Sustainable Statistical Capacity-Building for Africa: The Biostatistics Case

Several major global challenges, including climate change and water scarcity, warrant a scientific approach to generating solutions. Developing high quality and robust capacity in (bio)statistics is key to ensuring sound scientific solutions to these challenges, so collaboration between academic and research institutes should be high on university agendas.To strengthen capacity in the developing world, South-North partnerships should be a priority. The ideas and examples of statistical capacity-building presented in this article are the result of several monthly online discussions between a mixed group of authors having international experience and formal links with Hasselt University in Belgium. The discussion focuses on statistical capacity-building through education (teaching), research, and societal impact. We have adopted an example-based approach, and in view of the background of the authors, the examples refer mainly to biostatistical capacity-building. Although many universities worldwide have already initiated university collaborations for development, we hope and believe that our ideas and concrete examples can serve as inspiration to further strengthen South-North partnerships on statistical capacity-building.