Feature story

Yale convenes together senior health practitioners to build leadership and strategic problem-solving to improve health systems

05 June 2011

Credit: Carl Kaufman / Yale

The Global Health Leadership Institute (GHLI) of Yale University held its 2011 GHLI Conference from 5-10 June 2011 under the theme of “moving health systems forward”. The Conference convened senior health practitioners from around the world to facilitate collaborative solutions in strengthening health systems.

Speaking on 5 June, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé gave an inaugural address to the conference to commemorate 30 years since the start of the AIDS response and shared UNAIDS’ perspective on future directions.

“We are so pleased to have Michel Sidibe join us to open our conference this year and help further bring attention to the role strategic planning and leadership play in helping solve global health issues,” said Elizabeth Bradley, Ph.D., faculty director, Yale Global Health Leadership Institute.  “The conference is about gathering health officials from around the world to share experiences, develop leadership and identify creative ways to solve problems that affect the everyday lives of people in these countries,” she added.

Mr Sidibé stressed the transformative role that the AIDS response has played in community mobilization and strengthening health systems. “The AIDS response has led to enormous progress towards scaling up access to treatment and reaching out to people at risk of HIV infection, with a strong human rights focus. This has been, and continues to be, a catalyst for change in the health systems of many affected countries.”

The AIDS response has led to enormous progress towards scaling up access to treatment and reaching out to people at risk of HIV infection, with a strong human rights focus. This has been and continues to be a catalyst for change in the health systems of many affected countries

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director

This year’s week-long event brought together senior health practitioners from Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda, and South Africa to focus on health system issues including mental health, maternal mortality, human resource management and management capacity building. These countries have achieved improvements in health despite limited resources and have gathered to discuss and apply strategic problem solving to national health priorities.

In his speech, Mr Sidibé also recognized the leadership of these four countries and praised their high level representation at the General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS.

Each country delegation, comprised of senior leadership from Ministries of Health, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions, brought a health system challenge to address at the conference with the support of Yale faculty and experts. Delegates participated in interactive lectures, cross-country roundtable discussions, keynotes and facilitated work sessions. Delegates met with prominent leaders in global health and received training in strategic problem-solving and leadership.

Global Health Leadership Institute

The Yale Global Health Leadership Institute (GHLI) develops global health leadership through innovative education and research programmes that strengthen the capacity of countries and communities to ensure health equity and quality of care for all.