At present, very little is known about the extent and outcomes of ART in Africa.

ANARA is a research network and registry. ANARA is led and coordinated by Silke Dyer (Professor, FCOG, PhD; South Africa) together with representatives from participating African countries. The registry is maintained by a small operational team that safeguards the integrity of the data. ANARA strictly protects the anonymity of patients and will never disclose data from individual ART centres.

ANARA respects and secures data ownership: ART centres own their own data, countries own their country data, and ANARA owns the continental data. ANARA has been endorsed by regional and national fertility organisations and received developmental assistance from the Latin American Registry for ART (LARA) and the International Committee Monitoring ART (ICMART).

ANARA is closing the data gap regarding ART in Africa by

  • Building a network among ART centres.
  • Building capacity in data collection.
  • Establishing a regional ART registry which collects, analyses and disseminates data on availability, effectiveness and safety of ART.
  • Protecting confidentiality and ownership of data from individual ART centres.

ANARA reports back annually.

  • 1. Confidentially to each participating centre their own data.
  • 2. To each participating country the national data.
  • 3. To the region the regional data.

The benefits include:

  • 1. Increased visibility of ART activity in Africa
  • 2. Relevant data on availability, utilization, effectiveness and safety of ART available to all stakeholders including patients, ART centres, health care planners, politicians, industry, and the public.
  • 3. National and regional benchmarks against which trends and improvements can be monitored.
  • 4. Increase in national and regional collaboration between reproductive health specialists and a break down of barriers between ART centres where these exist.
  • 5. A platform for training and capacity development in ART data collection.