Over the past few weeks a couple of thematic discussions were organized for the new cohort of Emerging Voices. One of them focused on resilience, the resilience “discourse” and resilient health systems more in particular. After going through a few background readings (including Kruk et al (2015), Kutzin & Sparkes (2016),  Gebauer (2016), am...

The much-anticipated report by the United Nations (UN) High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines went public on 14 September. Hopes that its forward-looking recommendations could speedily succeed are threatened, however, by the load of conflicting issues still on the table worldwide.   The United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines ...

Women make up the bulk of the healthcare workforce but so few are in the top leadership roles. The role of women in leadership, or rather the lack of women in leadership positions and its impact on health policies, is indeed one which we must continue to question. What are the implications of having so few women at the top? How do we encourage t...

Over the weekend, Laurie Garrett rightly noted that the upcoming WHO DG (s)election might be the first one that will also play out on social media. Still, she acknowledged social media probably won’t have much impact on the outcome, as  the “MOH vote is based on deals not tweets” .  Assuming that social media might just have a tiny bit o...

Earlier this week, while delivering the keynote address at the exciting Junior Public Health Association of South Africa (JuPHASA) 2016 conference, I touched upon the fact that it is rare for young individuals to truly be engaged in policy discussions. During the keynote, I also alluded to the importance of self-accountability and encouraged the...

This week marked a historic moment for the global health workforce community. The High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, chaired by France’s President François Hollande and South-Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, delivered its final report and recommendations to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the sidelines of the ...

If you work in global health, Canada is probably the place to be at the moment. As a new resident of Canada, working towards a PhD in global health, the new academic year has already ushered in events of significance to the health and development sector. Canadian Prime Minister’s (Justin for the friends)  efforts to (re-)establish Canada’s ...

The Ebola crisis in West Africa might have preyed on weak health systems but just strengthening them – although necessary – is not the magic bullet to fixing the next epidemic. “We have to be very careful when we say that a better health system is the answer,” said Prof. Dr. Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropic...

In Uganda, a compulsory one-year internship placement at the end of five long years of medical school is long awaited. The internship placement at a hospital offers recent medical graduates an opportunity to practice the skills acquired over the five years education under supervision of a senior doctor. This compulsory placement is to groom the ...