Contacts: Sarah Harman
Partners: MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, WoMena Uganda, Makerere University Uganda and University College London.
Major donors: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Medical Research Council (MRC), UKRI,National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Wellcome

Evaluating the impact of a multi-component menstrual health intervention in Ugandan secondary schools on girls’ education, health, and wellbeing.The aim of the MENISCUS trial is to assess whether the intervention improves educational attainment, mental health symptoms, menstrual management and quality of life outcomes among girls in secondary school in Uganda.

Contacts: Professor Nelson Sewankambo, Professor David Mabey
Partners:

• Uganda: Makerere University (lead), Gulu University, Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI)
• Tanzania: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUC), National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR)
• Kenya: International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
• UK: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); University of Cambridge

Donors: THRiVE-2 is part of the Developing Excellence in Leadership and Training in Africa (DELTAS Africa) programme which is a scheme funded by the Wellcome Trust in partnership with the UK Department for International Development.

THRiVE’s mission is to empower African Institutions to become research engines for health innovations and evidence-based healthcare practices and policies.

Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence in East Africa (THRiVE-2) partnership is a training programme that aims to transform East African universities into world class research hubs for key emerging health issues in the region. By training and developing the scientific careers of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows, THRiVE-2 will build on the successes of THRiVE, a regional network of research excellence, to create research leaders in infectious diseases, neglected tropical disease, maternal, neonatal and reproductive health, and non-communicable diseases.

Contacts: Dr Karen Devries, Dipak Naker
Partners: Raising Voices, UCL-IoE and Makerere University
Major donors: MRC/DfiD/Wellcome Trust (Joint Global Health Trials Scheme, MR/L004321/1, to K Devries), Hewlett Foundation, The Oak Foundation, The Sigrid Rausuing Trust and American Jewish World Service (to D Naker)

Reducing violence in Ugandan primary schools. One of the first cluster-randomised controlled trials of an intervention to reduce violence from school staff to students. The study also included qualitative research, a process evaluation and economic evaluation.

One of the most common forms of violence against children in East Africa is physical violence perpetrated by school staff, but no interventions to reduce this violence have been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness. The Good School Toolkit, developed by Ugandan NGO Raising Voices, aims to reduce this and other violence against children in schools. In 2012, Raising Voices approached LSHTM for assistance to evaluate the impact of the Good School Toolkit in Ugandan primary schools.

Contacts: Dr Karen Devries
Partners and donors: Plan International, Plan International Malawi, Plan International Uganda, Plan International Norway, Plan International Finland, Plan International UK

Protecting children with disabilities.

Plan International has commissioned us to conduct research to:

• assess to what extent children with disabilities are included in community-based child protection mechanisms;
• identify the barriers and enablers to inclusion within these mechanisms;
• make practical recommendations to Plan International, governments and other key stakeholders for more inclusive practice.

Contacts: Dr Karen Devries
Partners: Makerere University, UCL

Developing an evidence base and platform for action around how violence in childhood and adolescence affects child labour, participation in skills programmes and employment outcomes in Uganda.

This study will use international as well as Ugandan data and combines analysis of existing quantitative data with primary qualitative data collection.

Contacts: Alison Elliott
Partners and donors: Medical Research Council (MRC)

How people respond to vaccines, and how well they work, varies between populations. POPVAC’s goal is to understand these differences in order to identify strategies of improving vaccine effectiveness. The POPVAC projects - A, B, C - are a set of three, linked clinical trials which share core elements of study design and procedures, allowing comparison of outcomes across projects.

Contacts: Dr Karen Devries, Dipak Naker
Partners: Raising Voices
Donors: Medical Research Council (to K Devries)

Pilot RCT of a complex violence prevention intervention.

The Good School Toolkit, developed by Ugandan NGO Raising Voices, reduces violence from school staff to students, and peer violence between students, in Ugandan primary schools.