Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) marked its 10-year anniversary in 2020. That’s to say, 10 years and 7 cohorts of Emerging Voices, or about 300 EVs as we like to call ourselves. The EV2020 venture has been nothing short of anniversary dreams… and just a bit of drama: a global pandemic, virtual networking/conferencing, and a change in the secretariat – do not make emergence easy. Nonetheless, EVs are nothing if not diligent and persevering; and so we find ourselves finally celebrating the EV2020 venture live in Dubai, at the end of this month from 22nd – 28th November 2021.
A group of 30+ EV2020 and EV alumni facilitators will be graciously hosted by our partner institute, the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) in Dubai later this month. We will have the participation of EV alumni as facilitators, who will share with the 2020 generation what they have learned and gained with the previous EV engagements and how our connections extend beyond borders of time and nations. The activities planned for the week include “Big Talks” on governance, economic forces, corruption and health, health systems in fragility, corruption and health, and environmental forces, organized in collaboration with partner institutions, EV alumni and other Thematic Working Groups from Health Systems Global. EVs will also have the chance to visit local health facilities and learn about Dubai’s health system, immerse themselves in Emirati culture with the opportunity to visit emblematic places in Dubai including the EXPO2020, eat mouth-watering Arabic cuisines, as well as hold exchanges with the welcoming and supporting staff and students of MBRSG.
Through a jam-packed programme of 7 days, the EV2020 cohort can continue emerging and finally meet face-to-face in Dubai (albeit without ending with the Sixth Global Symposium of Health Systems Research, which the cohort already attended virtually last year). However, as in previous ventures, we still plan on ending the week in Dubai with a bang. Please do join us live on Saturday 27th November 15:00 – 17:00 Dubai time, for our first ever, preconference-turned-webinar event !
The week before the event, the EV4GH governance board will also have its annual meeting – of course as is customary these days, in a hybrid format, with some of the members in Dubai and others attending from elsewhere on the planet. The main topic that will be discussed is how to move forward with the EV4GH initiative and network, based on the recommendations from the external evaluation conducted earlier this year. Additionally, since summer 2021 there has been a period of learning, adjustment and transitioning of the new EV4GH secretariat, which is now hosted by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, Kenya. The 2021 annual governance meeting will also serve as the moment for the new secretariat to fully take the lead on several EV activities.
Once the event in Dubai is finished, we will immerse ourselves in the preparation of EV2022, which will take place in Colombia (yes, Colombia with an “O”, not Columbia; it’s time to start practicing your Spanish!:) ), which will once again be linked to the Seventh Global Symposium on Health Systems Research. We can already inform you that the Latin American EV alumni are more than happy to finally host the EV venture in the region. We are also working closely with some new partner institutions in Colombia, to ensure that EV2022 will be an opportunity to learn with and from Latin America and the Caribbean, a region with a history of resistance to the mainstream global (health) agenda. In case you’re interested, don’t forget to apply when the call comes out (if all goes well, next week !) 😊.
EV4GH hybrid webinar event details:
Evidence to policy in enhancing health systems: contributions from Emerging Voices for Global Health
Live from Dubai, Saturday 27th November 15:00 – 17:00 Dubai time
Webinar link: Webinar Registration – Zoom
