Ongoing actions

What happens when Covid-19 meets Africa? To find answers, this article examines tertiary management education delivered by the continent’s business schools in the context of Africa’s susceptibilities to the pandemic. The concept of proximity is applied as an axiomatic analytic complement to Covid’s transmission pathways impacting on the psychosocial foundation of human relations, people’s spatial distribution and their time perspectives. Taking management literature into account, proximity is applied to Africa’s business schools in terms of their immediate and long-term responses to the pandemic, suggesting practical post-Covid reforms considered from a humanistic management approach to management education and scholarship. A theme throughout this article is that Covid-19’s exposure of contextual vulnerabilities presents an opportunity and imperative for business schools’ re-missioning and renewal to enhance relevance, quality and building post-Covid resilience. The article provides a framework for the study of other Covid-sensitive sectors or organizations and theory development and testing using different proximity conceptualizations, frames and combinations thereof. Limitations of the study are discussed.

WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)

20 August 2021

Call for experts

Issued on:  20 August 2021

Deadline: 10 September 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). This “Call for experts” provides information about the advisory group in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.

Background

The rapid emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 has highlighted the importance of being prepared for any future event, to be able to identify novel pathogens early and to address the risk factors that contribute to their emergence and spread. In May 2020, the World Health Assembly, through resolution WHA73.1, requested the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) to continue to work closely with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and countries, as part of the One Health approach, to identify the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the route of introduction to the human population.

There have been an increasing number of high threat pathogens emerging and reemerging in recent years with, for example, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Lassa, Marburg, Ebola, Nipah, avian influenza, the latest being SARS-CoV-2. There is not only need for robust surveillance and early actions for rapid detection and mitigation efforts, but a need for a robust and systematic processes to establish the study around the emergence of these pathogens and routes of transmission from their natural reservoirs to humans.

To this end, the Director-General has established the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins on Novel Pathogens (hereinafter referred to as ‘SAGO”). The SAGO will advise the WHO Secretariat on technical and scientific considerations regarding emerging and re-emerging pathogens, and will be composed of experts acting in a personal capacity. It is established in accordance with the WHO Regulations for Study and Scientific Groups, Collaborating Institutions and Other Mechanisms of Collaboration.