Capacity building on Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) is one of the primary objectives of the SMART Africa Center. More specifically, SMART Africa aims to develop and implement training activities and provide a support structure to:
1) improve sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) partner countries’ resources and skills to conduct implementation research on scaling up child mental health intervention, and
2) apply science-based methods and information in developing CAMH policies and programs.
SMART Africa’s capacity building activities are guided by the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020. The Plan identifies four aspects of country capacity that are needed to enhance and/or address child mental health gaps: 1) leadership and governance; 2) integrated mental health in community settings, 3) implementation of child and adolescent-focused evidence-based practices (EBPs); and 4) information systems and research on child and adolescent mental health.
With key support from the SMART Africa-South Africa team, the center offers capacity building opportunities to building to government representatives, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), community and academic stakeholders in Uganda, Ghana, and Kenya through six specific modes of engagement:
- in-person capacity building
- ongoing team support
- policymaker engagement
- stakeholder engagement
- mentoring
- dissemination and access to resources
For more details about our capacity building activities, please read our capacity building report.