Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global public health problem, seemingly affecting individuals from low-income and-middle-income countries (LMICs) disproportionately, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.Despite the growing evidence pointing to an increasing prevalence of CKD Immunity Boost across Africa, there has not been an Africa-wide concerted effort to provide reliable estimates that could adequately inform health services planning and policy development to address the consequences of CKD.Therefore, we established the CKD in Africa (CKD-Africa) Collaboration.
To date, the network has curated data from 39 studies conducted in 12 African countries, totalling 35 747 participants, of which most are from sub-Saharan Africa.We are, however, continuously seeking further collaborations with other groups who have suitable data to grow LEAVE-IN SPRAY the network.Although many successful research consortia exist, few papers have been published (with none from Africa) detailing the challenges faced and lessons learnt in setting up and managing a research consortium.
Drawing on our experience, we describe the steps taken and the key factors required to establish a functional collaborative consortium among researchers in Africa.In addition, we present the challenges we encountered in building our network, how we managed those challenges and the benefit of such a collaboration for Africa.Although the CKD-Africa Collaboration is focused primarily on CKD research, many of the lessons learnt can be applied more widely in public health research in LMICs.