Seye Abimbola appointed to Prince Claus Chair

As of 1 September 2020, Dr. Seye Abimbola will hold the Prince Claus Chair at Utrecht University on Justice in Global Health Research. As holder of the Prince Claus Chair, Seye Abimbola’s goal is to increase global health equity. Why are some countries ‘healthier’ than others, and how does this relate to their health systems? Particularly now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these questions are more relevant than ever. 

The Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity is a chair that is held alternately by Utrecht University and the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Exceptional young academics from developing countries are eligible for this position. Both institutions use the chair to advance research and education in the field of international development and equity, in line with the ideas and work of the late Prince Claus. Professor Louise Gunning is the chair of the board of governors of the Prince Claus Chair. Queen Máxima is the patron of the chair.

As a health systems researcher, Seye Ambibola looks into (in)equity in global health systems. As Prince Claus Chairholder, he will study emerging health systems innovations to tackle the global epidemic of non-communicable diseases and the Covid-19 pandemic. Which innovations worked, and which didn’t? And how does this relate to how countries organized their health system?   

About Seye Abimbola

Seye Abimbola is a health systems researcher from Nigeria. He is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney in Australia. He had his initial training in medicine at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Nigeria. And he gained his PhD from Sydney University in 2016, on a wide-ranging institutional analysis of primary health care governance in Nigeria. From 2018-2019, he was a Sidney Sax Overseas Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Abimbola uses methods and theories from institutional economics to study community engagement in health governance, decentralised governance of health systems, and the role that governance plays in the adoption and scale-up of health system innovations. Abimbola is the editor in chief of BMJ Global Health. He is also a member of the Health System Governance Collaborative, which is part of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and serves on the advisory council of Global Health 50/50.