Recently, Nora Brown and I participated in a World Bank conference: Investing in People – Scaling-up Education for Health Professionals in Africa (March 30-31). This provided a good opportunity to bring GBSN to the attention of African policy-makers and health leaders, aid donors and educationalists. Participants focused on country cases (Ghana, Kenya and Mali), the state of research, financing, business models, governance, and the role of investors and donors. I found the event refreshing, because it was highly interactive and all participants offered unvarnished views. While the need for leadership and management training of health professionals in the public and private sectors has in recent years become a central pillar of health systems strengthening strategies, there remains an enormous unmet need. GBSN can help meet some of these training needs and so, contribute to a more effective use of scarce existing resources. Later this month, GBSN, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is organizing a workshop that will bring together a dozen African universities/management schools. The workshop is to lay the foundation for a consortium of African universities focused on health management education.
