The University of North Carolina-Kinshasa School of Public Health Research Partnership in the Democratic Republic of Congo; a Model for Improving Women's and Children's Health Through Research

ABSTRACT The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the fifth most impoverished country in the world, and correspondingly, women and children in the DRC experience poor health outcomes. In the DRC, the maternal mortality rate is six times the target set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and the neonatal mortality rate is more than double the SDG. Low-income countries, like the DRC contribute disproportionately to maternal and neonatal mortality but are often not represented in clinical research. The Kinshasa School of Public Health (KSPH) and the University of North Carolina (UNC) have been research partners since 2005, with the shared mission of improving maternal and child health in low-income countries through the research of sustainable, cost-effective health interventions. Our partnership includes more than 15 years of experience as a research unit in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research. We have assembled a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in strategic areas in maternal and newborn health, including obstetrics and gynecology, neonatology, infectious diseases, tropical medicine. Our team is facile in utilizing a variety of research methodologies, including epidemiology, clinical trials and implementation science. We have built an extensive research infrastructure in rural, peri-urban and urban communities to conduct community and facility-based clinical studies in the DRC. Since 2016, we have published 271 papers, completed 22 studies, and enrolled 90,390 women and 62,117 children in research studies. The KSPH-UNC Partnership, led by Drs. Antoinette Tshefu (KSPH; iPI) and Melissa Bauserman (UNC; PI), and has the expertise and resources to address research questions in a variety of areas of maternal and child health. Our overall goal is to discover evidenced-based strategies to improve health outcomes in low and lower-middle-income countries. To achieve this goal, we will: execute high-quality studies with early identification of pregnancies, rigorous tracking of outcomes and follow-up rates >90%, support the Global Network with innovative trials and trial designs and strengthen research infrastructure in the DRC and develop the next generation of research leaders. The KSPH-UNC Partnership is uniquely positioned to contribute to the mission of the Global Network, and we are fully committed to continued support of the Global Network through collaborative research proposals.