Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DEMOSTAF (Emerging population issues in sub-Saharan Africa: Cross-checking and promoting demographic data for better action)

Teaser

Emerging population issues in Sub-Saharan Africa: Cross-checking and promoting demographic data for better actionDEMOSTAF brings together European and African research institutes as well as non-academic African national statistics offices (NSOs) in a staff exchange programme...

Summary

Emerging population issues in Sub-Saharan Africa: Cross-checking and promoting demographic data for better action
DEMOSTAF brings together European and African research institutes as well as non-academic African national statistics offices (NSOs) in a staff exchange programme, for a period of 48 months, with the aim to advance research on emerging population issues in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). DEMOSTAF is built around four major population-related themes: fertility, mortality & health, households & families and education. These themes federate the research projects conducted by the partners, and aim to shed light on key contemporaneous questions, with the objective to inform the post-2015 development agenda framed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The programme focuses on the articulation between quantitative data from national statistics (censuses and sample surveys) and local data (demographic surveillance systems or local vital registration). Thanks to the close involvement of NSOs, the programme will consolidate and promote public statistics. The programme will fund staff mobility between partners for supporting research projects, while reinforcing training and skill transfers. Collective activities essentially devoted to training, data documentation and scientific dissemination are also planned. DEMOSTAF involves 18 partners: 5 European academic institutions, well known for their African population expertise (INED, IRD and University of Paris Ouest in France, UCL in Belgium, Unige in Switzerland), 12 African partners from Burkina Faso (INSD and ISSP), Kenya (APHRC), Madagascar (INSTAT, INSPC, IPM, UCM), Mali (INSTAT), Senegal (ANSD, UCAD, UZ) and Uganda (UM). Among them, 4 are NSOs. Due to mutual interests in the promotion of demographic data, a Canadian academic institution (ODSEF) is also involved. A scientific advisory committee associates key experts and promote international partnerships. In total, almost a hundred of individuals participate in the projet. Among them 74 researchers, statisticians, PhD students and librarians are involved in 166 international secondments (that correspond to 193 months).

Work performed

The period 1 of the project occurring from the 1st of January 2016 to the 31st of December 2017 led to the several achievements both in terms of research activities and staff mobility.
As described in further sections of the documents, most objectives for each of the project work packages were reached thanks to the involvement of all project partners and the consortium will carry out its effort during the project 2nd period to meet the objectives set in the initial project proposal.

The number of secondments reach during the 1st period of the project is also one of the key results obtained in the project, indeed a total of 84 months of secondments was achieved during the period. The secondments involved all types of staff including early stage researchers (about 20%), experienced researchers (about 50%) as well as technical staff (20%). They also included both staff from academic organisations (70%) and statistical institutes (30%). The variety of staff involved in the secondments is an important achievement in the project, since it provided opportunities for individuals with very different profiles and backgrounds to take part in the project and therefore contributed to the cross-sectoral and international added value of the project.

Final results

Additional results and achievements will be reached by the end of the project, they include the publication of working papers related to the research fields covered by each WP. WP 2 working papers will cover the issues of understanding African fertility stalls, understanding family and data collection tool on abortion safety. WP3 working papers will deal with mortality levels and trends and measurement issues, the improvement of the collection and interpretation of cause-of-death data, the investigation of the double burden of disease and the identification of health risks in mobile populations and effects of human movements on vector-borne diseases. WP5 working papers will be dedicated to Out of school children, to Nonliteracy and illeteracy and to higher education graduate.
Additionally a major emphasis will be put on communicating the projects results to the general public and to policy-makers. This will be made possible by the publication of 2 policy papers published by WP2 partners and 2 policy briefs published by WP4 and WP5. This will be complemented by the organisation of a final conference, targeting the dissemination of the project results to a wide audience.
Moreove, the collaborative work conducted since the beginning of the project will lead to the publication of 2 draft collective books on data and methods SDGs by the end of the project.
In terms of secondments goals, all efforts will be made to reach the initially planned 193 months of secondments. It will be ensured that the highest possible number of secondments is reach, that the secondments occur in optimal conditions. The multi-complementarity aspects will remain emphasised by maintaining a balance of North / South, academic / non-academic, interdisciplinary, researcher & technical or statistician staff participants. This will allow efficient training of the involved participants through clearly defined research objectives, mutual interactions and
exchange in a common research project.

Website & more info

More info: https://demostaf.site.ined.fr/.