WHO/Europe recently renewed its partnership with one of its collaborating centres, the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. First named a collaborating centre in 2016, the Nuffield Centre supports WHO/Europe through its work on research and capacity-strengthening for health policy, governance and services.
The Centre’s Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (MNCAH) Unit, in particular, is instrumental in improving health policies and systems in pursuit of universal health coverage and primary health care (PHC) for vulnerable groups.
In its ongoing collaboration with WHO, the Nuffield Centre has lent its expertise to various crucial initiatives. These include community engagement programmes for maternal and youth health care, the development of evidence-informed policies, projects to advance comprehensive inclusion in MNCAH services, and the promotion of One Health approaches to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
“The Nuffield Centre is a prime example of a centre of excellence contributing to WHO’s work,” said Dr Martin Weber, Team Lead for Quality of Care and Programme Manager of Child and Adolescent Health at WHO/Europe. “The renewal of the partnership is a testimony to the Centre's dedication and drive to support maternal and child health within the WHO European Region. They are our trusted partner in promoting best practices to benefit mothers, newborns, children and adolescents across Europe, and we appreciate their continued dedication to our mission.”
Global impact of Nuffield Centre’s research
Working with social networks in minority ethnic communities in the United Kingdom, Professor Ghazala Mir, Research Lead at the Nuffield Centre, helped to address gaps in services for expecting women with disadvantaged backgrounds through locally developed and sustainable interventions.
The establishment of the Inequalities Research Network, hosted by the University of Leeds, expands on this work. It brings together over 20 research centres worldwide, pooling resources and expertise to address inequity challenges in priority areas such as gender, health and health care, children’s and young people’s development, disabilities, and more.
Through the URBANE project, Dr Bassey Ebenso, Associate Professor at the Nuffield Centre, works with a consortium of partners from Europe and Africa to apply a One Health approach to address the challenge of sustainable agriculture for food and nutrition security. Together, they support the adoption of training programmes and policies that help countries advance towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), European Green Deal targets and Africa-EU Partnership goals.
Dr Jessica Mitchell, Research Fellow at the Nuffield Centre, supports the Quadripartite Working Group on Youth Engagement for AMR, a partnership between WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). Her work involves exploring unconventional methods of engagement with youth, uplifting youth perspectives within the AMR discourse, and promoting evidence-based examples of good practices, tools and initiatives to reach youth networks and audiences in Europe and beyond.
Professor Rebecca King, Head of the Nuffield Centre, said, “We are delighted that the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development is the Collaborating Centre on Research and Capacity Strengthening of Health Policy, Governance and Services. This status helps to consolidate our long history of engagement with WHO, and we look forward to continuing to bring our expertise in health system strengthening, community engagement, MNCAH and antimicrobial resistance to this partnership.”
Innovative tools to improve maternal and child health
As part of this collaboration, Dr Mayeh Omar and Dr Francis Poitier, alongside WHO colleagues, have developed a microplanning tool and related implementation guide for programmes addressing the needs of women and children on the PHC level. The tool and guide target programme managers at the subnational (or district) level, such as those working in health facilities close to communities.
The tool and guide are designed to be both comprehensive and practical to facilitate integration into current planning and implementation processes. They will be piloted in the next month and revised based on end-user feedback and consultations to further incorporate behavioural and cultural insights from districts and communities supporting the delivery of the European Programme of Work, 2020–2025.
Dr Blerta Maliqi, Policy, Strategy and Programmes Team Lead in the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO headquarters, emphasized the far-reaching impact of collaborating centres like the Nuffield Centre. She noted, “We have witnessed among the Nuffield Centre staff a level of vision, competency and commitment to strengthening health service delivery that is admirable and significantly accelerates WHO’s ability to support vulnerable communities.”
Education and student engagement
The collaboration also includes an educational component for students. Each year, students from the Nuffield Centre visit WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, for training and updates on priority health topics. This year, for example, they learned about adolescent sexual and reproductive health, the global health workforce, the pandemic treaty, vaccine hesitancy, AMR and mental health, among other topics.
“The continued designation of the Nuffield Centre at the University of Leeds as a WHO collaborating centre is fantastic news and a recognition of the outstanding contributions to global health that it has made for over 40 years,” said Professor Nick Plant, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation at the University of Leeds.
“At the heart of the University strategy, which is ‘Universal Values, Global Change’, is the need to tackle inequalities, benefit societies and drive change. The Nuffield Centre embodies this vision, and its commitment to developing health systems and long-term capacity-building in low- and middle-income countries has resulted in a bold portfolio of research, teaching and knowledge exchange that flourishes with innovation and collaboration,” he added.
Professor Plant concluded, “The University celebrates this important recognition of the work of the Nuffield Centre, whose excellent partnerships and initiatives are having a significant impact on providing solutions to emerging global challenges.”