Dr Bocar Amadou Kouyate , MD, MPH, PhD is a public health specialist with substantial experience in health service management. He is Director of the National Research and Training Centre (CNRFP) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He was the co-founder and former director of the Nouna Health Research Centre (CRSN) in rural Burkina Faso. Dr Kouyaté has been a researcher and decision maker in top positions in the Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso, and has gained ample experience in the utilisation of research findings for decision making and planning. He took part in the EU funded project called “Improving the utilization of results from research for decision making” in 2002.

Salimata KI Ouedraogo , MSc in health administration (analysis of health systems) is department head of health research in the Department of Studies and Planning. She has occupied several posts, including department head of departments of the Cabinet, department head for legislation, and leader of social division of the socio-cultural department of the presidency of Burkina Faso. She also has led or participated in several projects reviewing health studies in Burkina Faso and co- edited report on tobacco in Burkina as part of an international project to protect children and African young people against smoking.

Dr Arlette Sanou , IRA, MD, MPH is the Director of the Central Office for Public Hospitals and Private Health Facilities at the Ministry of . She has occupied posts as technical adviser of the Minister of Health, and manager of studies and planning to the Ministry of Health, provincial manager of health of Houet, responsible for implementing the national sanitary policy at local level. She has participated in several research projects and evaluation, including a project on diarrhoea, evaluation of a Save the Children project, and external evaluation of the Biomedical Department and Public Health (IRSS/CNRST).

Dr Serge Diabouga , PhD (biology) is general manager of the Muraz Center. He was previously responsible for Laboratory of Mycobacteriology and Immunology of Muraz Center, coordinator of HIV/AIDS, and coordinator of the ANRS site of Bobo-Dioulasso. He is an author of numerous scientific publications and reports.

Adjima Gbangou , Dess is a statistician and demographer. He is a specialist in socioeconomic and demographic statistics, and population issues. He has had responsibilities in the National Institute of Statistic and Demography and Nouna Health Research Centre over many years. He was coordinator of the National Population Council, a large consumer of statistics and research results for population policy and program planning. He works in the research office of the Ministry of Health on the coordination and promotion of the use of health research.

CAMEROON

Pierre Ongolo Zogo (MD, MSc), Director of Division of Health Operations Research since its creation in 2003 and senior lecturer (Medical Imaging) at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (University of Yaoundé 1). He has expertise in health systems research and research administration, he has been the national coordinator of many international projects such as the WHO funded Health Research System Analysis, NWO and GTZ funded SHARED (Scientists for Health Research and Development), and the African AIDS Vaccine Programme. As Research Administrator and Manager, he has lead many task forces, including drafting a health research policy paper and law, setting up a national network of public health laboratories, promoting HIV vaccine research, and setting up the International Research Centre on HIV/AIDS in Yaoundé. He has been Cameroon’s representative in governing bodies of the special programmes for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP) at WHO since 2003. He is the country team leader for EVIPNet. His interests are in health systems research, systemic quality improvement, and monitoring and evaluation activities.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Prof Gérard Gresenguet is the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and also the Coordinator of the national EVIPNet team in the Central African Republic. He was among the original members of the EVIPNet initiative in CAR and has contributed to its realisation and development. Prof Gresenguet is a medical epidemiologist who has been involved for more than 20 years in several epidemiological studies related to communicable diseases in CAR and other parts of Africa. From 1988 to 2003, while he was coordinating the National Reference Centre for STDs (a centre initiated by the government with a strong support from the European Commission to control STDs in CAR), he was involved in many multi-centre studies on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV initiated by ANRS, the French agency for research on AIDS, including the ANRS 1212 trial conducted in Ghana and CAR on the use of anti-herpetic drugs on the viral load of HIV and HSV2 in co-infected women. In 2003 he was appointed as the dean of the School of Medicine in Bangui.

ETHIOPIA

Dr Amha Kebede (BSc,MSc,PhD) , Deputy Director of EHNRI, has headed the Infectious and Non-Infectious Diseases Research Department, the biggest in terms of research output in the Institute, before coming to his current post. He is also the Task Force Chairman for the Ethiopian Five Year Health Impact Evaluation of the combined effect of the Global Fund and other donors against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. He is the co-chair for the Ethiopian National Laboratory Technical Working Group focusing on building the national public health laboratory system for ARV scale up in Ethiopia. He also coordinates the WHO laboratory twinning initiative with the California Public Health Laboratory in capacity building at EHNRI for the diagnosis of epidemic prone and other diseases in the country.

Dr Tshehaynesh Meselle (BSc,MSc,PhD) , Director General of EHNRI was formerly the Ethiopian counter part Laboratory and Project Manager for ENARP. Her commitment and successful leadership attracted the attention of the Ministry of Health to give more mandates for EHNRI to establish and coordinate the national laboratory systems and strengthening surveillance and quality control system .

Mr Kelbessa Urga (BSc,MSc), senior researcher, was head of the Laboratory Department of the former Ethiopian Nutrition Institute, and head of the Department of Drug Research, EHNRI. He has worked as a member of the National Health Council, Vice President of the Food and Nutrition Society of Ethiopia, developed and authored a training module for training of traditional health practitioners, and authored more than seventy research publications.

Mr. Adugna Woyessa (BSc,MSc), associate researcher at EHNRI, is a consultant to the Global Fund on Malaria Prevention & Control; project coordinator of the WHOMalaria Early Warning Project in Rift Valley, Ethiopia; Zone Chief of the malaria control program, Jimma, Ethiopia; facilitator of the WHO training on malaria and planning its control (2000 to 2005). He has supervised and coordinated many field projects, including malaria financing and expenditure in Ethiopia, Jimma Zone (World Bank & MOH, 2001), Roll Back Malaria baseline survey in three districts of Oromia regional states, Ethiopia (RBM, 2001), and assessment of data collection tools on the economic impact of epidemic malaria, Bahirdar, Ethiopia (WHO, Harvard University,& MOH, 2002).

Mr. Wolde-Mariam Girma (BSc,MSc) , Senior researcher at EHNRI, is the Head of the Biostatistics and Epidemiology Service. He has been an investigator of national surveys, including studies on patient satisfaction in selected health facilities of Ethiopia; determinants of child mortality in Central Tigray, North Ethiopia; and risk factors for children and maternal nutritional status. He is currently coordinating the 2007 round ANC surveillance for Ethiopia.

Mrs. Tigist Habtamu (BSc) , IT expert and team leader at EHNRI, supports the research activities of the Institute in data and network management and provides training in these areas.

MOZAMBIQUE

Dr Gertrudes Machatine , Team Leader. A key player in Mozambiquan policy-making and the national director of planning and cooperation, she has been the responsible of the health strategic planning design and coordinator of investments for the strategic plan. As director she has led studies on alternative financing mechanisms. She is lecturer of Health Management and Administration and her research focuses on leading causes of mortality in Mozambique. She is currently working a systematic review in collaboration with the African Cochrane Contributor Group.

Dr Francisco Mbofana , Researcher. He is a public health physician and health systems researcher with experience in managing small research projects. His areas of competency include feasibility and baseline studies, policy analysis and formulation, systems analysis, designing monitoring and evaluation systems for health, evaluation, learning materials development, capacity development and training. He also has solid analytical, documentation and communication skills. He is involved with the African Cochrane Contributor Group and currently doing a systematic review.

REACH

Prof Nelson Sewankambo was one of the first scientists to publish data on AIDS in Africa and has contributed significant primary research as well as having academic leadership roles in Uganda and internationally. He is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Makerere University and has been involved extensively in research projects dealing with infectious diseases, training and delivery in Africa, and translating research to policy. A f ull-time research scientist and an administrator at Makerere University, Faculty of Medicine, Uganda (REACH) will be recruited to work with Prof Sewankambo and other faculty at Makerere University. Regional REACH Hub staff that will contribute to SURE include: Dr G Upunda , Executive Director of REACH, Dr Harriet Nabudere , technical officer, and a senior policy analyst, senior research analyst, IT specialist/librarian, and scientific writer at the East African Community Headquarters.

ZAMBIA

Joseph M.Kasonde (MD,FRCOG), Executive Director. A graduate of Aberdeen University, Scotland and Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London. Served as Research Fellow in the University of Oxford (Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology), Chair of the Board of the Tropical Diseases Research Centre in Ndola, Zambia, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Zambia, Member of the WHO/AFRO Advisory Committee on Health Research, Permanent Secretary and Director of Medical Services (Zambia). Chair of the Board of Management of the University , Lusaka, Zambia and Responsible Officer for Research Capacity Strengthening in the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, WHO/HQ, Geneva, Switzerland. Retired 1999, has since been International Health Consultant to WHO/EUROPE, WHO/AFRO, UNICEF and GTZ.