Dr Sankoh is by training a biostatistician, epidemiologist, and
environmental researcher. He is a Sierra Leonean with more than
15 years experience in conducting, facilitating and
co-ordinating research both at home and internationally. His
research covers demographic and health surveillance systems in
the developing world; statistical methods in environmental
research; environmental impact assessment and management; global
environmental change and health; and geographical information
systems.
He studied at the University of Sierra Leone and at the University of Dortmund,
Germany, where he won the competitive German Academic Exchange
Service (DAAD) Award for excellent academic performance and
extraordinary social engagement by a foreign student.
His work as Communications and External Relations Manager of the
INDEPTH Network of currently 34 demographic surveillance system
(DSS) sites in Africa, Asia, Central America and
Oceania (www.indepth-network.org), has added new dimensions to
his professional skills. This work includes involvement in
administration, network co-ordination, resource mobilisation,
scientific and capacity-building activities. He has also gained
immensely from working in a collaborative research setting with
cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary research teams. As the
Network’s most senior public relations representative, he is
responsible for assisting the Executive Director in setting up
global and regional priorities with their associated funding
opportunities.
Before he joined the INDEPTH Network in mid 2002, Dr. Sankoh
worked as a scientist for three years in the Department of
Tropical Hygiene and Public Health at the University of
Heidelberg Medical School in Germany. He has also acted as a
consultant on population and health issues to the World Bank,
the
University
of Pennsylvania and the World Health Organisation.
Dr Sankoh’s publications have appeared in a range of journals.
His work on epidemiology and biostatistics has been published in
Tropical Medicine and International Health and the
International Journal of Epidemiology. He was the lead
editor for the INDEPTH Network’s first publication entitled
Population and Health in Developing Countries, Vol. 1,
Population, Health and Survival at INDEPTH Sites, published
by IDRC,
Canada. He recently in 2005 co-authored a chapter, INDEPTH
Network: Generating Empirical Population and Health Data in
Resource-Constrained Countries in the Developing World,
which was published in the Springer Verlag book Health
Research in Developing Countries.
Papers on environmental impact assessment and management that he
has authored or co-authored have appeared in the African
Journal of Environmental Assessment and Management, the
Journal of Environmental Management, and Environmental
Impact Assessment Review.
Dr. Sankoh has made presentations at many international
conferences in Africa, North America, and
Europe.
Osman is highly interested in synthesizing and disseminating
knowledge and information generated from research to serve as
public goods for the global community. His leadership in
creating the African Journal of Environmental Assessment and
Management (www.ajeam-ragee.org),
an international peer-reviewed bi-lingual journal attests to
this fact. This interest and commitment have helped leverage his
interest more broadly across the environment, human health and
development spectrum. As a result, he has been invited to
participate in a number of globally important initiatives such
as the Review Board of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, to
serve as a reviewer for one of the synthesis reports of the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and recently to participate in
the Expert Review of the IPCC Working Group II Fourth
Assessment.
Osman Sankoh is also the founder of the Sierra Leonean Writers
Series (www.sl-writers-series.org), which promotes and publishes
the work of writers of Sierra Leonean descent. His first works
of creative writing, Beautiful Colours and Hybrid Eyes
– An African in Europe, were published in both English and
German in 1999.
