Abdu A Adamu is physician scientist specializing in vaccine epidemiology and implementation research. He has advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative
knowledge synthesis, use of implementation science frameworks, and systems thinking, including the application of mHealth and GIS in health programmes. He received his M.Sc. from the
University of the Witwatersrand in 2017 and his PhD from Stellenbosch University in 2019. His
work and research interests include theory-informed context assessment and using data to co-develop appropriate strategies to improve access and delivery systems for
health services (especially immunization) in sub-Saharan Africa. He has
experience working on immunization and diseases of poverty (neglected tropical diseases),
including TB and HIV.
Dr. Duduzile Ndwandwe is the Deputy Director of Cochrane South Africa. She studied for her Bachelor’s degree (Microbiology and Physiology) at the University of Limpopo from 2002 to 2005, her Master’s degree (Molecular Cell Biology) at the University of the Witwatersrand from 2007 to 2008, and her Ph.D. (Molecular Mycobacteriology) from 2008 to 2013. She is a project leader for the Clinical Trials Registry portfolio (the Pan-African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) and the South African National Clinical Trials Registry (SANCTR)). Her previous work has been on implementing various HIV prevention clinical trials in South Africa and she currently engages with critical stakeholders nationally and regionally in her efforts to promote the transparency of evidence generated in the conduct of clinical trials.
Professor Charles Shey Wiysonge is the Team Lead for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, and an Extraordinary Professor of Global Health at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
He received his MD from the Université de Yaoundé I in Cameroon, his MPhil from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and his PhD from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His previous appointments include the following: Senior Director at the South African Medical Research Council; Director of Cochrane South Africa; Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Cape Town; Deputy Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care and Professor of Community Health at Stellenbosch University; Manager of the Vaccines for Africa Initiative and Chief Research Officer at the University of Cape Town; Chief Research Officer at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva; Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Central Technical Group in charge of the Expanded Programme on Immunization in Cameroon; and Medical Epidemiologist at the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun in Yaoundé. His current research focuses on immunization implementation science.