Lessons for the future direction in demographic and health research in developing countries will take centre stage in discussions at the 10th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the INDEPTH Network to be held in Accra from September 27-30.
A statement signed by Mrs Jeannette Quarcoopome, Communications and External Relations Manager, said the annual event was the flagship programme of the INDEPTH Network, an international network of centres involved in demographic and health research in low-and-middle income countries.
It said over 300 participants including leading scientists and researchers from 33 countries across the world would attend this year's meeting.
Also participating would be 18 young scientists from 10 countries whose participation is fully funded by the INDEPTH Network.
It said it was a major global annual gathering of demographers, epidemiologists, public health specialists, social scientists and other scientific researchers from Africa, Asia, Oceania and other parts of the world.
Its main objective is to "bring together scientists in INDEPTH member health and demographic surveillance systems in low- and middle-income countries and many other international participants from the scientific and funder/donor communities to share their experiences and deliberate on future directions" according to Dr. Osman Sankoh, Executive Director of the INDEPTH Network.
The statement said this year's meeting was being hosted by the three member centres of INDEPTH Network in Ghana - Dodowa, Kintampo and Navrongo Health Research Centres of the Ghana Health Service.
Membership of the INDEPTH Network is currently made up of 38 Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems in 19 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
These centres collect information on births, deaths and migrations on entire populations within their areas of operations, usually occupying whole districts.
The statement said the centres presented remarkable opportunities for various kinds of important health and social research to be conducted, including intervention studies.