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UFS staff leading the charge with WHO initiatives

07 June 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Prof Champion Nyoni and Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa — Prof Champion Nyoni, Senior Researcher in the School of Nursing at the University of the Free State (UFS). Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, an African traditional medicine expert and Head of the African Medicines Innovations and Technologies Development Platform (AMITD) within the UFS Department of Pharmacology.

Prof Champion Nyoni, Senior Researcher in the School of Nursing at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been appointed to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Academy Standing Advisory Quality Committee – making him the only representative from Africa to serve in this academy.

Another UFS staff member, Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, an expert on African traditional medicine and Head of the African Medicines Innovations and Technologies Development Platform (AMITD) within the Department of Pharmacology, has also been appointed to serve on a WHO initiative – the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine Editorial Board/Evidence Task Force. His appointment will be effective until the end of December 2023.

Prof Matsabisa will also attend the first WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit in India in August 2023, after being invited to serve as a member of the Summit External Advisory Group for the WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit (‘Advisory Group’).

The appointment of Prof Nyoni, who is the current Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Africa Interprofessional Education Network (AfrIPEN), and Deputy Chair of the Board for Interprofessional.Global – a global confederation of interprofessional networks based in the Netherlands – will be effective for two years.

The WHO Academy is a priority initiative of the WHO transformation agenda and will support accelerated learning and skills recognition of staff and external stakeholders to advance the implementation of the WHO's strategic plan and ‘triple billion’ goal: ensuring that by 2023, an additional one billion people benefit from universal health coverage; one billion more are afforded better protection in health emergencies, and one billion more enjoy improved health and well-being.

Work and contribution being recognised

“I feel thrilled about this exciting adventure. I think this is an exciting opportunity in my career to be recognised by an organisation such as the WHO to serve in the capacity of adviser. I think this is a huge feather in my cap, our School of Nursing, and the faculty. My work and contribution are being recognised and this is a good thing. I am hoping to make an impact in this committee and to also learn from it,” says Prof Nyoni.

Even though there is a bit of pressure representing the whole continent, Prof Nyoni believes his experience with global organisations will come in handy. He is ready to take on the challenge, give it his best, and leave a legacy of excellence.

“Due to the complexity of health professions education in our context, our different cultural, geographical, and socio-economic issues, it is truly an interesting concept to actually think of representing an entire region. I have worked in and continue to work in many countries in Africa through various research projects and postgraduate students, which gives one some insight into what is happening in the region, but often one needs to know more.”

Global knowledge centre for traditional medicine

For Prof Matsabisa, who is also the chairperson of the WHO Regional Expert Advisory Committee on Traditional Medicine (REACT), it is always thrilling to be recognised by serving in such world bodies.

The WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO-GCTM) was established in 2022 as a global knowledge centre for traditional medicine to harness the potential of traditional medicine from across the world through modern science and technology in order to improve the health of people and the planet.

“I look at myself most of the time and ask myself what I am doing right to be given such recognition globally. I am, however, always ready and prepared to take such responsibilities and challenges. I feel happy and great knowing that my expertise and experience is recognised so far from home. I will do my best and try not to fail anyone. I will give it my all and put my whole heart into this task,” says Prof Matsabisa.

He looks forward to seeing the WHO develop tools and guidelines that will promote the institutionalisation of traditional medicine and to come up with positive resolutions on how to take traditional medicines forward.

World takes traditional medicine seriously

According to Prof Matsabisa, the world is now taking traditional medicines seriously. The developed world is now serious about using traditional medicines for their daily health needs and consumption. The world is accepting the positive and important role that traditional medicine is playing in our health-care needs and how it is contributing to the health and well-being of people.

“It is unfortunate that, at home, we have sceptics and people still living in the past who are blind to the importance of traditional medicines. The WHO is now seriously taking the lead in giving advice and guidelines on traditional medicines. It makes me very happy to see these significant movements around traditional medicines."

Africa, Prof Matsabisa concludes, still has its natural resources and its indigenous knowledge as the main remaining tools to get the continent into development and economic freedom. If strategic decisions could be made around developments based on the natural resources for local beneficiation and moving away from the ‘thinking about resources’ to a knowledge-based economy, we could take the continent out of poverty, famine, and wars, and redirect resources to development, technical skills development, and wealth generation for all.

News Archive

Teachers should deal with diversity in education - Prof. Francis

2010-10-08

At the occasion were, from the left: Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS); Prof. Francis; and Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Teaching and Learning at the UFS.
Photo: Jaco van der Merwe

Prof. Dennis Francis, the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently delivered his inaugural lecture on Troubling Diversity in South African Education on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

He urged teachers to be open to what “diversity” might mean in a particular context and how diversity relates to either inclusion or exclusion.

“An approach that promotes the inclusion of all must be based on an understanding of how exclusion operates in ways that may have typical patterns of oppression, but differ in the specific ways that exclusion is expressed and becomes normalised in that context,” he said.

“The good teacher thus seeks to understand how these forms of exclusion may develop in the school’s context and respond through taking thoughtful action to challenge them. It may require creating a climate that enables the silent to speak and recognising that not all groups communicate in exactly the same ways.”

He said teachers also had to affirm the experiential base of learners and students. He said there was an assumption that students would be more effective practitioners if their own experience were validated and explored.

“It is crucial that the students’ own history is treated as valuable and is a critical part of the data that are reflected,” he said. “Equally important is that such stories and similar activities are intentionally processed to enable students to make the connections between personal experience and relevant theory.”

He also urged them to challenge the ways in which knowledge had been framed through oppression.

“Schools are often characterised by messages that draw on one or another form of oppression. Thus, expectations are subtly or in some cases unsubtly communicated, e.g. that girls are not good at physics, or that, while white learners are strong in abstract thought, African learners have untapped creativity, and so on,” he continued.

“For someone to integrate into their role as educators a commitment against oppression means confronting obstacles that one may previously have shied away from, such as challenging authority, naming privilege, emphasising the power relations that exist between social groups, listening to people one has previously ignored, and risking being seen as deviant, troublesome or unpopular.”

Furthermore, Prof. Francis said dealing with diversity in education was always affectively loaded for both students and teachers. He said in South Africa one injunction from educators was to be “sensitive” and thus avoid risking engagement with the contentious issues around imbalances of power.

“If both students and teachers are to confront issues of oppression and power in any meaningful way, we need to design more purposely for the difficulties they will encounter, for example, creating a classroom environment that promotes safety and trust so that all students are able to confront and deal with prejudice and discrimination. Classroom environments will need to balance the affective and cognitive in addressing issues of diversity and social justice,” he added.

He also said that teachers should recognise the need to complement changing attitudes with attempts to change the structural aspects of oppressions.

“To prevent superficial commitments to change, it is important for students to explore barriers that prevent them from confronting oppressive attitudes and behaviours. In this way students are able to learn and see the structural aspects of oppression,” he said.

“Equally important, however, is to get students to examine the benefits associated with challenging oppression. A fair amount of time must therefore be spent on developing strategies with students which they will be able to use practically in challenging oppression.”

He also advised educators to affirm the capacity of staff and learners to act and learn in ways that do not replicate patterns of oppression.

“Many South African schools have survived both the harsh repression of apartheid and the continuing legacy of oppression of various kinds. Despite that, we are often as educators made aware of the ways in which young people in particular affirm themselves and each other in creative and confident ways,” he concluded.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (acg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za
7 October 2010

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