The role of mentoring in research ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some experiences through the CARTA opportunity

ABSTRACT

Mentoring is important for improving capacity development in population and public health research in sub-Saharan Africa. A variety of experiences have been documented since Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) admitted the first cohort in 2011. However, the experience of mentoring opportunities in CARTA has not been studied. Our study focused on the perceptions, experiences and challenges of mentoring among CARTA fellows. We adopted a descriptive design based on data collected from the fellows using an online semi-structured questionnaire. Out of 143 fellows in the programme, a total of 52 fellows from seven cohorts completed the questionnaire. Fifty-three percent of the respondents were females, more than half belonged to the health sciences while 35% were in the social sciences. Fellows received mentoring from CARTA graduates and experienced researchers in the CARTA network, but they also engaged in peer-mentoring with one another. Teaching, publishing, conference attendance and grant application were considered particularly important in mentoring, but mentors and mentees highlighted personal and social issues such as networking, work-family life balance, and managing stress and time, as challenges. There is a need for more formalised but flexible mentorship initiative in the CARTA fellowship to facilitate enduring relationships for career development.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• capacity-building
• Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA)
• doctoral training mentorship
• multidisciplinary
• teaching and research

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) who funded earlier presentation at the 2017 African Studies Association (ASA). We also acknowledge the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). CARTA is jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center and the University of the Witwatersrand and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant No–B 8606.R02), Sida (Grant No:54100029), the DELTAS Africa Initiative (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z). The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)’s Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) and supported by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) with funding from the Wellcome Trust (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z) and the UK government. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author. We acknowledge Devayani Tirthali and Rachel Strohm of AuthorAid for their editorial input and all the CARTA fellows who participated in the survey exercise. We also acknowledge the peer reviewers for their critical comments which improved the manuscript. Authors’ contributions: ODS conceptualized the study, undertook data analysis, interpreted the results. KOA worked on the introduction, literature review, discussion and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved of the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) who funded earlier presentation at the 2017 African Studies Association (ASA). We also acknowledge the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). CARTA is jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center and the University of the Witwatersrand and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant No–B 8606.R02), Sida (Grant No:54100029), the DELTAS Africa Initiative (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z). The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)’s Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) and supported by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) with funding from the Wellcome Trust (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z) and the UK government.