Health services and systems, rooted in human rights and social justice.

The purpose of the School is to support and train policy  makers and implementers who are knowledgeable and skilled in the principles and practice of public health

Shifting unequal gender​​ norms and practices: what does it take?

Despite growing recognition, calls for gender transformation are not matched with corresponding rigorous research and learning on what it entails at scale and over time. It is common to come across published papers that merely mention the need for more gender responsive / transformative interventions/approaches but often fall short of articulating, why, how and what is needed to move the needle forward.      

The Struggle for Health: 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2023)

At the time of Prof David Sander’s passing, he was working on an updated edition of this influential book, The Struggle for Health:

New Partnership with the School of Pubic Health, UWC to develop responsive Dialogues guidelines for LMICs

ICARS is pleased to announce that we have selected The School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape in South Africa to undertake a new project to develop guidelines to facilitate Responsive Dialogues to tackle AMR in Low-and Middle-Income (LMIC) settings.

DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Health Systems, Complexity and Social Change – Postdoctoral Fellowship 2023 – Learning Partnership Project for a Gender Transformative Approach (LP4GT)

The School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape (SOPH), is seeing to appoint a Postdoctoral Fellows attached to the SARCHI Chair in Health Systems, Complexity and Social Change (Prof Asha George) and her collaborators, beginning as soon as possible in 2023.

2023 Annual David Sanders Lecture in Public Health and Social Justice

You are invited to join the University of the Western Cape School of Public Health (UWC-SOPH) and People’s Health Movement for the Annual David Sanders Lecture in Public Health and Social Justice and the launch of the 2nd Edition of ‘The Struggle for Health’

Tackling substandard and falsified health products in a post-COVID world: a multidisciplinary challenge grounded in health systems strengthening

You are invited to a lecture and panel discussion

Jakes Gerwel Award 2022: Thembisile Zungu

A lecture by Thembisile Zungu, the 2022 Jakes Gerwel Award recipient.

Current Thinking and Practice in Health Promotion: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

A webinar Series hosted by Dr Anam Nyembezi from the 21st October till the 28th October

The Struggle for Health: Medicine and the politics of underdevelopment

By: David Sanders, Wim De Ceukelaire (ed.), Barbara Hutton (ed.)

Multimorbidity patterns in South Africa: A latent class analysis

By: Rifqah Abeeda Roomaney*, Brian Van Wyk, Annibale Cois, Victoria Pillay van-Wyk

Is the US infant formula shortage an avoidable crisis?

Staff inolved: Tanya Doherty, Anna Coutsoudis, David McCoy, Lori Lake, Catherine Pereira-Kotze, Jeffrey Goldhagen, Max Kroon

One in five South Africans are multimorbid: An analysis of the 2016 demographic and health survey

Staff inolved: Rifqah Abeeda Roomaney, Brian van Wyk, Annibale Cois, Victoria Pillay-van Wyk

Report of Activities 2019 – 2020


We have published reports of our activities every two years for about the past twenty years.

This year we are publishing it electronically for the first time, perhaps reflecting the rapidly accelerated replacement of print with on-line resources (although I don’t think I will change my preference for reading in print). But while the electronic format will make the report easily available around the world, easily readable on mobile phones and tablets, I am also aware that the ubiquitous presence of on-line meetings, digital resources and a world of information that can be tapped any time does not mean equitable access. When we surveyed our students and short course participants last year, we learned that while access has increased substantially, bandwidth, data access and data cost, remain substantial barriers