Emerging Projects

This Global Public Health Seminar will feature two emerging projects led by Georgetown University-affiliated primary investigators.

Fleming Fund: Antimicrobial Resistance in Rwanda

First, Ibrahim Bola Gobir will discuss how he, along with Deus Bazira and Babatunji Oni, are leading a project, supported by the U.K. government’s Fleming Fund project in Rwanda, that aims to strengthen health systems by developing a robust diagnostic stewardship program and enhancing data collection, analysis, and use at national and site levels. The project focuses on integrating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance across sectors, supporting eight human health (HH) and two animal health (AH) surveillance sites. It aims to build workforce capacity in advanced microbiology techniques, including whole genome sequencing. Georgetown will collaborates with the Rwandan government to ensure sustainability through budgeting for essential supplies, fostering policy integration, and supporting AMR data reporting to international bodies like the WHO Global AMR Surveillance System (GLASS) and the World Organization for Animal Health.

Laboratory Preparedness and Response in Iraq, Nigeria, and Bangladesh

Second, Sumegha Asthana will discuss her work with Claire Standley, funded by the Elizabeth R. Griffin Program, to strengthen interim laboratory arrangements created during the COVID-19 pandemic. To respond to the pandemic many countries rapidly increased their laboratory capacity by utilizing existing infrastructure, emergency procurement, and providing rapid technician training. Asthana and Standley’s previous work in Iraq, Nigeria, and Bangladesh raised concerns about the sustainability of these capacities. This project aims to evaluate the necessity of maintaining these capacities (in these three countries) and to identify the opportunities and challenges in optimizing their role in future health emergencies and integrating them into routine health services.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Global Health Science and Security, the School of Health’s Department of Health Management and Policy and the Department of Global Health, the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, and the Global Health Institute.

Featured

Dr. Sumegha Asthana is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Global Health Science and Security. She is trained as a physician, health administrator, and health policy and systems researcher. She works at the intersections of health systems strengthening, health policy, health governance, health security, and medical pluralism. She is an advocate for decolonizing global health and building health policy and system research (HPSR) capacities in low and middle-income countries. Before starting her postdoc, she worked as an independent public health consultant with multiple international and Indian healthcare organizations. Asthana is the co-founder and founding chair of the India chapter of a global social movement called Women in Global Health. She teaches courses on health systems, health policy, global health governance, and medical pluralism.

Ibrahim Bola Gobir is an assistant professor and field resident director in the West Africa Georgetown University Center for Global Health for Practice and Impact and leads the Nigeria country office with over 20 years of public health experience. He is also the chief executive officer of Georgetown Global Health Nigeria, leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative strategies targeted at multiple health conditions in Nigeria while also serving as project director on multiple PEPFAR-funded HIV and U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) global health security programs. He served as the country director for the University of Maryland Global Fund and U.S. CDC-funded Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey project, the largest single population-based HIV survey completed within a six-month period. He is currently the principal investigator on a five-year Global Health Security award from the CDC to strengthen multisectoral efforts to improve the health sector’s preparedness to prevent, detect, respond to, and reduce the public health consequences of outbreaks of diseases in Nigeria. This is in addition to being the PI on a recently awarded USAID $47,000,000 comprehensive HIV care and treatment program to Georgetown Global Health Nigeria.