ARNECH's research, consulting, and capacity-building work directly advances five UN Sustainable Development Goals across health, economics, education, and equity in Africa and beyond.
Good Health & Well-Being is the core of ARNECH's scientific mission. Through epidemiological research, mathematical modelling, and evidence synthesis, we generate knowledge that directly informs health policy and programme design in Burundi, East Africa, and globally.
ARNECH led a case-control study on TB mortality and multidrug resistance before and during COVID-19 in Burundi (published in BMC Infectious Diseases, 2025), generating critical evidence for national TB programme recovery. The team plans to model the impact of the M72/AS01E TB vaccine candidate, providing scenario-based projections under different coverage assumptions to support national immunisation planning.
ARNECH is developing mathematical models to inform Burundi's malaria control and elimination strategy aligned to the 2027 and 2030 national targets. These dynamic transmission models incorporate spatio-temporal heterogeneity and intervention coverage to support resource allocation decisions by the Ministry of Health.
Team members have contributed to landmark Global Burden of Disease studies in The Lancet covering hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and antimicrobial resistance. ARNECH's own research established prevalence rates and risk factors for hypertension in Burundi (PLOS ONE, 2021) and profiled NCD burden for national planning. The ongoing work aims to assess the 10-year cardiovascular risk in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients in Burundi.
Research on neonatal survival and determinants of newborn mortality in Burundi (2024), antenatal care spatial distribution and predictors (2023), and transfusion-transmitted infections in blood donors (2024) directly supports maternal and child health programme design in Burundi.
ARNECH conducted a spatio-temporal analysis of community-directed ivermectin treatment coverage in Burundi in support of the WHO 2030 NTD roadmap, identifying geographic gaps and informing programme targeting strategies.
ARNECH's Economic & Social Business Unit, led by Gildas Irakoze, examines the structural drivers of poverty in Burundi and the Great Lakes region, with a focus on financial systems, gender equity, and inclusive economic design.
Funded by the African Economic Research Consortium (2024–2025), ARNECH is examining mobile money's role in financial inclusion with gender and location-disaggregated perspectives. An earlier study (Research Square, 2022) explored financial inclusion and gender patterns in poverty reduction in Burundi, contributing to evidence-based financial sector reform.
In partnership with international researchers, ARNECH contributed to difference-in-difference evaluations of integrated nutrition interventions and baseline assessments of infant and child health status (BMC Nutrition, 2020), linking economic vulnerability to early childhood outcomes.
ARNECH applies cooperative and social solidarity economy models to support smallholder farmers, women's savings groups, and rural cooperatives in Burundi translating economic research into practical tools for poverty reduction.
ARNECH invests in strengthening research education and scientific literacy through formal training programmes, academic partnerships, and structured mentorship initiatives that support early-career researchers, alongside community knowledge access and capacity-building initiatives.
Through customised training workshops in biostatistics, epidemiology, research design, and data analysis, ARNECH strengthens local research capacity. Interns, junior researchers, and health professionals across Burundi receive hands-on training alongside ARNECH's senior team on live projects. ARNECH also runs an annual training programme on DHIS2 for those working in the health sector, agriculture, and other fields, as well as data management training with medical associations in Burundi.
ARNECH partners with Library without Borders to expand access to scientific literature and educational resources in Burundi, reducing the knowledge gap between resource-constrained settings and global research communities.
ARNECH team members serve as academic supervisors and mentors for master's and doctoral students across Burundian and international universities, building the next generation of African researchers and public health leaders.
Addressing inequality whether in health access, financial opportunity, or educational resources is a thread running through all of ARNECH's work. We apply disaggregated analysis by gender, geography, income, and ethnicity to expose and address structural disparities.
Research on antenatal care coverage in Burundi (2023) used spatial analysis to identify underserved communities and predictors of non-utilisation. Studies on hypertension prevalence (2021) and childhood infections and health financing in Ghana (2022) applied socioeconomic stratification to understand how inequality shapes health outcomes.
ARNECH's financial inclusion research and mobile money studies specifically examine gender dimensions : analysing how women's access to financial services differs from men's, and what policy levers can close those gaps in Burundian and regional contexts.
In 2025, ARNECH team co-authored research on perceptions of vaginal self-sampling for cancer detection among diverse groups of women in California, contributing to equity in gynaecological cancer screening access in the USA.
ARNECH aims to operate at the intersection of academia, government, civil society, and international organisations : building the multi-stakeholder partnerships that the SDG agenda requires. Our collaboration model bridges global scientific excellence with local implementation capacity.
ARNECH's research aims to create collaborations with universities, and research institutes such as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) placing Burundian research on the global scientific stage and building South-North knowledge exchange.
Working with the Burundi Ministry of Health, WHO Burundi, and the Netherlands Embassy, ARNECH translates research findings into policy recommendations and supports national health programme design and monitoring.
The financial inclusion research is funded through the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), integrating ARNECH's team into the continent's leading network of development economists and policy researchers.
Whether you are a government, NGO, funder, or academic institution — ARNECH is ready to partner on SDG-aligned research and consulting.
