary technical faculty of 25 researchers and scientists with expertise in clinical sciences, economics, policy analysis, epidemiology, demography, and social research; and (3) experience working in over 20 countries, including seven field offices in four African countries. BU’s on-going applied research portfolio provides the partnership with enhanced expertise in the conduct of: (1) clinical trials to improve the evidence base for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) algorithm; (2) policy analyses of the social and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and (3) intervention trials to improve the use of medicines. |
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Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB):
The Gorgas Tuberculosis Initiative addresses the problem of tuberculosis in countries with a high disease burden. The TB Initiative engages in training, education and operations research to improve program performance. Its staff utilizes skills in both medicine and public health to help design, implement and evaluate innovative programs, in collaboration with a diverse group of partners worldwide. The objectives of the TB Initiative are:
- To provide regional and national training to improve TB control for programs committed to the WHO
Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course
(DOTS) strategy, with special attention to issues concerning high-risk and marginalized populations
- Foster development of local and national capacities to utilize operations research as a tool to improve TB programs
- Provide technical assistance in implementing and evaluating new and innovative approaches to community-based interventions for TB control
The Gorgas TB Initiative is funded by USAID through the Child and Family Applied Research (CFAR) Project. The University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as Boston University serve as coordinating sites for Gorgas TB Initiative activities, developing projects and partnerships in international tuberculosis control. |
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Helen Keller International (HKI):
HKI is a leading international non-profit development agency, with a highly productive history of working with USAID, JHU and other international agencies, especially in areas of childhood nutrition and blindness prevention, that has assisted countries translate scientific findings into sustainable and effective programs to reduce micronutrient deficiencies, and childhood diseases and mortality. HKI was selected to join the GRA partnership because of its (1) capacity to translate and apply research findings to program contexts; (2) in-country advocacy experiences among national policy makers and within ministries of health; (3) long-standing and highly respected health and development programs currently operating in 19 developing countries; (4) technical and scientific competence to effectively mount program effectiveness and evaluation research in micronutrient (especially vitamin A and iron) supplementation, food fortification, complementary feeding and dietary interventions; and (5) the Agency’s credibility and active participation in networks such as the private voluntary organization (PVO) CORE Group and international bodies such as the International Vitamin A Consultative Group (IVACG)/International Nutritional Anemia Consultative Group (INACG), United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN), and Food Insecurity Vulnerability Mapping Information System (FIVIMS). |
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International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B): ICDDR,B is a non-profit, international research, training and service institution based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Johns Hopkins has had a long-standing and productive partnership with ICDDR,B dating back to its origins as the Cholera Research Laboratory in 1960. ICDDR,B’s research capacities complement the technical strengths of other GRA partners especially in areas of child health, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, vaccine sciences, reproductive health, nutrition, operations research, and environmental concerns such as safe water. With a broad research agenda and on-going research in all eight USAID technical areas, ICDDR,B brings to the partnership: (1) extensive experience working with USAID, notably through the Child Health Research Project; (2) a well-established and diverse research infrastructure, including hospitals, large urban and rural field sites, state-of-the-art laboratories, and the longest running demographic surveillance system in the developing world (Matlab); (3) laboratory and personnel capabilities that offer expertise in microbiology, virology, immunology, biochemistry, and molecular and genetic sciences; and (4) experience in capacity-building and collaboration with governments and NGOs outside of Bangladesh, including its role as a South-to-South training center that has trained over 20,000 health professionals and researchers from 78 countries. |
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International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN):
INCLEN provides a global network of clinical epidemiologists, social scientists, health care practitioners, and researchers based in 81 clinical epidemiology units (CEUs) in 41 low- and middle-income countries throughout the world. This extensive network enables INCLEN to conduct coordinated multicountry and multidisciplinary infant, child, and family health research in a number of countries. INCLEN research activities remain concentrated in the following areas: maternal and child health, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, obesity, neurological and developmental disabilities, evaluation of health systems, and drug and vaccine programs. In addition, building competent national health research systems in the countries where INCLEN is present is a central mission. Through its strategy to develop institutional and individual investigator capacity, INCLEN offers formal master’s degree programs in health research through its Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research and Training Centers in 10 developing countries, as well as informal courses, workshops, and short courses at all INCLEN CEUs. Collectively, these organizational strengths provide the Global Research Activity partnership with wide access to medical research institutions in developing countries and with substantial expertise in establishing bacterial surveillance systems for determining serotype distributions and the extent of antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. |
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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHU):
Through its successful 25-year history of research and technical cooperation with USAID, achieved via its two long-standing Cooperative Agreements (CAs) with the Agency, JHU has implemented over 100 research projects spanning each of USAID’s eight priority technical areas. Research results and global policies emanating from this long-standing cooperative agreement collaboration with USAID have led the global child and infant health survival agenda; provided cutting-edge findings to reveal previously unaddressed solutions to major health problems (e.g. vitamin A and child and maternal survival, zinc deficiency and child health); and led to the development of innovative new tools and technologies (e.g. Microscopic Observation for Detection and Susceptibility Test for diagnosis of pulmonary TB and TB drug resistance, history of maternal night blindness as a valid tool for assessing community vitamin A deficiency). These achievements have established credible and replicable scientific foundations for program implementation (e.g. vitamin A supplementation for child survival).
Johns Hopkins’ research and technical capacity derives from diverse institutional strengths, including: (1) over 25 multi-disciplinary full-time faculty with greater than 500 person years of international research and technical experience; (2) strong institutional commitment by the School and career dedication on the parts of numerous faculty to understand causes of, and identify ways to reduce, child morbidity and mortality in the developing world; and a (3) track record of collaboration with health research institutions in over 25 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, (4) established research population settings in countries in Southern Asian and Africa and (5) a micronutrient reference laboratory network at Johns Hopkins and in collaborating institutions capable of supporting overseas nutrition research projects.
JHU serves a scientific and technical leadership and management role in the Global Research Activity (GRA) partnership. |
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Save the Children-USA (SC-USA):
SC-USA is a private, non-sectarian relief and development organization and one of 25 members of the Save the Children Alliance (SCA) that has a presence in 100 countries and an annual program portfolio of $400 million. SC-USA currently has a network of over 200 health professionals and a global presence in over 40 countries, including non-USAID-assisted countries such as Myanmar. With over 20 years of experience implementing more than 40 child survival projects, SC-USA is highly visible and effective at the global level in guiding policies related to child survival, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention, school health and nutrition. Through the Gates-supported Saving Newborn Lives Initiative, SC-USA is a pioneering force in community-based research to improve neonatal survival. At the country level, SC-USA maintains a strong operational presence in rural districts, generating demand for and strengthening delivery of health services; fostering partnerships with Ministry of Health at district and national levels to build capacity and inform policy; and partnering with academic institutions to develop and test innovative technologies to improve infant and child health. SC-USA extends the “global reach” of the GRA partnership, enables coordination with a major new research initiative (Saving Newborn Lives) and strengthens partnership capacity to efficiently translate and apply research findings into programs and services. |
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World
Health Organization Department of Child and Adolescent
Health and Development is responsible
for interventions concerning health, growth, and development
for the age group of 0-19 years. It main objectives
are: 1) To reduce illness and death among children
and adolescents and, 2) To improve the health and development
of children and adolescents. CAH stimulates worldwide
action to promote healthy behaviors and prevent and
manage health problems of children and adolescents.
It does so by raising awareness, promoting research
and producing information to develop standards and
guidelines. In addition, CAH facilitates the local
adaptation and implementation of standards and guidelines. |
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World Vision:
World Vision is an international Christian relief and development organization working to promote the well being of all people - especially children. In 2003, World Vision offered material, emotional, social and spiritual support to 100 million people in 99 countries. |
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