Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Public Health presented during the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly

During a special ceremony at the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly in Geneva on Friday, May 31, 2024, awards were presented to individuals and institutions from around the world for their outstanding contributions to public health.

The eight winners were awarded by the President of the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, Dr. Edwin Dikoloti of Botswana, together with senior representatives of the awarding foundations and public health awards and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, as the award administrator.

A call for nominations of candidates for each award is sent out each year after the close of the World Health Assembly. Nominations can be made by national health administrations of WHO member states and former award recipients. At its 154th meeting in January 2024, the Executive Committee named 2,024 award winners, based on the proposals of the selection committee for each award.

The eight laureates were selected to celebrate their unique role and contribution to public health in their countries and globally. They come from four WHO regions: Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific.

Award winners 2024

Dr LEE Jong-wook Memorial Award for Public Health

Laureate 2024: Dr. Bader Al-Rawahi, Oman

dr. Bader Al-Rawahi leads a major public health program as Director of the Infectious Diseases and Control Division and Manager of the Expanded Immunization Program at the Ministry of Health of Oman. The high quality of immunization services provided in the country is widely recognized internationally. dr. Al-Rawahi followed new scientific, programmatic and policy developments to provide communities with a highly effective immunization program and achieve significant major health outcomes. dr. Al-Rawahi has made considerable efforts to leave no one behind, including migrants, displaced populations and the underprivileged. For example, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, he ensured that vaccines against COVID-19 were available to everyone in Oman, regardless of their registration status, achieving 94% coverage. It also supports other countries in the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean region, advising and assisting immunization programs in war-torn countries and showing compassion when times are tough. He has also served as an expert on several international public health committees, supporting the development of vaccines and vaccines against tuberculosis.

Sasakawa Health Award

2024 Laureate: Dr. Doreen Ramogola-Masire, 2024 Laureate

As Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Entrepreneurship at the University of Botswana, Dr. Ramogola-Masire played an important role in the development and implementation of the first National Cervical Cancer Prevention Strategy. During her service as a member of the National HIV Technical Working Group for the past two decades, she has proactively worked to develop and update the National HIV Strategic Framework. She worked to expand partnerships to support the state's HIV/AIDS program to also support cervical cancer prevention. Moreover, it enabled the development of a specialization program in obstetrics and gynecology at the national level, which ensures a group of well-trained specialists capable of leading this work in the future. Dr. Masire's involvement with the community and traditional leaders in the key stages of preparation for the launch of the program is an important factor in ensuring the success of the program. It facilitates and builds capacity for collaborative and impactful multidisciplinary health research, including the impact of climate change.

United Arab Emirates Health Foundation Award

2024 Award Winner: National Death Registry System, Saudi Arabia

The National Death Registry System is a program within the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia. Thanks to this system, the country can share its mortality data with the WHO and can now identify regions with the highest mortality rates and prioritize providing medical support to those areas. The data collected by this system inform national health policies and the distribution of resources within the health system. Recognizing the need to adapt to continued digital transformation and automation, Saudi Arabia has prioritized the digitization and automation of its mortality data registry. As a result, a dynamic and regularly updated electronic death register facilitates easy access to data and ensures transparency and integration with multiple national agencies. Stakeholders and communities within the system continuously provide feedback, and the parallel training of registrars, doctors and coders has significantly improved the quality of data within Birth and death register systems are the foundation of national health policies and primary health care systems and are second to none. The system can serve as a model for other countries.

His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Award for Research in Elderly Health Care and Health Promotion

The 2024 award was jointly awarded to the Chinese Geriatrics Society, China, and Dr. Ahmed Hamed Saif Al Wahaibi, Oman

The Chinese Geriatrics Society is a non-governmental organization that aims to improve the health of the 267 million elderly people in China. The Society implements a wide range of programs and activities critical to healthy aging through a comprehensive approach that includes geriatric assessment, clinical treatment, nutritional support, rehabilitation and palliative care. He conducts innovative research on multimorbidity in old age and related biomarkers and develops guidance and care models to support integrated person-centred health services, addressing issues such as access to palliative care. The results of this work include the development of local standards of care on how to manage polypharmacy and hypertension among older adults with multimorbidity. These standards are applied across the country and the training programs reach a range of staff, including 4,000 carers of older people and more than 140,000 geriatric doctors, enabling them to improve their skills. The society has also pioneered the creation of standards for age-friendly hospitals. After piloting this work in 53 facilities, 90% of health facilities in Beijing now meet these standards. The Society also works to strengthen collaboration between those involved in academia, research and industry.

dr. Ahmed Hamed Saif Al Wahaibi is a family physician who has made an important contribution to the integration of high-quality care for the elderly within primary health care in Oman. Recently, he heads the Department for the care of elderly people in the Directorate for Primary Health Care of the Ministry of Health. He contributed to the development of a national program for the elderly that provides screening, assessment and early intervention as part of primary health care for people aged 60 and over. The goal of the program is to prevent disease, ensure continuity of care from health care facilities to patients' homes, increase independence, and provide seniors with access to community resources. Building on this work, Dr. Al Wahaibi helped develop an electronic health record system, used by a multidisciplinary team, that incorporates findings from assessments of the health status of older adults and links these findings to support services available within primary care. It works to strengthen the capacity of nurses to carry out these assessments and to involve local communities in the planning, management and evaluation of primary health care services available to older people.

Nelson Mandela Health Promotion Award

The 2024 award was jointly awarded to Professor Bontle Mbongwe, Botswana and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), India

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, India, provides state-of-the-art clinical care, conducts training and research, and engages with the communities it serves. It works with central and state governments to shape, inform and implement national policies and strategies such as the National Mental Health Policy (2014), the Mental Health Act, 2017, and the National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2022). NIMHANS engages young people as agents of change within district youth empowerment centers to bridge the gap between young people, their families and the ever-changing society (reaching around 6 million young people). In addition, it is involved in the national initiative for child protection, mental health and psychosocial care (covering more than 3 million people). Other major programs run by the Institute include urban mental health and the integration of mental health issues arising from climate change into the provision of primary mental health care, as well as the training and accreditation of community volunteers to provide mental health first aid: 18,000 gatekeepers have been trained to facilitate early recognizing the risk of suicide and intervening. NIMHANS has launched a number of digital technology initiatives, including: Digital Academy, whose courses have been attended by 2,500 healthcare providers. A national hotline for psychosocial support and mental health services was launched during the first wave of COVID-19. In 2022, the Institute established the National Mental Health Teleprogram to provide equitable, affordable and high-quality mental health care across all Indian states.

Professor Bontle Mbongwe from Botswana is a well-known public health advocate and passionate tobacco control activist. Through country-level consultations initiated during the negotiations on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Botswana's Tobacco Control Act of 1992 was amended in 2004 to limit smoking in public places to protect children, pregnant women and workers, raised the minimum – age restrictions for the sale of tobacco products, prohibition of their sale to persons under 18 years of age and prohibition of advertising and promotion of tobacco. In 2008, Professor Mbongwe's research helped influence government policies that shifted the use of mercury-containing devices in health care facilities to mercury-free alternatives. In 2014, she bravely challenged the tobacco industry by successfully advocating for the introduction of a 30% tobacco tax in Botswana. She then contributed to the state's Tobacco Control Act, 2021. Her tireless work helped raise the minimum age limit for the sale of tobacco products, ban their sale to people under 21, ban the sale of individual cigarette sticks, and require that tobacco products be sold only by authorized persons . She founded the first anti-tobacco civil society network in Botswana and plays an important role in building a network of media and non-governmental organizations dedicated to tobacco control in her homeland, as well as in the rest of Africa and beyond.

Ihsan Doğramacı Family Health Foundation Award

2024 Winner: Dr. Jamila Taiseer Yasser Al Abri, Oman

dr. Al Abri is a well-known obstetrician-gynecologist in Oman with extensive experience and leadership in women's health. She is currently the director of the Department of Women and Children's Health in Oman. She has worked extensively in the field of family health, including: community health; transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to child; human papilloma virus; HIV and the management of a range of infectious diseases; maternal health and prevention of maternal mortality; and the health of newborns, children and adolescents at the level of primary and tertiary health care. dr. Al Abri has demonstrated significant leadership in teaching and managing national health programs, including breast cancer, mental health and autism spectrum disorders, and other family health issues. She played an important role in contributing to the strategic plans for women's and children's health as part of Oman's long-term vision, Health Vision 2050. She is the author of numerous scientific publications and has received several national and international awards and scholarships. dr. Al Abri helped guide the work of various organizations and their technical committees as an advisor, for the region and beyond. This included leading a technical assistance project to improve social protection for women's health care in the Arab states, which was implemented in six countries, and working with the WHO to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.