Dr. James Orbinski Chair in Global Health at The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) a think-tank on international
Dr. James Orbinski Chair in Global Health at The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) a think-tank on international governance is an internationally recognized doctor who witnessed the horrors of the Rwandan 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
On Septermber 1st, 2012 he is going to Waterloo, Canada to help develop solutions to global health problems appointed by the Wilfrid Laurier University.
Orbinski, a former international president of Medecins San Fronteires (Doctors Without Borders), has also been appointed director of the Africa Initiative, a partnership between CIGI and the South African Institute of International Affairs.
He will help develop a long-term strategic plan for the Africa Initiative, a program that supports research in conflict resolution, energy, food security, health, migration and climate change.
“I am delighted to be joining both CIGI and the Africa Initiative,’’ Orbinski said in a press release. “We have a highly competent team focused on research and capacity building. This is a wonderful opportunity to further engage and shape the world so that it is more humane, fair and just.”
Orbinski’s primary role “is to be a CIGI research chair and to participate in the Balsillie School of International Affairs,’’ said Deborah MacLatchy, vice-president academic.
“He’ll also do work with CIGI related to Africa. It’s tied in to his overall research and humanitarian activities regarding global health.’’
Orbinski, 52, is a leading scholar in global health, the university said in a press release. Most recently, he was a professor at the University of Toronto and a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital.
As international President of Doctors Without Borders, he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organization in 1999. Doctors Without Borders is a medical humanitarian organization that brings medical care to people in crisis in more than 60 countries.
Orbinski was honoured with the Meritorious Service Cross, Canada’s highest civilian citation, for his service in Rwanda during the 1994 Civil War and genocide. He was also a field doctor in Somalia, Zaire, Afghanistan and Peru.
He has helped improve access to health care in developing countries. He also helped develop drug treatments for millions of people who lacked medical care.
Orbinski is excited about joining scholars and thinkers at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and in other programs at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
“The Balsillie school, Wilfrid Laurier and the University of Waterloo represent this incredible confluence of institutional ambition that really want to achieve something,’’ he said Monday.
“There are very few institutional centres that genuinely want to advance these issues and are able to commit the resources to these issues.’’
In his new role, his focus will be “looking at the issue of climate change and its impact on conflict, food security, health and population migration in Africa.’’
He hopes to develop a global health policy on these issues by bringing together international government organizations, such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, charities and the private sector.
“What kinds of patterns of natural disaster are we seeing and likely to see in the future due to climate change?
What is the current impact on food security, nutrition and on famine?”
Global health issues won’t be resolved by using “the charity model’’ of wealthy nations doing good in the world, he said.
“There’s a need for a common approach to ensuring there’s an appropriate strategy that deals with the needs of people in a way that’s fair, just and effective.’’
He begins his job Sept. 1. He and his wife, Rolie Srivastava, and his three children, aged nine, seven and four, are in the process of moving to Waterloo.
They were at a pool Sunday night, he said, when his oldest boy, Rohin, remarked, “Daddy, the most beautiful thing about Waterloo is you can see the stars at night.’’
His four-year-old daughter, Riya, commented on how clean the air was. His seven-year-old son, Taigh, “is delighted with the wild bunnies in our backyard,’’ he said.
“There’s a need to understand the science of the impact of climate change on health,’’ he said. “What kind of patterns of infectious diseases are we seeing that are new? What kinds of patterns are we likely to see in future?
“Global health is an emerging discipline and practice within the academic world,’’ he said. “Global health … is a perspective that deals with issues that cross borders and that have to be dealt with in a common way….’’
Global solutions are needed to the problem of climate change, he said.
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