TOKYO: On 14 November 2024, UNU will host a conversation with Professor Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

On 14 November 2024, UNU will host “Trends and Developments in Global Health in Africa”, a conversation with Professor Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, South Africa. This event will start at 18:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.

More than 600 million people in Africa lack access to basic health-care services. While over 16 per cent of the world’s population lives in Africa, it accounts for just one per cent of global health-care expenditure. Challenges range from a lack of trained health-care professionals, to inadequate budgetary allocation and poor infrastructure. The underdeveloped state of health-care systems offers an opportunity for radical and innovative solutions, often incorporating recent technological developments and new management strategies.

Prof. Wim de Villiers will join UNU Chief of Staff Michael Baldock for a discussion on recent challenges and developments in global health, drawing on his own experience and leadership at Stellenbosch University and Higher Health. What are the critical health-care challenges facing the African continent? What innovative research is being undertaken by academic institutions to deal with these challenges? How can international organizations, including the United Nations, contribute to improved health-care outcomes?

The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all event attendees are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.

Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 13 November at 15:00) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page.

Please be prepared to present identification at check-in.

About the Speaker

Prof. Wim de Villiers has been Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University (SU) since 2015, when he joined his alma mater again after more than two decades abroad.

After graduating from SU with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), he went to Oxford University for his PhD, and then to the United States, where he studied at Harvard University and held several senior positions at the University of Kentucky including Head of Gastroenterology, and Administrative Head of the Good Samaritan Hospital. He was included in the publication “Best Doctors in America”.

Moving back to South Africa in 2013, he became the Dean of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town, before moving to his current position at Stellenbosch University in December 2014.

On the national stage, he serves as Chairperson of the Finance and Investment Committee of Universities South Africa, and Chair of Higher Health. On the international stage he was until recently a Council Member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.