LiveWell Initiatives, a social enterprise creating shared value, is set to hold the first Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare Awards tagged #EWAHAFRO2022 to recognize women advancing healthcare.
At the media parley Clare Omatseye, chairperson of EWAH’s advisory board, said the #EWAHAFRO2022 is the premier award across Africa to recognize and bring awareness at a broader level to 10 amazing emerging women healthcare leaders.
According to her, the ten women represent diverse sectors of health care.
“What they all have in common is their ‘miles-to-go mindset’ impacting innovating healthcare and fostering inclusivity, inspiring and mentoring others not only in their country but potentially across regions,” Omarseye who is the CEO of JNCI Ltd and doubles as vice president of the African Healthcare Federation said.
Also speaking, Bisi Bright, CEO of LiveWell Initiative and regional representative for EWAH AWARDS AFRICA said the main purpose of the #EWAHAFRO2022 awards is to raise national and international recognition of these emerging, dynamic healthcare leaders.
“The event aims to give visibility to the work of these leaders, to help them continue to build invaluable cross-sector networks and partnerships, and to encourage them to achieve even further impact and innovation and to inspire others in the healthcare system,” she said.
Bright further emphasised that the programme will help to strengthen health systems, through impact and direction; and to bring to the fore Diversity, Inclusiveness, Innovation, and a ‘Miles-to-go’ Mindset, noting that the healthcare system has more women than men working in it, but the top roles are dominated by men, adding that EWAH aims to help bring greater parity in such leadership.
“We want, through EWAH Awards, to get more women to the top across all sectors of healthcare, and to help them build important cross-sector networks that will be even more impactful in the future,” she said.
The EWAH Africa Matron of Honour and chair of the EWAH Steering Committee in the USA, Barri Blauvelt, is very pleased that the first EWAH event outside of the USA will be in collaboration with LiveWell Initiative in Nigeria. She is encouraging more women to do more in the Healthcare space, so that together we can build a global alliance of formidable women who are advancing healthcare into the future.
Stanley Evans MBE, immediate past president of the British Business Group commented that the EWAH Awards differ from most conventional awards, as the awardees do not necessarily need to be healthcare professionals themselves.
He added that the programme nominates and then selects 10 women who are impactful, across diverse sectors of health care, from public health and policy to community health education and leadership, and from academia and research through healthcare industry manufacturing and distribution.
“For example, the awards will honor among its winners a low literacy community health leader, two University Vice Chancellors, a low-income healthcare worker from Northern Nigeria, a Nigerian CEO of a multinational pharmaceutical corporation, and a First Lady who is a pediatrician with interest in oncology,” he said.
This is to significantly raise recognition of the amazing work being led by extraordinary women across diverse sectors of the African healthcare system and elsewhere, creating a new awakening, and ‘Call to Action’ for women to become healthcare leaders, not only in Africa but around the global.
This is aimed at bringing visibility and impact for new and expanded career prospects for women in healthcare and diverse sectors’ leadership.
It is believed that this will strengthen health systems, particularly through the education and advancement of more women in the healthcare workforce at all levels of the organization, in alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, primarily SDG 3 (Good Health and Well Being) and SGD 5 (Gender Equality).
