The Network on Behavioural Research for Child Survival in Nigeria (NETRBRECSIN) has produced six leaders for the Faculty of Public Health and Community Medicine, West African College of Physicians (WACP),a professional organization that promotes education, training, examinations and research in medicine in Africa;National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN), which is the national apex medical education college and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano.
These experts, who are members of NETRBRECSIN have served and are serving in various capacities in their respective universities.
Benjamin S. C. Uzochukwu, a Consultant Community Health Physician and Professor of Public Health, Health Systems & Policy at the Department of Community Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC) was elected Chairman, Faculty of Community Health, WACP, Nigerian Chapter in October 2020.
He will serve in that capacity for a tenure of four years. Prof. Uzochukwu was the founding Director of the Institute of Public Health, UNEC. At present, he is the National Chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN); Director, Grants and Research WACP; and Member, Ministerial Experts Advisory Committee on Covid-19 Health Sector Response from April 2020 till present.
Furthermore, the Faculty of Public Health and Community Medicine, NPMCN elected Prof. A. Aliyu of Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Secretary; Dr. Ezekiel S. Oridota, of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Assistant Secretary; Prof. Alphonsus R. Isara, of University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH)and Dr. Moses P. Chingle of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) as Board Members. They were elected in November 2020 and will serve for a period of two years in the first instance.
Similarly, Dr. Auwal U. Gajida, was appointed the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano. He was appointed in September 2020 and will also serve for a period of two years.
The six leaders are top notch Nigeria medical scholars with decades of teaching and research experiences in medicine and are game changers. They have produced medical experts, who are doing groundbreaking researches and written their names in gold as solution providers to health issues globally.
Again, they have managed different programmes and innovations for better health care at the national and sub-regional levels; and the findings of their researches over the years find expression in their community service activities, which focus on repositioning public health.
In addition, as part of their community service activities, they have been at the fore in strengthening manpower production for the Nigerian health sector beyond their individual universities, particularly on the platform of NETBRECSIN, where they have been working assiduously in collaboration with other academics in some Public Health colleges/departments and Communication departments in Nigerian universities (Ibadan, Lagos, Benin, Zaria, Ekiti, Sokoto, Jos, Ilorin, Calabar, Makurdi, Kano, Maiduguri, Shagamu and Enugu); UNICEF; Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and the Federal Ministry of Health to develop research agenda around national maternal and child health policies and priorities.
The NETBRECSIN, which started in 2011and has held 19 bi-annual workshops, all fully supported by UNICEF; provides direction and leadership in strengthening partnerships between training institutions and key stakeholders for improved Primary Health Care (PHC) in Nigeria aimed at the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and SDG3.
It is a platform for critiquing researches being conducted by postgraduate students from collaborating institutions, in order to improve their quality and ensure relevance to national needs and harvest the results as independent technical, social and behavioural inputs for interventions on maternal and child survival issues in Nigeria.
Additionally, members of the network assist in monitoring PHC implementation in their respective areas of practice; recruit U-Reporters, support behavioural analysis of select U-Report polls data and plan appropriate responses