Advancing Research Through DataCite's Global Access Fund: African Population and Health Research Center

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a leading Pan African research-to-policy institution dedicated to generating evidence, strengthening research capacity, and informing policy action across Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with a West Africa Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal, APHRC is African-based and African-led, committed to nurturing strong research leadership and promoting evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) in the African Research and Development ecosystem.

APHRC regards research data as one of its most valuable assets, its "renewable energy," and treats it as a public good. Recognizing the sensitivity and potential impact of these data in shaping policies, driving open science, and supporting decision-making, robust data governance is essential.

In 2025, with funding from the Data Cite Global Access Fund (GAF), the APHRC Data Governance Team implemented an outreach program aimed at strengthening capacity and awareness of data governance among researchers and the broader data community. The initiative focused on two key objectives: 

(1) Training and Capacity Building, through development of a comprehensive Data Governance Training Curriculum (DGTC) at soma.aphrc.org covering data quality, privacy, anonymization, documentation, metadata, and DOI creation; and 

(2) Awareness and Engagement, promoting understanding of data management and open data practices via webinars, online training, workshops, and conferences, such as the APHRC Data Governance Training, where we introduce DOIs and their associated open metadata, highlighting their role in making research data FAIR and boosting its reusability.

This project represents a critical step in equipping African researchers with the tools and knowledge to manage and share data responsibly while advancing open science.

Increasing Awareness

In February 2025, the APHRC Data Governance Team, in partnership with the Research and Related Capacity Strengthening Division, organized a co-creation workshop to design an implementation strategy for the GAF outreach project. The workshop outlined a detailed calendar of activities, aligning curriculum development with stakeholder engagement through webinars, online trainings, workshops, brown-bag sessions, and Community of Practice (CoP) platforms. This planning followed APHRC's January 2025 participation in the International Data Privacy and Protection Conference in Eldoret, where the team advocated for balanced data access with privacy, anti-data protectionism, and anti-data monetization to support open science.

During the first two quarters of 2025, the team co-developed a seven-module Data Governance Curriculum under the guidance of a curriculum development expert( soma.aphrc.org). Once approved, APHRC's Virtual Learning Academy (VLA) team curated, digitized, and prepared the modules for self-paced learning. The curriculum includes: Data Quality Assurance, Introduction to Data Governance, Data Privacy and Protection, Data Anonymization (featuring a Low/No-Code Dashboard innovation), Data Documentation, Fundamentals of Data Access and Sharing, and DOI Creation and Linkage to Research Outputs.

In the third quarter, the team launched a five-week webinar series to implement the curriculum. The sessions attracted over 800 participants from Africa and beyond. Participants were guided on accessing the VLA, completing modules, and receiving certificates digitally. The CoP provided ongoing engagement, fostering peer learning and exchange of experiences beyond the live sessions. To extend the impact, APHRC delivered three specialized sessions to the INSPIRE Network (14 HDSS sites), covering Data Anonymization, Data Governance, Privacy and Protection, and Data Quality Management.

Beyond trainings, the team deepened awareness through multiple stakeholder engagements: The Annual Data Privacy Conference (January 2025), the East Africa Data Governance Conference (February 2025) – promoting PETs such as K-Anonymity, QualAnon, Differential Privacy, and Federated Platforms, the Open CSO Data Commons Launch (May 2025), and conferences including Wits University and CODATA Global Data Ethics & Governance Symposium (June and September 2025). These engagements highlighted the importance of balancing privacy, open data access, and ethical practices.

Internally, APHRC conducted ten training sessions on documentation using Nesstar Publisher and DOI creation via DataCite Fabrica, resulting in 60 datasets documented and 83 DOIs created and linked. Digitization of curriculum modules ensures scalability and continued access to knowledge. The next steps include refining the VLA-hosted curriculum, pursuing university accreditation, and advocating with Kenya's Commission for University Education (CUE) to introduce Data Privacy and Protection as a common course in universities, solidifying long-term capacity in data governance.

Strengthening Infrastructure

The GAF-funded outreach project has strengthened APHRC's role as a continental leader in data governance, stewardship, and open science. Through a robust training curriculum, digitized modules on the VLA, webinars, and targeted stakeholder engagement, the project has enhanced the capacity of researchers, data professionals, and institutions across Africa and beyond. The initiative increased awareness of critical topics, including data quality, privacy, anonymization, documentation, access, sharing, and DOI management. Practical uptake was achieved through hands-on training, a functional Community of Practice, and participation in global platforms, demonstrating strong demand for structured data governance education. Over 800 participants engaged actively in the webinars, highlighting the continent-wide appetite for accessible, high-quality data governance training.

Documentation of 60 datasets and creation of 83 DOIs strengthened APHRC's data infrastructure, supporting FAIR principles and open science practices. The project facilitated critical discussions on balancing privacy with access, combating data protectionism, and promoting ethical data practices. Moving forward, APHRC will scale the curriculum, seek university accreditation, and advocate for broader adoption of data privacy and protection courses in Kenyan universities. By embedding capacity building, governance, and open science into institutional practices, APHRC is laying a sustainable foundation for evidence-informed decision-making that will benefit researchers, policymakers, and communities across Africa for years to come. Also, we will continue engaging in DataCite's outreach efforts to keep raising awareness about persistent identifiers and open research infrastructure, so we can together support the research community across Africa.

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This project wouldn't have been successful without the diligent work of the following project team members and partners involved: Daniel Mtai Mwanga, Bonface Ingumba, Wanjiru Murigi, Benard Ondiek, Marcella Mwaka, Silas Ooko, Shem Mambe, Faith Mwende Nyamu, Gideon Kiprotich, Wilfred Onchari, Margaret Munyua, Nelson Mbaya, and the special leadership of Agnes Kiragga and Damazo Kadengye.