In these turbulent times, many people will agree that to the question recently asked by Fryatt et al. “Health sector governance: should we be investing more?”, the answer is definitely yes. The big issue then is: what kind of investments will make the difference? Back in 2007, the WHO proposed a six building blocks’ framework to categori...

    Besides journalists being participants of the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR) can they also be empowered to report Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR)?   They usually begin with “Dear Colleagues,” “Dear Worthy Friends,” “Top of the day to you, I trust you are doing well,” and other such catch phrases. Thes...

Another year, another epidemic. Now, don’t panic. There isn’t an outbreak—not at the moment, at least. But one could be lurking around the corner. They come in seasons, so much so the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) speaks of preparing for the “next epidemic season.” And they can be relentless and weird. Take Lassa fever, nam...

Every year, World Population Day (11 July) serves as a rallying point for strengthening the demand for access to contraceptives for women and girls, worldwide. Being able to control one’s fertility, is undoubtedly one of the most significant aspects of women’s control over their own destinies. Family planning and gender equality go hand in h...

Since the 1st of July, Dr. Tedros has been the new ‘captain’ of WHO and he’s certainly off to a flying start. Earlier this week, he set out his priorities at a ‘townhall meeting’ with WHO staff, and today and tomorrow he’ll be heading the WHO delegation at the G20 summit in Hamburg – a first ever for a WHO boss, at the request of A...

The Higher Education and Training HIV/AIDS Programme, more commonly referred to as HEAIDS has made significant strides in reaching young people at tertiary institutions (universities and colleges) in South Africa. I would describe a recent gathering as a historic moment in South African (SA) history. Over 2000 young people gathered to discuss th...

Earlier this week Mark Dybul likened Tedros’ team in Ethiopia, while he was Minister of Health, to Arsenal (the football powerhouse), “because they were young, dynamic – and incredibly effective.”  You can’t do much wrong with that – Arsenal were indeed a stunning team back then. Since the mid-2000s, though, Arsenal (and its coach) ...

The Vancouver Health Systems Research Symposium (with its theme: Resilience and responsive health systems for a changing world) is long over – but resilience is everywhere, in academic, practitioner and policy literature (e.g. Kruk et al; Witter & Hunter; and statements by the WHO Director Generals immediately past, and newly inducted). Perhap...

Last weekend I was blown away by ‘Wonder Woman’. The movie, that is. Well, at least the first 120 minutes of it (and even the last 20 minutes the toddler in me enjoyed). True, I was also blown away by Gal Gadot, the female protagonist, but perhaps less than my two companions, my teenage son & one of my nephews (With these companions, I had b...