COVID-19 exerted diverse pressures of unimaginable proportions on lives and livelihoods, especially among vulnerable populations across the world. As the global economy was struggling, socio-economic inequities deepened, thrusting many vulnerable populations further down the poverty line. But the situation was even worse in developing countries...

In the third week of November 2019, experts in health security from 29 Nigerian ministries, departments and agencies gathered. Their task was to use a 49-indicator tool of the World Health Organisation to access Nigeria’s capacity to detect, prevent or respond to a disease outbreak—in effect, whether the country was prepared to handle one. ...

The 5th Africa Health Economics and Policy Association (AfHEA) conference took place from March 11 to 14. This edition which was also the 10th anniversary of the biennale focused on achieving universal health coverage at primary healthcare level. It was a gathering of stakeholders from across the globe who converged to attend the 5th AfHEA ...

Yearly, since 1969, Nigeria suffers fatal Lassa Fever outbreaks. In a bid to increase awareness and curb the menace, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) hosted a two-day international conference on the disease. Participants at the event got some encouraging vaccine news among others. Tanko Al-Makura is governor of Nasarawa Stat...

I’m just back from three days of intense but fruitful conversations on ‘Strengthening Space Cooperation for Global Health’ at the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Geneva, Switzerland (August 23 – 25, 2017), with the crux hinged on resiliency and interoperability. The event which was a joint conference organized by WHO, the Unite...

    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...

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...

Before November 2016, it had been quite a while since I attended any health conference. I therefore was ecstatic when the opportunity came for me to attend the 4th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Vancouver as part of the West African Network of Emerging Leaders in health policy and systems (WANEL). At the time, I had no clue what ...

The first one thousand days of a child’s life—from conception till age two—are very crucial in terms of nutrition and also for the mother. With the Boko Haram insurgency in North East Nigeria forcing many to flee and now settle in IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps across the country, this report takes a look at the nutrition challeng...