John R Evans Lectureship in Global Health with Professor Agnes Binagwaho May 2023

The John R. Evans Lectureship in Global Health was established by Dr. David Naylor, when he was the University of Toronto’s Dean of Medicine. The lectureship acknowledges the major role Dr. Evans played in the University of Toronto’s history and his global contributions to the advancement of human health and well-being.
This event was held in person and online on May 2nd, 2023. Professor Agnes Binagwaho, keynote speaker, delivered a talk titled, “Global Health Equity & Covid-19 - Where do we go from here?"
Ensuring everyone’s right to health can only be achieved when people, communities and institutions (both local and global), work together to address systemic racial, social and health inequities.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted persisting global and regional health inequities. While the Global North was flooded with covid-19 vaccines, many people in the Global South were left behind. The current climate and migrant crises, international armed conflicts, food insecurity and weakened health systems further compound these health inequities. If we do not learn from these lessons, we run the risk of reproducing inequities and not addressing their underlying root causes.
How do we build a more fair and responsible global health system for all?
SPEAKER BIOS
Professor Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PHD currently resides in Rwanda. She is the retired Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) (in 2015), an initiative of Partners In Health based in Rwanda which focuses on changing how health care is delivered around the world by training global health professionals who strive to deliver more equitable, quality health services for all. She is a Rwandan pediatrician who returned to Rwanda in 1996, two years after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Previously, she has provided clinical care in the public sector and has served the Rwandan health sector (1996-2016) in high-level government positions, first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda’s National AIDS Control Commission, then as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and lastly as Minister of Health for five years. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. She is member of multiple editorial, advisory and directors’ boards, including the Think20 (T20), the Rockefeller Foundation, the African Europe Foundation and the African Union Commission on African COVID-19 Response. Professor Binagwaho is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the World Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She is an Emerson Elder and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and was named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020 and 2021.
Joseph Wong is the Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. He is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and serves as the Vice President, International, for the University of Toronto.
He previously held the Canada Research Chair in Democratization, Health and Development for two full terms, ending 2016. In 2017, Professor Wong was appointed Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost of the University of Toronto, overseeing international student experience. Wong’s research interests are in comparative public policy and political economy. His published articles have appeared in The Bulletin of the WHO, The Lancet, Perspectives on Politics, Politics and Society, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Comparative Political Studies, Governance, Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of East Asian Studies, among others. Professor Wong is the author (with Dan Slater) of From Development to Democracy: the Transformations of Modern Asia (Princeton University Press, 2022); […]
Tolu Ojo is a PhD student at the Institute of Health Policy and Management and Evaluation as well as the Collaborative Specialization in Global Health program. She holds a master’s degree in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicines. She has experience in global health research and practice including leading implementation and evaluation of HIV/AIDs, dengue, and maternal, newborn and child health programs in Nigeria, Tanzania and Thailand. Her research interests include implementation science for program evaluation, strengthening health systems in low-resource settings and, equity in global health.