Impacts of an abbreviated personal agency training with refugee women and their male partners on economic empowerment, gender-based violence, and mental health: a randomized controlled trial in Rwanda.

Introduction: We assessed the impact of a personal agency-based training for refugee women and their male partners on their economic and social empowerment, rates of intimate partner violence (IPV), and non-partner violence (NPV).

Methods: We conducted an individually randomized controlled trial with 1061 partnered women (aged 18-45) living in a refugee camp in Rwanda. Women received two days of training, and their partners received one day of training.

Four delays of child mortality in Rwanda: a mixed methods analysis of verbal social autopsies.

Objectives: We sought to understand healthcare-seeking patterns and delays in obtaining effective treatment for rural Rwandan children aged 1-5 years by analysing verbal and social autopsies (VSA). Factors in the home, related to transport and to quality of care in the formal health sector (FHS) were thought to contribute to delays.

Design: We collected quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional data using the validated 2012 WHO VSA tool.

Exploring Drivers of Infant Deaths in Rural Rwanda Through Verbal Social Autopsy.

Background: Rwanda has been a leader in the global effort to reduce infant mortality, particularly in regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Although rates have dropped, deaths still occur.

Objective: To explore the care pathways and barriers taken by infant caregivers before the death of their infant through a verbal social autopsy study in 2 districts in eastern Rwanda.

Motivations and Constraints to Family Planning: A Qualitative Study in Rwanda's Southern Kayonza District.

Background: While Rwanda has achieved impressive gains in contraceptive coverage, unmet need for family planning is high, and barriers to accessing quality reproductive health services remain. Few studies in Rwanda have qualitatively investigated factors that contribute to family planning use, barriers to care, and quality of services from the community perspective.

Methods: We undertook a qualitative study of community perceptions of reproductive health and family planning in Rwanda's southern Kayonza district, which has the country's highest total fertility rate.

Approaches and impact of non-academic research capacity strengthening training models in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Background: Research is essential to identify and prioritize health needs and to develop appropriate strategies to improve health outcomes. In the last decade, non-academic research capacity strengthening trainings in sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with developing research infrastructure and the provision of individual mentorship support, has been used to build health worker skills. The objectives of this review are to describe different training approaches to research capacity strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa outside academic programs, assess methods used to evaluate research capacity strengthening activities, and learn about the challenges facing research capacity strengthening and the strategies/innovations required to overcome them.