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Can It Be Replicated? A Look at Rwanda’s Development Gains in Context

Speakers

  • Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity
    Professor Binagwaho is a Rwandan pediatrician who completed her MD in General Medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and her MA in Pediatrics at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Dartmouth College and earned a PhD from the University of Rwanda College of Business and Economics. She returned to Rwanda in 1996, just two years after the genocide in 1994 against the Tutsi. Working in collaboration with national stakeholders, health professionals, policymakers, and international partners, she has helped to build a health system in Rwanda that is one of the most equitable and high-functioning in Africa. Professor Binagwaho was named Vice Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity in 2017. From 2002-2016, she served the Rwandan Health Sector 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 then for five years as the Minister of Health. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Professor of the Practice of Global Health Delivery at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Professor Binagwaho’s academic engagements include research on health equity, HIV/AIDS, information and communication technologies (ICT) in e-health, and pediatric care delivery systems. She has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles. She holds an array of leadership and advisory positions on national and international scale, including but not limited to the African Advisory Board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation; the Advisory Board of the Friends of the Global Fund Africa; the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries; and multiple Lancet Commissions.
  • Founder and CEO, Bridge2Rwanda
    Dale Dawson is Founder and CEO of Bridge2Rwanda, a social enterprise that facilitates business development in Rwanda and creates opportunity for Rwandan students to study abroad. He serves on President Paul Kagame's Presidential Advisory Council and the Urwego Opportunity Bank, Rwanda's largest microfinance bank. In the first half of his career, Dale was an investment banker, entrepreneur and KPMG partner.
  • Chair of The Elders, The Elders
    Mary Robinson was elected Irish President in 1990 and served for seven years as a principled and transformative leader who fought for equality and women’s rights throughout her time in office. A firm believer in dialogue and reconciliation, she broke taboos by being the first Irish head of state to make official visits to Britain, as well as regularly visiting Northern Ireland. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), Mary Robinson became renowned as an outspoken voice dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights abuses across the world. Mary Robinson has been a member of The Elders since the group was founded in 2007 and was appointed Chair of The Elders in November 2018. She has travelled to the Middle East several times with The Elders to encourage peace efforts and support Israelis and Palestinans working for peaceful coexistence; visited the Korean Peninsula to help ease tensions between North and South Korea and learn more about North Korea’s chronic food crisis; joined an Elders' delegation to Côte d'Ivoire to emphasise the importance of reconciliation following widespread civil conflict. Mary Robinson also founded The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. Its work from 2010-2019 meant climate justice went from being effectively a taboo topic to being an approach to climate decision-making and action that is people-centered, rights-informed and fair.
  • Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation
    After 26 years at The Economist, Matthew recently joined the Rockefeller Foundation to launch a new global institute. He is the coauthor of several books, including Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World. Co-founded the Social Progress Index and the #givingtuesday movement. Official report author, the G8 taskforce on social impact investment.
  • Co-founder and Chief Strategist, Partners In Health
    Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world's poorest people. He is Co-founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer and his colleagues in the U.S. and abroad have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings. Dr. Farmer holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he is the Kolokotrones University Professor and the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; he is also Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Additionally, Dr. Farmer serves as the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.