From 29 April to 3 May 2019 at the Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifique en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), Afrique One-ASPIRE program provided training on qualitative data collection and analysis methods using NVivo and Maxqdata.

The objective of this training was to provide African MSc and PhD students as well as postdocs with the opportunity to learn about qualitative research methods and analysis using qualitative data software.

On the first day, students learnt about different qualitative data collection methods. This was an interactive training where students had to participate actively during the lesson. On the second and third day, students were introduced to NVivo or Maxqdata. Lectures on the general application of the software were followed by hand on, applied workshops. On the last two days, the participants learnt about ways to integrate qualitative and quantitative data to maximise the output of their data. In an interactive session, the students formed groups and had to critically evaluate a scientific study which used mixed methods. This was followed by each group preparing a power point presentation and presenting their critical evaluation the next day. Finally, a short session on how to write papers ended the course.

This session of a total duration of 38 hours was animated for the qualitative part by Drs Adou Djane and Katharina Kreppel of CSRS and NM-AIST respectively. The software training was provided by Jacob Mobio and Dr. Severin Kouame.

A total of 26 students (Masters and PhD) from IRED, EISMV, University of Ghana, CSRS participated. They have acquired new skills on how to collect and analyse data which they can now implement and apply to their research. Qualitative and quantitative methods were integrated to achieve an improved holistic understanding of their research topics. This is important for One Health, because the subject is interdisciplinary and aims to answer research questions across a multitude of subjects.

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