Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Professor Doreen Ramogola-Masire, has been awarded the 2024 World Health Organization (WHO) Sasakawa Health Prize. Professor Ramogola- Masire received the award in Geneva, Switzerland on the 31^st of May 2024.

The Sasakawa Health Prize is awarded for outstanding innovative work in health development to a person or persons, an institution or institutions, or a nongovernmental organization or organizations. Such work includes the promotion of given health programmes or notable advances in primary health care.

Professor Ramogola-Masire received the award following confirmation by the Executive Board after unanimous decision by the Sasakawa Health Prize Selection Panel to award her the prize. Consequently, she received a statuette and US$30 000. Professor Ramogola-Masire is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Since 2002, she has played an important role in the development and implementation of Botswana’s first National Cervical Cancer Prevention Strategy, which was launched in 2012.

Through her role as a member of the National HIV Technical Working Group for the past two decades, she took an active part in developing and updating the National Strategic Framework for HIV. Professor Ramogola-Masire worked to expand the partnerships that had been developed to support the country’s HIV/AIDS programme to also support cervical cancer prevention.

Her work initially focused on screening and early treatment of precancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and then expanded, with HPV vaccination starting in 2015. Thanks to the use of self-collected samples for HPV testing, the cervical cancer screening programme will be accessible to more women in Botswana, including socially and geographically disadvantaged women.

In addition, Professor Ramogola-Masire’s innovative work in training nurses and medical officers to carry out cervical cancer screening and on treatment procedures using telemedicine as a quality assurance tool, helped Botswana to implement its cervical cancer prevention programme despite an insufficient number of trained gynaecologists.

Moreover, she has facilitated the development of an obstetrics and gynaecology specialisation programme at the national level, which will ensure a supply of well-trained specialists able to lead this work in the future.

Her involvement of community and traditional leaders at key stages of the preparation for the programme’s launch is expected to be an important factor in ensuring the programme’s success.

In her new role as leader of the Strategic Office for Research at the University of Botswana, Professor Ramogola-Masire continues to facilitate and build capacity for collaborative and impactful multidisciplinary health research, with the inclusion of the impact of climate change.

Following the award, Professor Ramogola-Masire would like to invest in supporting the qualitative aspect of the development of biomarker triage strategies for women who screen positive for any high-risk HPV.

About the University of Botswana:

The University of Botswana is a leading institution of higher learning in Botswana, committed to providing quality education, research, and service to the nation and beyond. The University seeks to improve economic and social conditions for advancing itself as a distinctively African university with regional and international outlook.

For more information, kindly contact: Dr. Faith Rapuleng-Tuelo Director of Public Affairs Email: directorpa@ub.ac.bw Phone: +267 3552284 / +267 3552286