Geeta Rao Gupta gave a keynote speech at the public launch at LSE's newly established Global Health Initiative, a new multidisciplinary research platform. The initiative’s work will apply LSE’s tradition of rigorous social science research to emerging global health challenges. Geeta Rao Gupta is an Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women and Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. She also serves as co-Chair of the Gender-Based Violence Task Force of the World Bank and member of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO health emergencies.
In her speech, Geeta Rao Gupta highlighted the need to integrate skills and approaches of social sciences with those of biomedical sciences in order to tackle global health issues effectively. You can watch her speech, followed by a Q&A session here.
“As you move forward with realising the ambition of the Global Health Initiative here at LSE, I urge you to stay alert to the value of both sets of skills and approaches, identify and name the various tools available to public health, those that social science together with those of epidemiology and the biomedical sciences, because each has their place, but they have different strength and when used in combination will give us the results that we seek. There will always be a temptation to respond to health challenges by relying on bio-medical solutions, they are the ones that most likely seem to be as silver bullets that we are perpetually looking for. We know that treatment alone will not hold up the future that we seek. Stay alert, use this opportunity of the Global Health Initiative to create new partnerships and foster relationships that support an integrated approach, advocate for social science tools to remain an integral party of the public health response toolbox and highlight examples where social science adds value.”
- Geeta Rao Gupta