WHA Call Up
Members of CIRU attend 77th World Health Assembly
Jess Boxall, CORE eCRF Data Analyst, and Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in global health were funded to attend the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) on the 27th May to the 1st June 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. WHA is an annual forum where all member states of the World Health Organisation come together to discuss policy and strategy for tackling key global health challenges.
Here Jess shares her experience:
In May 2024, Dr Michael Head and I were invited to side events of the 77th WHA, held in Geneva; specifically, we were invited by the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) to their roundtable event around skin NTDs as a global health priority. We have completed and ongoing research in this area, looking at the impact of climate change on skin NTDs, as well as food security, in rural Ghana and how community-led dialogue can improve knowledge, attitudes and practice surrounding these topics.
I applied for funding from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute to enable me to travel to Geneva and attend these high-profile events in person. SRI provide travel grants to support a multitude of research activities such as this, where there are benefits of networking, knowledge exchange and dissemination of our research.
Whilst in Geneva, we attended other side events to the WHA including on the inequalities seen in women’s health worldwide, and how we can move forward to bridge this gap, as well as panel discussions on the impact of climate change on healthcare. This was a particular topic of interest, not least because so much of our research aligns with these issues, but because the WHO has just passed a resolution to prioritise climate and health.
Jess Boxall and Michael Head in Geneva
Personally, I found the women’s health discussions incredibly inspiring, and gave me lots to think about, in terms of how I could angle my future research to help understand gender inequalities in the context of climate change, food insecurity and nutrition.
Dr Head and I also managed to squeeze in a visit to WHO headquarters, to meet with the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, where we discussed their roadmap to improving health outcomes, particularly in the Global South. We were also given the opportunity to present our ongoing research funded by the Medical Research Foundation, further disseminating our work in partnership with the University for Development Studies in Ghana. As an early-career researcher, this was firstly, a huge opportunity to talk about my findings, and secondly, a very surreal experience. I was even fortunate enough to be able to sneak into the press room at WHO HQ between meetings and see where it all happens!
This opportunity to attend prestigious events to create impact from my research is career-enhancing and promotes my progress towards research independence. Funding to travel to the WHA in-person allowed me to highlight the findings and discussion points from the perspective of our research and activities in Ghana. Being in the same space with peers (which included sharing ideas with other WHA attendees on the bus!) who share similar or adjacent research interests produced new connections, potential future collaborations, and ideas.
As part of my 2023 New Things Fund award (from Public Policy@Southampton), I established a multi-disciplinary database of contacts in Ghana, built by PACKS Africa, that includes stakeholders interested in climate change impact and related policy. By networking with international high-level attendees to the WHA77, I built upon this network, maximising the impact of our climate and sustainability research with vulnerable and underserved populations, giving them a voice within international policy dialogue.
Blog piece written by Jess Boxall, CORE eCRF Data Analyst