Lihiket Postdoctoral Fellows Presented their Research Findings A half-day dissemination workshop was held on Jun 19, 2024 by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s (EPHI) Health System Research Directorate.
The workshop included the dissemination of findings from the Lihiket project postdoctoral fellows. Representatives from the Ministry of Health, Health System Innovation, and the Quality Lead Executive Office discussed the current government directions on quality of care. The Lihiket project postdoctoral fellows also presented their findings. It is a two-year postdoctoral fellowship program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Lihiket (Excellence) project was established in September 2022 through a tripartite collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, EPHI, and the University of Gondar. The aim was to strengthen institutional research capacity and deliver priority maternal, neonatal, and child health research. Each of the three postdoctoral fellows in this program submitted three papers to international journals as planned.
Dr. Getachew Tolera, Deputy Director of EPHI, opened the workshop and acknowledged the Lihiket team’s efforts to complete the project within the planned time period. He highly such types of events would facilitate ample opportunity for conducting collaborative researches among policy makers, academics, and research institutions, and gives a chance for further discussion. He also emphasized that EPHI will continue to play the evidence generation role to different actors who are working in the area of evidence to policy. He also presented certificates to the Excellence “Lihiket” project postdoctoral fellows for the completion of the program.
Dr. Binyam Tilahun, Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer at the University of Gondar, also recognized the efforts of the Lihiket project team by acknowleding the mentors from EPHI, UOG, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team members. He appreciated the presentation skills of the postdoctoral fellows and he said that replicating this skill is important.
He also mentioned that this collaborative work would continue with the Lihiket 2.0 project.
Lihiket 2.0, which is a collaborative project between six CBMP universities (University of Gondar, Mekelle University, Jimma University, Hawassa University, Haramaya University, and Addis Ababa University), EPHI, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.