Health researchers are encouraged by governments, funders, and journals to conduct research in partnership with people with lived experience. However, conducting research with authentic engagement and partnership with those who are experts by experience, but may not have research methods training, requires resources and specialized skills. The McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging developed a fellowship program for trainees that builds their capacity to conduct research in partnership with older adults with relevant lived experience. We share this case example, with its successes and challenges, to encourage creative reformation of traditional research training.The Collaborative used an iterative design process, involving researchers, trainees and older adult and caregiver partners, who, together, developed a fellowship program for trainees that provides support and mentorship to plan and conduct health research in partnership with people with lived experience.Since 2022, the Partnership in Research Fellowship has been offered biannually. The application process was purposefully designed to be both constructive and supportive. Opportunities for one-on-one consultations; key resources, including a guide for developing a plan to involve people with relevant lived experience; and feedback from older adult and researcher reviewers are provided to all applicants. Successful trainees engage with older adult and caregiver partners from the Collaborative to advance and enhance a range of skills from facilitating partner meetings to forming advisory committees. Trainees are awarded $1500 CAD to foster reciprocal partnerships. Ten graduate students from various disciplines have participated. Trainees reported positive impacts on their knowledge, comfort, and approach to partnered research. However, the time required for undertaking partnered research activities and involving diverse partners remain obstacles to meaningful engagement.Partnering with people with lived experience in the design of educational programs embeds the principles of partnership and can increase the value and reward for all involved. We share the Partnership in Research Fellowship as a case example to inspire new and transformative approaches in research training and mentorship that will move the field forward from engagement theory to meaningful enactment.
Health researchers are encouraged by governments, funders, and journals to conduct research in partnership with individuals with relevant health conditions or experience. However, conducting research with individuals who are experts by experience, but may not have research training, requires resources and specialized skills. The McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging developed a fellowship program to support and mentor trainees to conduct their research in partnership with people with lived experience and turn engagement theory into action.The Collaborative involved researchers, trainees, and older adults in the development of the fellowship program. Since 2022, the Partnership in Research Fellowship has been offered twice a year. The application process was designed to be both supportive and informative. Opportunities for one-on-one consultations; key resources, including guiding questions to consider when planning to involve people with relevant lived experience; and feedback from older adults and researchers, are provided to all applicants. Each trainee receives $1500 CAD to support building strong, two-way partnerships. Since the fellowship’s launch, 10 graduate students from different fields have participated. Trainees reported improvements in their knowledge and comfort to partner with people with lived experience in research. However, challenges, such as the extra time needed for conducting partnered research as well as locating and involving those from diverse backgrounds, were identified.Involving people with lived experience in the design of research training incorporates partnership principles and may enhance the benefits and satisfaction for everyone involved. We share the Partnership in Research Fellowship, as an example, to inspire new approaches in research training and mentorship.

The East African Community (EAC) grapples with many challenges in tackling infectious disease threats and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), underscoring the importance of regional and robust pathogen genomics capacities. However, a significant disparity exists among EAC Partner States in harnessing bacterial pathogen sequencing and data analysis capabilities for effective AMR surveillance and outbreak response. This study assesses the current landscape and challenges associated with pathogen next-generation sequencing (NGS) within EAC, explicitly focusing on World Health Organization (WHO) AMR-priority pathogens. The assessment adopts a comprehensive approach, integrating a questionnaire-based survey amongst National Public Health Laboratories (NPHLs) with an analysis of publicly available metadata on bacterial pathogens isolated in the EAC countries. In addition to the heavy reliance on third-party organizations for bacterial NGS, the findings reveal a significant disparity among EAC member States in leveraging bacterial pathogen sequencing and data analysis. Approximately 97% (n = 4,462) of publicly available high-quality bacterial genome assemblies of samples collected in the EAC were processed and analyzed by external organizations, mainly in Europe and North America. Tanzania led in-country sequencing efforts, followed by Kenya and Uganda. The other EAC countries had no publicly available samples or had all their samples sequenced and analyzed outside the region. Insufficient local NGS sequencing facilities, limited bioinformatics expertise, lack of adequate computing resources, and inadequate data-sharing mechanisms are among the most pressing challenges that hinder the EAC\'s NPHLs from effectively leveraging pathogen genomics data. These insights emphasized the need to strengthen microbial pathogen sequencing and data analysis capabilities within the EAC to empower these laboratories to conduct pathogen sequencing and data analysis independently. Substantial investments in equipment, technology, and capacity-building initiatives are crucial for supporting regional preparedness against infectious disease outbreaks and mitigating the impact of AMR burden. In addition, collaborative efforts should be developed to narrow the gap, remedy regional imbalances, and harmonize NGS data standards. Supporting regional collaboration, strengthening in-country genomics capabilities, and investing in long-term training programs will ultimately improve pathogen data generation and foster a robust NGS-driven AMR surveillance and outbreak response in the EAC, thereby supporting global health initiatives.

This review explores the significant advancements in paediatric surgery in Africa during the twenty-first century, with a particular focus on capacity-building, education, infrastructural development, and research. Historically, paediatric surgery has been an overlooked sector, especially in low-and-middle-income countries in Africa. However, recent years have seen considerable progress. Collaborative efforts such as the Global Initiative for Children\'s Surgery, and the formation of the Pan African Paediatric Surgery Association, the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa and the West African College of Surgeons have facilitated knowledge sharing, collaboration, and advocacy for enhancing surgical standards. Local training programmes, including Master of Medicine programmes and fellowships, have been instrumental in building a skilled workforce. These initiatives have been complemented by infrastructural developments through non-governmental organisations like Kids Operating Room, which have expanded access to paediatric surgical care. Technological advancements, particularly in telemedicine, have further enhanced accessibility. Task-sharing strategies, where non-specialist physicians are trained in paediatric surgical skills, have also been utilised to address the shortage of specialised surgeons. Research in paediatric surgery has experienced an upswing, with local health professionals taking the lead. Research has been crucial for understanding the epidemiology of paediatric surgical conditions, and developing prevention strategies, and is increasingly leading to the inclusion of paediatric surgery in national health plans. Despite the progress, challenges remain, including the need for sustainable funding, continued investment in infrastructure, and training and retention of healthcare professionals. The review emphasises the importance of ongoing efforts in community engagement, innovative technologies, and health systems strengthening for the sustainable development of paediatric surgical services in Africa.

There has been a modest but progressive increase in the neurosurgical workforce, training, and service delivery in Nigeria in the last 2 decades. However, these resources are unevenly distributed. This study aimed to quantitatively assess the availability and distribution of neurosurgical resources in Nigeria while projecting the needed workforce capacity up to 2050.
An online survey of Nigerian neurosurgeons and residents assessed the country\'s neurosurgical infrastructure, workforce, and resources. The results were analyzed descriptively, and geospatial analysis was used to map their distribution. A projection model was fitted to predict workforce targets for 2022-2050.
Out of 86 neurosurgery-capable health facilities, 65.1% were public hospitals, with only 17.4% accredited for residency training. Dedicated hospital beds and operating rooms for neurosurgery make up only 4.0% and 15.4% of the total, respectively. The population disease burden is estimated at 50.2 per 100,000, while the operative coverage was 153.2 cases per neurosurgeon. There are currently 132 neurosurgeons and 114 neurosurgery residents for a population of 218 million (ratio 1:1.65 million). There is an annual growth rate of 8.3%, resulting in a projected deficit of 1113 neurosurgeons by 2030 and 1104 by 2050. Timely access to neurosurgical care ranges from 21.6% to 86.7% of the population within different timeframes.
Collaborative interventions are needed to address gaps in Nigeria\'s neurosurgical capacity. Investments in training, infrastructure, and funding are necessary for sustainable development and optimized outcomes.

The global immunization community has only recently recognized that addressing gender-related barriers to vaccination is critical to improving equity and increasing protection against vaccine-preventable diseases. USAID\'s MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity project aims to strengthen routine immunization programs to overcome entrenched obstacles to reaching zero-dose and under-immunized children while supporting the introduction of other new vaccines given over the life course. From the outset, the project recognized the need to mainstream gender into its global and country level work, incorporating gender considerations into all phases of the program cycle, from assessment to activity design, strategic communications, monitoring, evaluation, and continuous learning. Its gender mainstreaming efforts focus on five areas of improvement for immunization: service access and convenience; service quality and experience; communication and demand generation for immunization among caregivers (both women and men) and families; making services more responsive to agency and autonomy constraints of female caregivers; and the conditions and circumstances of health workers, who are mostly women. The authors describe approaches the project has applied to build capacity of its own global and country level staff to both recognize the gender dimensions inherent in common obstacles to immunization and ways to address them. Authors describe project activities carried out at global and country levels and share experience and challenges encountered in increasing recognition of gender barriers, moving from theory to practical action in addressing them, building capacity, and gauging the success of the work to date. The lessons learned are useful to colleagues working within the circumstances of time-limited and geography-specific projects whose main focus is to improve equity in immunization.

BACKGROUND: Patients with cancer in low- and middle-income countries experience worse outcomes as a result of the limited capacity of health systems to deliver comprehensive cancer care. The health workforce is a key component of health systems; however, deep gaps exist in the availability and accessibility of cancer care providers.
METHODS: We carried out a systematic review of the literature evaluating the strategies for capacity building of the cancer workforce. We studied how the policy strategies addressed the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ) of the workforce. We used a strategic planning framework (SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) to identify actionable areas of capacity building. We contextualized our findings based on the WHO 2030 Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health, evaluating how they can ultimately be framed in a labour market approach and inform strategies to improve the capacity of the workforce (PROSPERO: CRD42020109377).
RESULTS: The systematic review of the literature yielded 9617 records, and we selected 45 eligible papers for data extraction. The workforce interventions identified were delivered mostly in the African and American Regions, and in two-thirds of cases, in high-income countries. Many strategies have been shown to increase the number of competent oncology providers. Optimization of the existing workforce through role delegation and digital health interventions was reported as a short- to mid-term solution to optimize cancer care, through quality-oriented, efficiency-improving, and acceptability-enforcing workforce strategies. The increased workload alone was potentially detrimental. The literature on retaining the workforce and reducing brain drain or attrition in underserved areas was commonly limited.
CONCLUSIONS: Workforce capacity building is not only a quantitative problem but can also be addressed through quality-oriented, organizational, and managerial solutions of human resources. The delivery of comprehensive, acceptable, and impact-oriented cancer care requires an available, accessible, and competent workforce for comprehensive cancer care. Efficiency-improving strategies may be instrumental for capacity building in resource-constrained settings.

UNASSIGNED: Initiated in June 2019, this collaborative effort involved 15 public and private sector hospitals in Pakistan. The primary objective was to enhance the capacity for pediatric neuro-oncology (PNO) care, supported by a My Child Matters/Foundation S grant.
UNASSIGNED: We aimed to establish and operate Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards (MTBs) on a national scale, covering 76% of the population (185.7 million people). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, MTBs transitioned to videoconferencing. Fifteen hospitals with essential infrastructure participated, holding monthly sessions addressing diagnostic and treatment challenges. Patient cases were anonymized for confidentiality. Educational initiatives, originally planned as in-person events, shifted to a virtual format, enabling continued implementation and collaboration despite pandemic constraints.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 124 meetings were conducted, addressing 545 cases. To augment knowledge, awareness, and expertise, over 40 longitudinal lectures were organized for healthcare professionals engaged in PNO care. Additionally, two symposia with international collaborators and keynote speakers were also held to raise national awareness. The project achieved significant milestones, including the development of standardized national treatment protocols for low-grade glioma, medulloblastoma, and high-grade glioma. Further protocols are currently under development. Notably, Pakistan\'s first pediatric neuro-oncology fellowship program was launched, producing two graduates and increasing the number of trained pediatric neuro-oncologists in the country to three.
UNASSIGNED: The initiative exemplifies the potential for capacity building in PNO within low-middle income countries. Success is attributed to intra-national twinning programs, emphasizing collaborative efforts. Efforts are underway to establish a national case registry for PNO, ensuring a comprehensive and organized approach to monitoring and managing cases. This collaborative initiative, supported by the My Child Matters/Foundation S grant, showcases the success of capacity building in pediatric neuro-oncology in low-middle income countries. The establishment of treatment protocols, fellowship programs, and regional tumor boards highlights the potential for sustainable improvements in PNO care.

UNASSIGNED: The current demand for autism diagnostic services exceeds the ability of the workforce to assess and diagnose children in a timely manner. One solution may be to equip primary care providers (PCPs) with the tools and expertise needed to diagnose autism within their practice. PCPs are often trusted professionals who have many touchpoints with children during early development, in which they can identify early signs of autism. Recent initiatives have focused on bolstering PCPs\' diagnostic capabilities; however, no studies have examined how the rates of autism diagnosis in primary care have changed over time. We aimed to evaluate whether autism diagnosis in primary care has changed over time and how diagnosis in primary care relates to a child\'s age at the time of diagnosis. We found that the likelihood of a child being diagnosed by a PCP decreased by about 2% with every passing year from 2004 to 2019 when accounting for demographic characteristics. In our sample, PCPs diagnosed children approximately 1 year earlier than non-PCPs (e.g., psychologists and psychiatrists). Further research is needed to understand why the proportion of children diagnosed by PCPs decreases over time. However, this decrease suggests more work is needed to get capacity-building initiatives into community primary care practice. Though we must continue to find effective ways to build community PCPs\' ability to diagnose autism, the present findings support the crucial role PCPs can play in early autism diagnosis.

Although research has increasingly recognized that parents benefit from parent empowerment programs, studies on the outcomes of the capacity-building of practitioners of such programs are generally lacking. Using the results of a non-randomized controlled trial, this study examined the possible outcomes of a related capacity-building program. A total of 56 practitioners were recruited from 10 social service agencies in Hong Kong to participate. Most of them were females with more than 10 years of social work experience. Of these, 28 participated in a 15-session capacity-building program on parent empowerment (serving as the experimental group), while the others did not participate in the capacity-building program (serving as the control group). MANCOVAs were performed to identify any differences between the two groups at different time points. The post-test assessment showed that the level of attitudes around parent empowerment of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group with a large effect size, but no difference was found in their self-perceived competence. Furthermore, the follow-up test revealed that the level of self-perceived competence of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group, with a large effect size. A serial mediation of the levels of favorable attitudes at the post-test and follow-up test on the association between the capacity-building program and self-perceived competence at the follow-up test was also found. This study can contribute to the limited body of knowledge on how to equip practitioners with the professional attitudes and skills to implement parent empowerment programs.

There is an escalating interest in research capacity building across the globe. Research is an integral part of the continuous improvement process, clinical decision making and health system strengthening and should be embedded into the health system. The South African Family Practice Journal editorial team held a workshop on 19 August 2022 at the 24th National Family Practitioners Congress in Cape Town, with the aim of supporting primary care clinicians in their development from early-career researchers to established clinician-scientists. Small group and plenary discussions yielded valuable insights into the lived experiences of early career researchers and highlighted critical action areas to build the landscape of clinician-led research in the South African context.Contribution: This article contributes to current literature by providing insight into the lived experiences of early-career researchers and explores opportunities for research capacity-building.