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13 September 2022 | Story Andrè Damons | Photo Andrè Damons
Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa
This week, Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, will give a keynote speech on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Health during a session at the eighth edition of the UNGA77 Science Summit around the 77th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA77).

Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, Director of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been invited to give a keynote speech on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Health during a session at the eighth edition of the UNGA77 Science Summit around the 77th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA77).

While in New York, Prof Matsabisa will also meet with officials from the Wellcome Trust – a global charitable foundation – where he will present a strong and compelling motivation for the Wellcome Trust to invest in traditional medicines. Says Prof Matsabisa: “I will deliver a compelling message for investment to be made in scientific research and development around traditional medicines. This development will be piloted in a hub-and-spoke model based on the African economic blocks, with the hub being in South Africa. The returns on the investment put in this initiative will be massive for the African continent, both socially and economically, and I believe it will lead to self-sustainability and Africa being a supplier of innovations based on the science of traditional medicines.” 

SSUNGA77 is organised by Intelligence in Science and will take place from 13 to 30 September 2022. It will bring together thought leaders, scientists, technologists, innovators, policy makers, decision makers, regulators, financiers, philanthropists, journalists and editors, and community leaders to increase health science and citizen collaboration across a broad spectrum of themes, including ICT, nutrition, agriculture, health, IKS, and the environment.

Prof Matsabisa, an expert in African traditional medicine (ATM) and Chairperson of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Expert Advisory Committee on Traditional Medicines for COVID-19 (REACT), is also the convener of this session, following his successful proposal for such a session. The session will take place in person on 20 September at the UN headquarters in New York. It is an official side event of the UN General Assembly’s 77th anniversary and will be co-sponsored by the permanent missions of Ireland, Spain, South Africa, Brazil, and Bangladesh to the UN.

His message at Science Summit

“At the end of the summit, we are to make recommendations to the UN, EU, and AU on IKS and health developmental matters. This is exciting and nerve-wracking for me, but I will remain calm knowing that I have a message to deliver to the highest global decision-making body. There can be nothing greater than presenting my talk and proposals for consideration to such a body.” 

“I will convey three simple messages, namely the importance of traditional medicines in contributing to universal health coverage, the need for Africa – through the heads of state and governments – to take seriously the local manufacturing of traditional medicines for industrialisation, economic emancipation, and responding to poverty and inequality. The third message is the need for sustained and adequate financial support by African ministries of health for the development, commercialisation, and market access to quality and well-researched, safe, and effective traditional medicines in order to contribute to priority diseases as well as responding to pandemics,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

According to him, this address at SSUNGA77 is a chance to correctly position the story on IKS with arguments based on good scientific evidence. “It means we are getting much closer to the institutionalisation and formal economic contribution of IKS to health, and that the African IKS health system is getting international recognition and acceptance,” he says.
Prof Matsabisa says he hopes the message will emerge clearly from his talk that Africa has the resources for raw materials and that the science, as well as the infrastructure, exists to develop IKS and to contribute to new health products. The spin-off is the industrialisation, job creation, and wealth generation that Africa can offer to the rest of the world.

Overall information on the summit is available here

News Archive

2014 Winter Graduation
2014-06-27

 
It is time for the 2014 Winter Graduation on our Bloemfontein Campus. From 2 – 4 July 2014 Masters and Doctoral degrees will be bestowed on graduates from across all seven faculties as well as the School of Open Learning. These include the conferral of Medicine degrees on the South African Cuban trainees.

Wednesday 2 July 2014 at 14:30: School of Open Learning
The School of Open Learning will confer a total of 609 degrees this year – almost double compared to the 320 of last year.

Thursday 3 July 2014 at 09:30: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Prof Magdalena Blum will receive an Honorary Doctorat, DPhil honoris causa, at this event. Prof Blum is an Extension Systems Officer in Rome. She works for a specialised agency of the United Nations called the Food and Agriculture Organization. This organisation’s mandate is:
• to improve nutrition,
• increase agricultural productivity,
• raise the standard of living in rural populations and
• contribute to global economic growth.

Her position serves to modernise and strengthen rural advisory services, their systems and networks worldwide. She has filled this position for almost nine years.

Prof Blum is driven by a passion for development, humanitarian work and female upliftment, but most of all, to enable people to help themselves.

Blum’s life has taken her from a small German village to Africa, Asia and Europe – and she has made an impact wherever she went.

Thursday 3 July 2014 at 14:30: Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences, Humanities, Education, Health Sciences, Law and Theology
At this ceremony, Faculty of the Humanities will award an Honorary Doctorate, DPhil honoris causa, on Prof Laura Mulvey. She is a feminist film theorist and worked at the British Film Institute for many years. She is currently a professor at Film and Media Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Prof Mulvey was prominent as an avant-garde filmmaker in the 1970s and ‘80s. In collaboration with her husband, Peter Wollen, she co-wrote and co-directed:
• Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974),
• Riddles of the Sphinx (1977, perhaps their most influential film),
• AMY! (1980),
• Crystal Gazing (1982),
• Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (1982), and
• The Bad Sister.

In 1991, she returned to filmmaking with Disgraced Monuments, which she co-directed with Mark Lewis.

Friday 4 July 2014 at 10:30: Special Graduation Ceremony
Conferral of Medicine Degrees on the South African Cuban trainees at the UFS

Live streaming will be available on: http://www.ufs.ac.za/ufslivestreaming/

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