Foluso Ogunmodede (PRO)
One of Nigeria’s foremost experts in Health Demography and Associate Professor at Federal University Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Adedini, has bagged this year’s Social Sciences and Humanities postdoctoral fellowships valued at $780, 000.
In an announcement by Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation), Dr. Adedini alongside Hauwa Mohammed Sani from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Cynthia Nwobodo, University of Nigeria, Nsukka were picked from Nigeria after rigorous scrutiny of their proposals.
Others were Ebenezer Forkuo Amankwaa and Samuel Ajorlolo (University of Ghana), Samba Diarra (University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali), Elgidius Ichumbaki (University of Da es Salaam, Tanzania), Aisah Sembatya Nakiwala (Makerere University, Uganda), Kellen Kiambati (Uganda Matyrs University, Eria Serwajja (Makerere University), Laury L. Ocen (Lira University) and Victoria Flava Namuggala (Makerere University, Uganda).
In the announcement, SFA Foundation said the $780, 000 grant which was from the Carnegie Corporation of New York was for the 12 Scholars of African extraction, who had scaled through the rigous of academic scrutiny to qualify for postdoctoral fellowships in the field of social sciences and humanities in Africa.
It said: “The Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation), with a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York, is announcing 12 African researchers, who have been provided postdoctoral fellowships in the field of social sciences and humanities in Africa.
“The 12 fellowships, which represents a $780, 000 investment through the SFA Foundation’s Preparing Outstanding Social Sciences Investigators to Benefit Lives and Environments in Africa Programmes (POSSIBLE-Africa) initiative, seek to enable the production of evidence to inform sustainable development in Africa.”
“POSSIBLE-Africa is a two-year initiative designed to fund research in the fields of SOCIAL SCIENCES and Humanities (SSH) across Africa. The fellows, who are addressing a wide array of development and societal opportunities in Africa are drawn from Uganda, Mali, Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria.
“They will receive funding of up to USD 65, 000 each to support their research endeavours over the course of their funding and to cultivate them into globally competitive social sciences and humanities research leaders in Africa.
“The initiative will not only provide financial support but also offer capacity-building opportunities to empower fellows and drive transformative change in social sciences and humanities capacity development across the continent.
“The fellows are having 12 weeks of formal research capacity development, delivered through a hybrid approach that includes virtual training, mentoring and peer mentoring as well as a 2-week in-person Summer School where Fellows will introduce their research topics and receive training on Research Design and Planning and Scientific Centre and Publishing. The training facilitated by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), will improve the Fellows’ perspectives, knowledge and skills and help them to improve their technical research proposals which they will implement during this fellowship.
Certificate will be awarded to the Fellows for their participation and course completion.”
However, while Dr. Adedini would focus on community and facility-based surveillance of child mortality and morbidity with a view to investigating causes of under-five deaths in selected communities in Nigeria, his other counterparts- Hauwa Mohammed Sani would explore women’s pivotal role in fostering conflict resolution and peace-building in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara States, Cynthia Nwodo embark on capabilities for controlled environment agriculture in southeast Nigeria with the aim of enhancing food security for African households in the face of climate change.
Meanwhile, Dr. Adedini, who was formerly a Lecturer/Researcher in the Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and Visiting Researcher with the Programme in Demography and Population Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, is now an Associate Professor at Federal University Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
He obtained his Ph.D in Demography and Population Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
A recipient of a number of academic laurels and fellowships, including Fogarty Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, CARTA Ph.D Fellowship, Wits University Postgraduate Merit Award, among others, Dr. Adedini has expertise in health demography with decades of research experience and monitoring and evaluation.
However, his research interests are broadly on the issues of child health, sexual and reproductive health of women and young people, and family planning and urban development nexus.
Dr. Adedini, who led the establishment of the first urban-based HDSS site in South Africa has experience in mortality surveillance, using population health perspectives. He has more than 100 scholarly publications in reputed referred journals.
