Nigeria’s health sector has been struggling and retrogressing over the years due to several factors ranging from gross underfunding, poor remuneration of health workers, government neglect, among others.
There is also the usual episodic and perennial industrial unrests and strikes, especially by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) which most times cripple government hospitals across the country. The issues in dispute leading to most of these strikes are still outstanding and yet to be fully resolved.
Year in and year out, Nigeria has also continued to witness an unprecedented exodus of health professionals and doctors of all categories going out of the country to other climes for greener pastures which has led to massive brain drain in the health sector as well as the issue of medical tourism which is still on the rise.
With these challenges facing the nation’s health sector, can the newly appointed Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, an accomplished global health leader, restore and save the sector.
Perhaps a peak into his rich profile may reawaken our hopes.
Persecondnews highlights some things you should know about Prof. pate.
Born on September 6, 1968, in Misau local government area of Bauchi State, Pate is a Nigerian Physician and politician who trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases with an MBA from Duke University in the United States.
He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom. He is a Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. In 2012, he was awarded Harvard Health Leader by the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Programme for his contribution to healthcare in developing countries.
Prior to his appointment, Prof. Pate has served on several health-focused boards in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, and held several senior positions in Nigeria and abroad.
In 2008, he was appointed the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) until 2011, when he was appointed the Minister of State for Health. He however resigned from his position as the Minister of State for Health in 2013, to take up the position of Professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute in the United States of America.
He joined the World Bank Group as a Young Professional in 2000 and worked on health issues in several regions, including Africa and the East Asia and Pacific. In May 2019, Pate was appointed the Global Director, Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice of the World Bank, and the Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, based in Washington DC.
While serving with the World Bank between 2019 and 2021, he led the Bank’s $18 billion COVID-19 global health response and represented the Bank on various boards, including those of Gavi, the Global Fund, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
In September 2021, Pate returned to Harvard University as a Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Prof. Pate has served on several national and international panels, including the First WHO Health Systems Research Forum in 2009, in Montreux, Switzerland; Mckinsey’s Geneva Health Forum 2009, in Switzerland; Ernst Strungmann Forum, 2010, in Frankfurt, Germany; China-Africa Roundtable for Health, 2010; Pacific Summit, 2011, in Seattle, WA, USA.
Since 2017, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American International Health Alliance. He is also a member of the Board for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the Steering Committee on Assessment of Impact of Polio Eradication on Routine Immunisation, for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Advisory Board of Merck for Mothers; the Steering Committee for Primary Health Care Performance Initiative; Board of the Private Health Sector Alliance of Nigeria.
With these achievements, rich profile and impeccable skills, should Nigerians hope for a better and improved health sector under Prof. Pate?
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