Background & Evolution

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a non-profit, non-governmental international organization committed to conducting high quality and policy-relevant research on population and health issues facing sub-Saharan Africa.

 The Center was established in 1995 as a Population Policy Research Fellowship program of the Population Council, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2001, it became an autonomous institution with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Evolution of the Center

APHRC’s Evolution Formerly the African Population Policy Research Center, the African Population and Health Research Center was established in 1995 as a program of the Population Council, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. This arrangement continued until formal legal agreements were developed with the Government of Kenya (GoK) in June 2001. The agreement with the GoK grants the Center certain privileges and immunities, including: establishment of its Head Office in Nairobi. On August 1, 2001, the Center disengaged its administrative and program operations from the Population Council. It became an autonomous non-profit and non-governmental international organization with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and staffed by an international team of African scientists.

The Center is also registered with the Registrar of Companies in Kenya, giving it distinct legal status in the country. Earlier in April 1999, the Center was registered as a Non-profit corporation in the State of Delaware in the United States of America. In September 2001, it obtained tax exemption from the United States Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c) 3 of the US tax code. The Center was initially designed as a Population Policy Research Fellowship Program aimed at attracting and retaining well trained Africans back to the continent and enabling them to develop their research skills and their professional links with other relevant African institutions. The rationale for such a program centered on the lack of an enabling institutional environment for African scholars to engage in policy-relevant population and health research.

The ultimate objectives of the fellowship program were to: a) strengthen professional and institutional research capacity in Africa; b) encourage and support Africans to develop and carry out research priorities; and c) foster the dissemination and utilization of accurate and timely research findings for sound policy formulation, resource allocation and program improvement. The fellowship program was expected to develop into an autonomous African research center after five years of existence.

 

 

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