Lihiket, meaning excellence in Amharic, is an institutional development and postdoctoral fellowship programme, implemented by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, the Institute of Public Health – University of Gondar and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Three postdoctoral fellows working as part of the Lihiket project will undertake research on issues related to maternal, newborn and child health in Ethiopia.
Lihiket will document and evaluate all capacity strengthening initiatives with the aim to sustain these beyond the duration of this project.
The Lihiket team run regular workshops for staff at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the University of Gondar based on priority areas identified through an institutional needs assessment.
Lihiket, meaning excellence in Amharic, is an institutional development and postdoctoral fellowship programme, implemented by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, the Institute of Public Health – University of Gondar and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Lihiket is a collaborative effort, the team is made up of researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, senior researchers at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, senior academics from the Institute of Public Health at the University of Gondar and three postdoctoral research fellows based at the University of Gondar.
The three postdoctoral fellows were competitively recruited in 2022 and will receive joint mentoring from senior academics at all three institutions.
The project officially launched in 2022, but has its origins in two other collaborative research projects in Ethiopia, the Dagu and ORCA projects. Both projects illustrated how capacity development can be successfully integrated as part of a joint research effort and supported by all involved institutions.
Lihiket aims to work towards bridging the gap in research capacity between the Global North and Global South by focussing on continuous capacity development for early career researchers and their institutions.
Based on a needs assessment of institutional capacity development for health system research the Lihiket team implements joint activities to address the identified needs in a manner that can be sustained beyond the duration of Lihiket.
The Lihiket project is funded through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
At the outset of the Lihiket project a needs assessment for institutional capacity development for health system research was carried out by both the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Institute of Public Health at the University of Gondar. Using four domains of the Researcher Development Framework and the Delphi prioritization process the following five areas of need were identified.
- Community-based trials
- Writing, reviewing and communicating research
- Implementation science
- Proposing, managing and leading research
- Synthesis and policy implications of findings
The Lihiket team delivers workshops on the five identified areas of needs at both institutions, documenting and evaluating the process, with the aim of sustaining these capacity strengthening activities beyond the duration of Lihiket itself.
The three Lihiket postdoctoral research fellows, based at the Institute of Public Health at the University of Gondar work to analyse recent national-level maternal, newborn and child health surveys with the aim to stimulate inform policy and decision-making based on findings.
The Lihiket team will document progress made throughout the project, synthesise experiences and achievements, with an aim to sustain ongoing capacity strengthening activities beyond the duration of the project.
- Dr Amare Tariku’s research focuses on maternal and child health and nutrition.
- Dr Tadesse Guadu’s research focuses on newborn health.
- Dr Zewditue Denu’s research focuses on the continuum of maternal and newborn care.
The Lihiket project was officially launched on 31 October. You can watch a recording of the event.