Africa One Health University Network (AFROHUN) has mounted an aggressive resource mobilization push to ensure sustainability and expansion of its work. With more requests coming in from institutions in countries like Benin, Malawi, South Africa, Egypt, and from countries already covered by the network, the need to develop diverse and innovative sources of funding, becomes even more relevant.
To build internal capacity to deliver on this task, a two-day training for staff (Secretariat and country teams), board members and partners was held in Kampala-Uganda, close to the AFROHUN Headquarters.
The training was conducted by renown Dr. Akanimo Odon | LinkedIn, using a non-conventional training method. It was both fun, serious and an awakening experience. Structured as ‘Practical Innovative Strategies for Achieving Internationalisation and Resource Mobilisation’, the training was different from what participants experienced have elsewhere. There was no cramming the structure of grant proposals or budget templates. It was the kind of training that would make a faint-hearted person hate themselves and probably the trainer. ‘Just why don’t you have the same number of grants like he has? What is wrong with you? Why don’t you have a decent number of contacts in your phonebook? Why is your LinkedIn account looking dead? What is wrong with you?’.
Using the framework of the 5 Ps (Problems, People, Partnerships/Profile, Preparation and Practice), it was a rollercoaster highly experiential training experience for all.
Participants worked in 6 groups of 5-8 participants, incrementally working on a problem of their choice to craft a proposal. Problems tackled included, cervical cancer in Uganda and Cameroon, inadequate access to health services (human and veterinary) by pastoralists in Uganda, mental health disorders among young people in Uganda and Kenya, malnutrition in under-5s in Kasai -DRC, and the ever-growing problem of solid waste management in East Africa. All very exciting and legitimate problems the countries focused on face.
For the People ‘P’, trainees are now AFROHUN’s ‘Money Crew’. Dr. Akanimo emphasized the importance of assembling a winning team; individuals with different skill-sets and responsibilities. The Money Crew is very important in ensuring that work is done in time and seamlessly. He expressed dismay at researchers who want to write proposals on their own. ‘It is a recipe for failure. As a professor, you cannot do all the work, you need people whose job is to spend hours online looking for grant calls, you need people who understand budgets and different funders’ budget templates and requirements. You need someone who can coordinate the whole process, working with partners, collecting the necessary documentation, etc.’. He couldn’t emphasize this enough.
AFROHUN Program Manager, Dr. Irene Naigaga noted with excitement that the long planning for the training had finally yielded. She implored all participants to soak up the content Dr. Akanimo had for them, aptly describing him as the most prolific trainer in resource mobilization.
AFROHUN Chief Executive Officer, Professor William Bazeyo, in his opening remarks noted that as AFROHUN grows bigger and more complex, it is important to look at multiple sources of funding, including local sources as well as appropriate business ventures. At the closing ceremony of the training he emphasised that the training participants are expected to contribute to resource mobilization efforts of the network.
Professor Philemon Wambura, the AFROHUN Board Chair, noted that ‘the training is an investment and not a waste. Everyone is required and encouraged to contribute to resource mobilization efforts for the network’s sustainability”.
He noted that AFROHUN is one of the most unique organizations engaged in the One Health space and the work it is doing in building capacity in young people in the workforce and helping to address challenging issues like pandemics, is a great contribution to workforce development.
Responses from some of the Country Managers after the training:
Samuel Wanjohi (Kenya): I have already reached out to one of the students and we are setting up the money crew thing. This needs to happen and we have already started. Many thanks to the entire AFROHUN management and the Secretariat.
Arouna Ngapagna Njayou (Cameroon): In Cameroon we now have a team. We are going to pay someone maybe 100 USD to track grant calls. We need to engage the active people we have been working with. I will work with deans and Prof. Jeanne and we will get the money to support this. My first reaction was what are we going to do in this training.
Angella Musewa (Uganda): For the first World Bank Pandemic Fund call, the central people in the process sidelined AFROHUN. We made sure we invite these people to the workshop and have now confessed that they did not appreciate the contribution of AFROHUN to the call and the proposal and the work in that sector. This is a positive thing. They have already alerted us to the next call and how we can participate.
Last year alone we submitted seven proposals, but we did not get any. From this training we have learnt what some of the gaps are in the way we put proposals together. We have already reached out to some of the participants in the training like Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA) and there are is positive response. We have reached out to potential funders as well. We are primed to work, and we have students ready to work with us.