The programme aims to promote an emerging generation of global health leaders, based at research institutions in Sweden, by focusing on the gaps in relation to leadership skills and international networks. The SIGHT Fellows were identified as upcoming leaders in global health with the potential to serve as change agents with the ability to lead the progress towards global health equity and the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Vasna Ramasar has been appointed as part of the first round of fellows of the programme. She has been working on health and environmental linkages as well as Health Impact Assessment for several years but always situates her work within the broader context of society-nature interactions and the political ecological implications of these.
– Addressing the challenges of our time, be they ecological, health-related or political, requires a systemic approach, something that calls for a meaningful collaboration across traditionally weakly connected disciplines, says Vasna Ramasar.
She sees SIGHT’s programme approach, which includes bringing together interdisciplinary researchers from different disciplines, as forward looking and significant. It also reflects the broad understanding of what is required to tackle global health and address Agenda 2030.
Through her participation in the programme, she sees an opportunity to bring the interdisciplinary discussions of Global Health and Sustainability closer together.
– Lund University is at the forefront of bio-medical research, and participation in SIGHT provides a platform to bring cutting edge research to policy and practice to achieve the SDGs. I believe that my experiences from LUCSUS, a centre that has always situated itself in an interdisciplinary arena, could provide valuable learning and contribute to the activities and policy contribution of SIGHT.
She concludes that health is the foundation for human well-being, and that global health serves to connect the scales from the individual body to global sustainability.
– Being a SIGTH Fellow can help open up discussions about the right to health and health equity, issues that I believe should be of central importance to Agenda 2030, she says.
Swedish Institute for Global Health Transformations (SIGHT) was established in 2017 to promote an interdisciplinary approach, to strengthen and bridge Swedish research and education, and to provide a scientific basis for national and transnational collaborative policy work, in the field of global health. SIGHT is located in Stockholm at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation .