8-11 September 2019 the joint conference of the of the Sub-Saharan Network (SUSAN) of the International Biometrics Society (IBS) and DELTAS Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) took place at the South African Medical Research Council in Cape Town. The conference was attended by about 190 delegates from various biostatistical networks with the majority coming from the DELTAS Africa SSACAB Consortium’s MSc and PhD Fellows. The conference program covered a wide range of classical and Bayesian statistical theory and their application to public health, health statistics and stakeholder engagements and offered a platform for junior SSACAB researchers to showcase their research and engage in networking and skills-based workshops with African and international scholars. Three DELTAS Africa SSACAB MSc and PhD Fellows scooped prizes for the posters and oral presentations at the joint conference. Two PhD Fellows Mr. Collins Okoyo and Ms. Susan Gachau from the Kenya Wellcome Trust Research Programme and registered with the University of Nairobi had a tie in the Second prize for the best Oral presentation. Their presentation titles were “Mathematical Modeling of the Interruption of the Transmission of Soil Transmitted Helminths Infections in Kenya” and “Multiple imputation of clinician-level covariates applied in modelling quality of clinician-prescribed care: Sensitivity analysis of departure from Missing at Random (MAR) assumption” respectively. For the Posters, Mr Qondeni Ndlangamandla from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science won the First prize for his Poster presentation. His presentation was titled ”Modeling Anemia in Children under five in Tanzania and Angola.” The Fellows were commended for their hard work and using innovative biostatistical techniques in their research.
The subsequent Annual General Meeting of SSACAB highlighted the impact of the African Academy of Sciences/ AESA Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training, and Science (DELTAS) Africa initiative for the development of accredited Master level teaching programs in Biostatistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, development of a cadre of PhD level statisticians and the opportunities for online learning opportunities.