“Covid taught us that equity is what is needed": Winnie Byanyima speaks on global health at SOAS
SOAS welcomed Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, for a discussion on how nations across the world can challenge global health injustices and work towards a more equitable future.
Winnie began with a history into the inequality of global healthcare systems and discovery of medicinal patents, stating: “Public science became private assets. Medicines became globally protected monopolies. The space for countries to shape their own industrial and health policies narrowed dramatically.”
Leading into her own perspectives on how global health systems are profit-led as opposed to being led by the priority to protect human wellbeing, with the global AIDS epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic being key case studies, Byanyima’s called for equitable access to medical technologies that can help to prevent and respond to current and future pandemics.
The rules themselves must change. We need more than reform at the margins. We need to restore democratic control over the market.
Discussing what can be learnt from the global responses and distribution of vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Winnie added: “Covid had taught us that equity is what is needed, not charity. It must be designed into systems.”
Looking at the bigger picture of how global policymakers can address the distribution of healthcare and strike a balance with equity and stabilising economy, Byanyima said: “The rules themselves must change. We need more than reform at the margins. We need to restore democratic control over the market. We need to reduce monopoly power, and we need to affirm the role of the state.”
This event was delivered as part of the SOAS Development Leadership Dialogue Annual Lecture 2026. Previous speakers have included Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Professor Yuen Yuen Ang, the Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University.
