GLOBAL HEALTH MINDERS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Pediatrician at Rigshospitalet
I am MD, pediatrician and currently sub-specializing in pediatric infectious diseases. I am studying at Oxford University diploma course and attached to International Child Health Research Unit at Rigshospitalet. I did my PhD thesis on neonatal hospital mortality in South Vietnam, including studies on neonatal hospital population selection, pre- and in-hospital risk factors, and blood stream infections. I have worked in the field of international child health in Denmark, East Timor, Albania, Rwanda and Malawi. I have taught in international child health and research methodology at various courses at Copenhagen University. Honorary posts (previous and present) include the board of Doctors without Borders, Danish Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health Minders. Besides the commitment to the medical field, I have the supplementary education from The School of Journalism, Århus and I am editor at U-landsnyt.
Job Titles:
- Researcher, Bandim Health Project
I work at the Bandim Health Project, a large health and demographic surveillance system site in the West African country Guinea-Bissau. We follow a population of almost 200,000 people in the capital, and in randomly selected villages in the rural areas. The set-up allows us to monitor the real life impact of health intervention programs. My research interests are: Real life effect and implementation of health programmes in low- income countries with a focus on illuminating the gap between policy and implementation of policy and its consequences; and Vitamin A supplementation and interaction with vaccines.
I am MD specialized in Pediatrics and Public Health with a life time experience of all aspects of development activities addressing international public health issues. I have worked for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in different capacities and retired as a World Bank staff. I have managed many multi-donor and multi-national teams and prepared a large number of programme-related documents and reports. I continue to undertake international consultancies and am engaged nationally and internationally in policy dialogue on public health issues.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, Aarhus University
I am a specialist in infectious diseases working half-time as a doctor in Skejby Hospital and half-time as a lecturer at GloHAU (Center for Global Health, Aarhus University). I am leading a research group on HIV and tuberculosis in low-income countries, primarily engaged in West Africa. I am especially interested in population-based research in Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites (HDSS), where I follow a part of the population and map out their demographics and diseases. I also lead a working group on tuberculosis research PoRT (Populations-based Research on Tuberculosis), which is part of the INDEPTH network.
Job Titles:
- Center Leader, Statens Serum Institut and Professor in Global Health, University of Southern Denmark
I work at the Bandim Health Project, a large health and demographic surveillance system site in the West African country Guinea-Bissau. We follow a population of almost 200,000 people in the capital, and in randomly selected villages in the rural areas. The set-up allows us to monitor the real life impact of health intervention programs. My main interest is in the effect of the child health interventions. I am the head of the Bandim Health Project's Danish group placed at Statens Serum Institut, and the leader of the Center of Excellence "Research Center for Vitamins and Vaccines" (CVIVA), established in 2012 with the aim to study the specific and not least non-specific effects of the currently used child health interventions. I am also a professor in Global Health at OPEN, Institute for Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark/Odense University Hospital.
Job Titles:
- Senior Social Development Specialist
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs urges the Nordic countries to hang in and hang on to your success, and your leadership, to help the entire world to achieve the SDGs. His article "Why the World Needs the Nordics More Than Ever" was published in the report The end of Nordic exceptionalism, commissioned by Norwegian Church Aid, Finn Church Aid, DanChurchAid and Church of Sweden. The report is available for download at: http://www.nca.no
You can read Professor Sachs article below.
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs is American economist and the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also the author of several books on development economy.
Job Titles:
- Fellow, University of Copenhagen
I hold a Master in International Development Studies and a Master in International Health. Currently I am employed as a PhD fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen where I am a part of the Danida funded project ‘Fragile Futures: Rural Lives in Times of Conflict'. This project explores health systems in Burkina Faso and how people in rural areas build trust in the state through their perceptions of and interactions with state-sponsored health services, especially in the aftermath of a national conflict in the health care sector. I bring experience from my previous employments for the UN (UNFPA national and regional office in West Africa) development NGOs and NGO networks (Sex og Samfund), from Danida (TAS) and various consultancies (the World Bank, NGO Forum, Danish Mission Council Development Department) as well as a teacher and supervisor at various departments of the University of Copenhagen in the field of HIV and AIDS and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
When popular protest deposed former Burkinabé president Blaise Compaoré last year, many feared the country would see violent conflict. Lise Rosendal Østergaard argues that this was never inevitable. A sense of pragmatism evident in recent labour disputes shows that Burkinabés are more interested in getting on with their lives than turning to violence.
I am a student at Masters level working in the field of international development and social innovation at Roskilde University. I am specialising in health promotion, emergency aid and humanitarian development combined with social innovation and cross-sector approaches. I see social innovation as a tool to work across sectors and thereby enhance local development and improve aid delivery in developing countries. Besides working for Global Health Minders I volunteer as a board member of a student organisation Suitable for Business and have previously worked at the Danish Refugee Council.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Global Public Health, Copenhagen School of Global Health, University of Copenhagen
I am the inaugural Professor of Global Public Health at the Copenhagen School of Global Health, University of Copenhagen, and a specialist in global public health, chronic disease surveillance and prevention, and community-based interventions - with research activities concentrated in low-and-middle income countries. I previously worked at Monash University, Australia and at WHO in Geneva and the South Pacific.
I hold a Masters in International Health from the University of Copenhagen and have over 17 years of international development experience having spent over 11 years in Southern Africa, mainly in Mozambique. My experience stems from working for international and national non-governmental organizations, donors, Ministries of Health, and the private sector developing programmes targeting provision of HIV/AIDS services, capacity building in the health sector and monitoring and evaluation of public health responses. I have been involved in the design and management of numerous evaluations for the Global Fund, UN agencies, World Bank and beyond and actively participated in assignments in Myanmar, Angola, Mozambique, Mauritius, Kenya and other African and Eastern European countries. I currently serve as the CEO of EHG where I focus on expanding our expertise in public health, health systems strengthening, procurement and supply chain management and monitoring and evaluation in the health sector.
Job Titles:
- Global Health Minders' Chairman
- Professor, University of Southern Denmark
I am a Professor in Global and Migrant Health at the Center for Global Health, Clinical Institute, University of Southern Denmark. I am also MD, Senior consultant in Infectious diseases and Head of the Migrant Health Clinic at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Odense University Hospital. The research for my PhD in tropical epidemiology was done at the Bandim Health Project. My fields of expertise include case management of childhood illness, health systems research, HIV and TB epidemiology, as well as longitudinal demographic health surveillance in Guinea-Bissau and Uganda.
Global Health Minders' chairman Morten Sodemann looks back to the Ebola epidemic, its causes and failures in his article (in Danish) Var ebola-epidemien en sort svane? on the globalnyt.dk
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, Aarhus University
I am a Medical Doctor, Specialist of Family Medicine and work part-time in a large 8-partner-practice close to Aarhus, Denmark. I am Co-Director of Center for Global Health at Aarhus University (GloHAU) focusing on the contribution of Primary Health Care to Global Health through research and education. Furthermore, I am Chairman of "Partners in Practice" an International Development Programme of the Danish College of General Practitioners devoted to fostering development of Primary Health Care worldwide through established partnerships facilitating consultancies, expertise and skills transfer services.
Job Titles:
- Senior Adviser, University of Copenhagen
I am a public health scientist based at the Dept. of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology of the University of Copenhagen. I have more than 30 years of working experience in international health mainly from Africa and South East Asia, covering research, higher education and consultancy work. My thematic focus is in the areas of environmental health, health impact assessment (HIA), health related aspects of agricultural development and water resources development, health impacts of climate change, integrated schistosomiasis control and poverty and environmental health linkages.
Job Titles:
- Editor
- Research Coordinator
I am in charge of coordinating the think-net's work and editing of the Global Health Minders' website. My background is in human rights and good governance and I have lived and worked in Afghanistan (EU), Nepal (UNDP) and China. Since joining the University of Copenhagen in 2009, my main focus has been on research communication: optimizing communication and knowledge sharing between those who produce research and those who use research. I hold a Master of Social Sciences (Politics and History) and a Master of Arts in Communication Studies.
PhD student Signe Sørup defends her PhD thesis February 20, 2014 at Statens Serum Institut. Bandim Health Project has found that in low-income countries vaccines have non-specific effects, affecting not only the target disease but also the general health. Signe has tested the hypothesis that these effects are general and also seen in high-income settings. Maybe research done in low-income countries can have major impact in high-income countries.