The Academy of Public Health, the flagship body of the West African Institute of Public Health, has named the President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and three other eminent persons as winners of its 2020 Distinguished Fellowship Award.
According to a statement, Adesina; World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Tedros Ghebreyesus; Leith Greenslade of JustActions and Winnie Byanyima of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, were all nominated by young public health professionals across Africa for their demonstrated leadership in working to ensure equity, better health and wellbeing for all.
The four were recognised for their style of transformative leadership which inspired emerging young leaders in public health to strive to make a difference in their work, the Academy stated.
“Dr. Akinwumi Adesina of the African Development Bank was particularly recognised for his action leadership in quickly moving the AfDB to provide the financial bulwark to the African Union as well as some of its member states to help curb Africa’s COVID-19 pandemic.
“He was also noted for engendering thought leadership through the AfDB to shape actions in the COVID and post COVID era for Africa’s economies and health systems,” it added.
The Distinguished Fellowship Award is the highest fellowship rank in the “Roll of Fellows “of the Academy, leading the Roll of Fellows for their exceptional leadership and service to humanity in making a difference in the lives of people and inspiring young leaders to also excel in their public health work.”
Ghebreyesus won for leading the WHO to provide an equity-focused COVID-19 response that leaves no one behind, including his approaches towards eliminating “vaccine nationalism” in the wake of the pandemic, while Greenslade was recognised for leading a global awareness on childhood pneumonia, leveraging on public-private and philanthropic partnerships.
Also, Byanyima was chosen for her “unwavering” work to ensure that HIV/AIDS key populations impacted by COVID-19 are not forgotten.
