By Diakpomrere, Ogheneworo Epiphany
Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation (CERHI) on Tuesday 18th January, 2022 held a One-day workshop at the Theatre Hall 2, CERHI, University of Benin (UNIBEN), tagged “Workshop on Research Priorities Agenda Setting in Reproductive Health.” The workshop was targeted at Learned Fellows from all disciplines of human endeavor, Staff and Students of the University of Benin, and Virtual Participants within and outside Nigeria. The CERHI Research Coordinator, Dr. Rose Ugiagbe, opened the workshop. In his welcome address, the UNIBEN CERHI Leader, Prof Friday Okonofua, stated that CERHI is a research centre used to promote issues in reproductive health. Speaking further, Prof Okonofua also appreciated the efforts of the different presenters of key research ideas and encouraged them to develop innovative research concept notes capable of proffering solution to the challenges in reproductive health. In his words, “you cannot be short of challenges to be addressed; everyday new ones come up. Describing the problem has been over flogged, but finding the root causes has not been done so well.” Research Ideas featured include; Research Priorities for Endometriosis in Research Restricted Countries by Dr. Uche A. Menakaya; COVID19 and Perinatal Mortality by Dr. Loretta Ntiomo (Virtual Presenter); Access to Primary Health Care by Women and Children by Dr. Bola Ekezue and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Maternal Mortality by Dr. Eli Sukarime. Present at the workshop were Former Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) Academic (UNIBEN), Prof. Michael Aziken, Immediate Past Director Centre for Gender Studies UNIBEN – Prof. (Mrs.) Uwa Edosomwan, Representative of Head of Department (HOD), Sociology – Dr. Greg Igbinomwanhia, Programme Coordinator CERHI – Prof. (Mrs.) Akhere Omonkhua, Epiphany Diakpomrere (WHARCs Communication Officer), Henrietta Efe (WHARCs Program Officer, M.SC and PhD Students of CERHI, Undergraduate level students of UNIBEN, amongst others.
CERHI was founded in December 2014. It is a world bank supported project at UNIBEN aimed at implementing high quality training and applied research for professionals needed to tackle the population and region through human resources. The workshop extended, expanded and enlarged the essence of research in reproductive health.