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BackgroundSouth Africa (SA) has experienced a rapid transition in the Human Development Index (HDI) over the past decade, which had an effect on the incidence and mortality rates of colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aims to provide CRC incidence and mortality trends by population group and sex in SA from 2002 to 2014.MethodsIncidence data were extracted from the South African National Cancer Registry and mortality data obtained from Statistics South Africa (STATS SA), for the period 2002 to 2014. Age-standardised incidence rates (ASIR) and age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) were calculated using the STATS SA mid-year population as the denominator and the Segi world standard population data for standardisation. A Joinpoint regression analysis was computed for the CRC ASIR and ASMR by population group and sex.ResultsA total of 33,232 incident CRC cases and 26,836 CRC deaths were reported during the study period. Of the CRC cases reported, 54% were males and 46% were females, and among deaths reported, 47% were males and 53% were females. Overall, there was a 2.5% annual average percentage change (AAPC) increase in ASIR from 2002 to 2014 (95% CI: 0.6–4.5,p-value p-value p-value p-value ConclusionsThe disparities in the CRC incidence and mortality trends may reflect socioeconomic inequalities across different population groups in SA. The rapid increase in CRC trends among the Black population group is concerning and requires further investigation and increased efforts for cancer prevention, early screening and diagnosis, as well as better access to cancer treatment.

of poster submission for Carpentry Conference 2018 by the African Task Force members.

The Carpentries is an organisation whose primary goal is to teach researchers introductory concepts for best practices in handling data and basics in coding [1,2]. Volunteer instructors who teach these courses are required to complete a two day curriculum of instructor training and to complete three tasks as part of the checkout process [3]. By February 2018 more than 100 people in Africa had participated in African instructor training workshops but more than half of these participants were not teaching in workshops, either because they did not complete the checkout process or they lacked the opportunity or confidence to teach at workshops. An African Carpentries Task Force [4], established in 2017, focuses on mentoring initiatives to increase the turnover of instructor trainee to active instructor. Mentoring can enhance professional development and teaching in particular [5]. In the first half of 2018, the African Task Force implemented an online lesson supplement which offered six weekly 90 min sessions for trainees who had participated in instructor training but were not yet teaching at Carpentry workshops [6]. The online sessions covered a core part of the Data Carpentry curriculum and gave participants the opportunity to i) learn parts of the curriculum new to them and ii) experience how The Carpentries lessons are taught in order to build confidence. The online sessions ran from 20 March 2018 to 24 April 2018 using video conference software and were limited to five participants. The instructor for each session was supported by one assistant instructor, one admin support and one technical support person. Feedback was gathered after each session as well as after the end of the series in a dedicated feedback session. In this presentation we will further describe the action based research approach [7] that was followed through this unique online supplement to instructor training within the context of the Carpentries “community of practice”. We will reflect on the challenges we experienced over the course of the sessions, discuss the feedback we received from participants and the effect we observed on turnover from trainee to active instructor. Future plans for the next round of online lesson supplement during 2018 will also be shared.----------------1 https://carpentries.org/ 2 Wilson, G (2016) Software Carpentry: lessons learned [version 2; referees: 3 approved]. F1000Research, 3:62 (doi: 10.12688/f1000research.3-62.v2). 3 https://software-carpentry.org/join/ 4 https://docs.carpentries.org/topic_folders/regional_communities/african_task_force.html 5 Ehrich, LC, Hansford, B and Tennent, L (2004) Formal Mentoring Programs in Education and Other Professions: A Review of the Literature. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40:518-540. 6 https://tenet-rccpii.github.io/rccpii-2018/carpentries/online-mentorship/

Slides from my presentation at International Data Week SciDataCon, Gaborone, 2018.The presentation took place in session 244: Sharing lessons on data science teaching techniques, methods and materials and with two specific requests and invitations, and covered the following themes:1. Background to the Carpentries2. The history of the Carpentries in Africa3. The African Carpentry Task Force's work in Africa4. My personal use of the Carpentries methods in my professional work at UCT Libraries and Figshare