My Year in Review 2024: Snippets through the seasons.

Experiencing the transition of the UK weather through autumn, winter, spring, and summer of 2023/2024 made me reflect on how our experiences naturally ebb and flow through seasons.

My 2024 swung through cycles of change(autumn), challenges(winter), growth(spring), and celebration(summer), making me appreciate the introspection, intentionality, opportunities, blessings, and grit that characterised the previous year.

Like the weather, unpredictability was constant throughout these cycles; it could become windy, sunny, and rainy all in one afternoon, irrespective of the season. However, unlike the seasons, the cycles were non-linear and often simultaneous, requiring skilful prioritisation, emotional balance, and tact.

I wanted to revisit and highlight the moments and milestones that defined 2024 to lay a foundation for the road ahead.

The year started like winter. A quiet city and a packed calendar that brought the bittersweet challenge of navigating assessments, classes, individual tasks with deadlines to meet, training to prepare for and attend and team-based projects to turn in. Nonetheless, within the first quarter of 2024 and beyond, some moments felt like autumn when I let go of thought processes that no longer served their purpose. And even though it was freezing outside, having the luxury of spending the Christmas and New Year holidays with family felt like summer.

Many avenues for personal growth defined this year. Like in spring, seeds sprouted as I engaged with these opportunities throughout the masters programme. Here are a few highlights;

The Oxford Union

Debating at the Oxford Union made me temporarily change gears from collaborative to competitive and helped me improve my public speaking further. Also, it was an exercise that helped me humanise the realities of the complexity of decision-making and prioritisation that governments and leaders at various levels are responsible for in a world faced with multiple crises, including pandemics and climate change. It emphasised the power of evidence-based decision-making in all sectors and the need to ask the right questions.

Elective modules

The elective modules I chose gave me that feeling that comes with meeting your tribe. I decided on two primary modules and one to audit. Many topics we discussed in the sessions addressed several concerns I had before the course while leading the implementation of health projects to strengthen primary health systems in Lagos, Nigeria.

In the international development and health module, our course director and a host of other professors, including the director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative(OPHI), introduced me and my colleagues to the thought-provoking work of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, among others. This new way of thinking and the knowledge gained from the other sessions were vital in acing my capstone task of critically analysing how rapid and unplanned urbanisation impacts health and proposing viable mitigation strategies to a multilateral organisation.

In the Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship module, I learned from real-life business cases and some founders across various countries’ health systems through insightful podcasts and in-person discussions. We also explored the world of financial statements and medical device regulations, which RegMetrics made easy to understand through its user-friendly platform. The icing on the cake was taking some innovative ideas for people living with non-communicable diseases(NCDs) I had before the course, from notepad through proposal and Lean Canvas to pitch deck, in collaboration with fantastic colleagues and module facilitators.

I audited the mathematical modelling for the infectious diseases module, which was a bit out of my comfort zone. However, I leveraged my knowledge of infectious disease epidemiology and learnings from a prior introductory module on R for reproducible research. It also provided insights into how collaboration and tailored communication of research findings can inspire policymakers to act.

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Leadership training

I had the opportunity to participate in various training sessions, such as media, stakeholder engagement, leading change for impact using methods like a theory of change, and global health diplomacy.

In the health diplomacy session, I simulated a real-life ‘hot seat’ negotiation with my colleague, the head of the delegation of the government of a country in East Africa, as a representative of a multilateral organisation that funds programmes to fight HIV, tuberculosis(TB) and Malaria. I enjoyed it more than I expected, but more importantly, the experience reminded me of the often-differing interests of various health players and how this affects the outcomes we see locally. It highlights the undeniable role of such skills in saving lives and improving health systems. Perhaps it also draws attention to questions like, ‘What are the incentive structures at play in health organisations across the public and private sectors?’ and ‘Does this structure align with the shared goal of health for all?’

Policy dialogue

Systems change cannot happen sustainably without the right policies.

I worked with colleagues to prepare and present a policy brief at the Houses of parliament. My team presented research and priority recommendations on a climate-sensitive neglected tropical disease(NTD)—schistosomiasis. We emphasised that as the world becomes more connected through trade, technology and migration, previously non-endemic countries in southern Europe, for instance, may be at risk of outbreaks due to the climate crisis, among others. I reiterated the need to leave no one behind in funding the eradication of such diseases through strengthening health systems, as protecting one individual in the remotest communities protects us all.

Placement

I chose to work with the Health Innovation and Health Systems teams to plan and conduct a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies. I synthesised evidence on emerging approaches for cervical cancer screening and the barriers and facilitators of implementing them in Sub-Saharan Africa to highlight gaps for further research and propel action.

This experience updated my knowledge of Africa's ever-changing landscape of health innovation. It raised concerns about the need for more collaboration across public and private sectors to scale what works, minimise duplication of innovation efforts in the region and perhaps promote an agile approach to translating research into action.

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Health Proactivists Initiative (HPI)

I founded this initiative to promote proactive approaches to health in Nigeria while strengthening primary health systems to fight the non-communicable diseases(NCDs) prevalent in the country. The World Health Organisation estimated that NCDs accounted for an estimated 29% of all deaths in the country in 2018. Since the organisation registered as a non-profit in 2021, it has brought smiles to thousands of residents in low-income communities and gained support from almost 100 young people, ?thanks to funding from our local community of supporters, our team and the Vine Social Impact fund.

In 2024, the team took a stroke awareness campaign to Ondo state in southwest Nigeria, collaborating with students at the University of Medical Sciences and health service providers at the teaching hospital's internal medicine department. I offered technical guidance to the team on the role of community engagement and involvement in public health programming ethics and relevance.

Community members participated in stroke prevention education and screening for raised blood pressure, the most important modifiable risk factor for stroke. We donated a blood pressure monitor to the local clinic partner to replace the faulty one they had. Furthermore, our understanding of the higher catastrophic health expenditures by families with a loved one living with chronic conditions such as stroke in Nigeria, where health insurance coverage is currently low, prompted us to include cash tokens to support care for hospitalised beneficiaries.

Our engagement with the community has opened doors for continued dialogue on mitigating risk factors for chronic diseases. Still, it has also raised the demand for essential screening equipment by other local clinics that lack it, highlighting gaps and, thus, opportunities for greater impact.

HPI is building capacity for more sustainable approaches to increasing its impact in the future. One such approach is generating local data to inform decision-making long-term. You can follow our journey here.

Full circle

After celebrating the milestone of completing my masters, I was back in autumn, another transition period, but in a different way. I got to work and engage with Health systems researchers and innovators who applied much of what I had learned and more.

Overall, I loved how my activities in the past year broadened my general knowledge of global health, helped me gain deeper insights into specific niches I am genuinely interested in, and allowed me to experience and engage in projects in which these were implemented in real life. Thanks to the funding of the AfOx-Mastercard scholarship, which had the advantage of an adjoining leadership programme by the Skoll Centre at Said Business School, Oxford, these experiences now shape how I envision the solutions to the problems I encountered on the frontlines in Nigeria's health system in retrospect. It has also helped me serve aspiring global health leaders through mentorship. I love how some of the coffee chats were not just an avenue to catch up but to contribute to assisting others gain clarity.

The award-winning Christmas lights at Bute Park in Wales gave me the perfect scene to unwind. It got my ‘I will definitely visit again’ review. It was such a great way to end the year.

Now, in the stillness of winter, grounded in some level of uncertainty, I look forward to facing the new year with the same grit I did last year and collaborating to achieve health for all.

Cheers to a remarkable 2025 and I hope you appreciate life's seasons- the transitions, milestones, and the wins whether big or small.