PENAPH

The Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) is a partnership of organizations and individuals that seek to facilitate the continued development and application of participatory methods in epidemiology. PENAPH partners include animal health and public health organizations committed to one health and ecohealth approaches. The overall goal of PENAPH is to enhance epidemiological services in the developing world by making them more representative of and responsive to the needs of beneficiaries.

PENAPH membership is global. During the first three years of operation, PENAPH has contributed to the development of expertise throughout the world and has had requests from Africa, Asia and South America to contribute to the development of local networks and organizations that seek to sustain participatory approaches to epidemiology within the professional communities in their region. Recognizing the importance of local initiative, PENAPH has taken action to meet this grass-roots demand.

The PENAPH – Empowering National and Regional Stakeholders Project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, provides financing to support up to three national or regional groups to undertake activities and solidify their organization.

Objective: To provide opportunities for national or regional groups to self-organize to carry out participatory epidemiology activities

Funding: Up to 3 applications will be funded. Maximum total budget per activity is 11,000 USD. Three thousand USD is available to support mentor involvement from one of the partner organizations. Co-funding of group activities from other on-going projects is encouraged.

Description: The proposals under this call should include activities that directly contribute to the self-organization of local partner groups that are eligible to become members of PENAPH. These activities can include group studies and/or workshops. One of the outputs must be a brief charter that describes the objective, membership and operating principals of the local partner. Existing organizations such as Universities, non-governmental organizations and regional organizations can propose to host the activity provided that a collaborative network approach is employed. The local organization can be informal (not a legal entity), however the financing arrangement will require either named individuals, or legal defined organization (such as a University) to take financial responsibility.

A mentor is defined as an experienced Participatory Epidemiology (PE) trainer from one of the PENAPH partner organizations who has overseen practical PE activities in the past. The role of the mentor is to provide guidance on proposal development, formation of the organization as well as design, implementation and analysis of any studies proposed. A separate fund is available to support developing country participation in the PENAPH Conference, so this does not have to be budgeted.

Examples of activities include:

• Inception workshops for a local organization
• Group PE studies that include formation of a local organization
• Working meetings to define curricula, develop proposals, etc.

Other activities or any combination of the above is possible.

Application Requirements:

• A local group and mentor team (Brief description of local group and mentor CV)
• A brief description of the candidates training in PE including the organization that implemented the training, the length of the training, key topics covered and the amount of practical field work including in the training
• The mentor comes from a partner organization and has demonstrated expertise in PE and group facilitation
• A two-page concept note detailing objective, relevance to development context, a summary description of the organization to be formed, the activity proposed, methodology and outputs
• A brief budget covering all costs requested from the project

Required outputs:

• Brief report for presentation at the PENAPH Technical Workshop planned for December 2012
• Brief organizational charter describing objectives, membership and operating principals
• Report of workshop and or study activities

Review Criteria:

Required

• Previous completion of a full PE introductory training workshop by participants.
• A mentor from a PENAPH partner organization

Primary evaluation criteria:

• Qualifications of Trainee/Mentor Team
• Quality of proposal
• Relevance of study topic to development context
• Feasibility
• Level of mentor support

Desirable:

• Value added to other PENAPH activities
• Additional outputs proposed

Application Submission and Deadline:

Applications should be submitted to PENAPH through Jeff Mariner no later than February 24^th, 2012. Submission should be made by E-mail to j.mariner@cgiar.org and include; PENAPH National and Regional Organization Application in the subject line. Receipt will be confirmed. Decisions will be communicated within one month of closure of the application period.

You can read more about PENAPH and see announcements at www.penaph.net. To assure prompt notification of regarding calls for proposals and workshop developments, PENAPH suggests those interested visit the website and follow the link ‘Join our online community’ to join PENAPH.

The Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) is a partnership of organizations and individuals that seek to facilitate the continued development and application of participatory methods in epidemiology. The overall goal of PENAPH is to enhance epidemiological services in the developing world by making them more representative of and responsive to the needs of beneficiaries.

PENAPH seeks to encourage high standards of training and practice in participatory epidemiology (PE) and provides certification for practitioners as a means of encouraging good training practice. The PENPH training process recognizes the importance of practical experience.

There are three requirements for PENAPH certification as a PE Practitioner. These are:

• Completed a 10-day PE Introductory Training Workshop that includes practical field exercise
• Completed a short field study, usually of one-months duration, and provided a report of results
• Participated in a three day refresher training to share results and experiences

For some trainees who have completed an introductory workshop, resources have not always been available to complete the field studies portion of the training program. The PENAPH – Empowering National and Regional Stakeholders Project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, provides financing for a mentored field study activity that seeks to facilitate trainees to complete their practical field experience requirements.

Objective: To provide opportunities for individuals who have completed an introductory training workshop in PE practice to obtain the practical experience required to complete the requirements for PENAPH PE practitioner certification.

Funding: Up to 5 applications will be funded. Maximum total budget from project 6,000 USD per mentored study. Co-funding from other on-going projects encouraged.

Description:

This project activity will support up to five individuals to complete short mentored field studies. The study topics should be relevant to development challenges and ideally will contribute to assist complimentary programs to reach their objectives. An important secondary objective is to help PENAPH partners strengthen their networks with local partners. It is envisaged that the studies will require 1 to 2 months of field work which should be completed within 4 months of receipt of the award.

Studies that indirectly contribute or add value to efforts for the formation of local PE organizations will be encouraged. One required output is the submission of a paper for the PENAPH conference planned for December 2012. The paper will be reviewed by the Workshop Technical Committee and may be either accepted as an oral publication, as a poster, or rejected. Submission is required by September 15^th, 2012. In the case of rejected papers that were submitted on time, the study team would have an opportunity to respond to comments and resubmit. Publications for peer-reviewed journals are also encouraged. Presentation and participation in the Technical Workshop will be considered equivalent to participation in a refresher trainee and the trainee will receive a PENAPH Practitioner certificate at the closing of the technical workshop.

The funding available is envisaged to cover mentor and trainee field travel costs (transport and expenses) and materials. An advance payment will be made to enable the field work and a final payment will be made based upon the completion of reporting requirements. This information will be detailed in a consulting agreement between ILRI and the awardees signed at the time of award of the funding

A mentor is defined as an experienced PE trainer from one of the PENAPH partner organizations who has overseen practical PE study assignments in the past. The mentor’s role in the field studies will be to guide the trainee in the development, implementation and analysis of the study. A separate fund is available to support developing country participation in the PENAPH Conference, so this does not have to be budgeted.

Applications will be reviewed by a committee of representatives from at least three PENAPH partner organizations.

Application Requirements:

• A trainee and mentor team (CVs attached)
• A brief description of the candidates training in PE including the organization that implemented the training, the length of the training, key topics covered and the amount of practical field work including in the training
• The mentor comes from a PENAPH partner organization and has demonstrated expertise in PE
• A two-page concept note detailing objective, relevance to development context, study site and stakeholder groups, methodology, timeframe and expected outputs.
• A brief budget covering all costs requested from the project

Required Outputs:

• A publication quality paper submitted for presentation at the PENAPH Technical Workshop planned for December 2012. The paper will be reviewed for quality by the technical program committee of the Technical Workshop. The final payment will be made on the basis of the acceptance of the paper as either a oral presentation or poster.

Review Criteria:

Required

• Previous completion of a full PE introductory training workshop.
• A mentor from a PENAPH partner organization

Primary evaluation criteria:

• Qualifications of Trainee/Mentor Team
• Quality of proposal
• Relevance of study topic to development context
• Feasibility
• Level of mentor support

Desirable:

• Value added to other PENAPH activities
• Additional outputs proposed

Application Submission and Deadline:

Applications should be submitted to Jeff Mariner no later than February 17^th, 2012. Submission should be made by E-mail to j.mariner@cgiar.org and include; PENAPH Mentored Field Study Application in the subject line. Receipt will be confirmed.

PENAPH will facilitate a four day introductory course to Participatory Epidemiology at the Summer Public Health Institute (PHI) at the University of Minnesota. The PHI offers opportunities for students to take classes in Culturally Responsive Public Health, Environmental Science, Food Protection, Global Health, Infectious Disease Epi, Public Health Leadership, Public Health Preparedness, Response & Recovery, Research Methods & Women and Child Health.  This year Christine Jost will be lead facilitator of the PE course using materials developed by PENAPH partners.  The course will run from May 31 to June 3, 2011. Financial aid is available for some students.  Go to http://www.sph.umn.edu/ce/institute/ to learn more.