Dear all,

 

My name is Kopano Matlwa Mabaso, I am a 2012 Emerging Voice (EV) and one of the facilitators for the 2014 venture and it would be a privilege to represent EV’s (and other young researchers!) on the Health Systems Global Board

 

A little bit about myself:

 

I am a South African medical doctor and author, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, IAMP Young Physician Leader and Rhodes Scholar currently reading for a DPhil (PhD) in Population Health at the University of Oxford. I have an MSc in Global Health Science (Oxon) and a keen interest in the strengthening of developing country health systems. I also had the privilege of serving on this symposium’s scientific committee and speaking, alongside my fellow EVs, at the closing ceremony of the 2^nd Global Symposium on Health Systems Research.

 

It has been a tremendous honour to be a part of the EV group. I have been challenged by the discussions and interactions that have continued well beyond our first meeting and remain in awe of the depth of insights that exist within our community of young researchers. In recent weeks we have spoken a lot, amongst the EV community, on complexity: Complex adaptive systems, engaging with complexity, attempting to unravel the barbed wire of complex problems without getting caught up in it! As I read the articles that formed the basis of the discussion it became so painfully apparent to me that problems such as the ones the many of our modern developing country health systems face (such as the Ebola outbreak) cannot be solved if decision makers have no understanding of the contexts within which these problems arise. Young researchers -unpublished, unpolished, unschooled yet passionate, courageous and determined – are perhaps the best chance we have at decisively tackling the wicked health system problems many of our nations face. As Farrar says in his article on Global Health Science “We must ensure that the clinical and scientific capacities are built and sustained where the threats are most likely to present themselves.” ⁽¹⁾ That is what the EV community represents to me and if given the opportunity to represent the EV community on the Health Systems Global Board, I will endeavour to amplify these voices and keep them heard.

 

(1) Farrar J. Global health science: a threat and an opportunity for collaborative clinical science. Nat Immunol 2007;8(12):1277-1279.

 

 

Emerging Voices, Closing Plenary Health Systems Research Symposium, Beijing, 2012