On April 4 and 5, 2011 the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School hosted the inaugural symposium of the Programs in Global Health and Social Change. Global Health Delivery: Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing Excellence and Equity was the launching point for an exchange of ideas focused on some of the most pressing issues confronted by scientists, educators, and practitioners who are committed to improving global health delivery. Jeffrey Sachs delivered the keynote address, which we are pleased to present: Global Health Symposium Keynote.

Dr. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet professor of sustainable development, and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He is also special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon and, from 2002 to 2006, was director of the UN Millennium Project and special adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Sachs is also president and co-founder of the nonprofit Millennium Promise Alliance. In 2004 and 2005, he was named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time magazine, and in 2007 was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a high civilian honor bestowed by the Indian Government. Dr. Sachs lectures frequently worldwide and was the 2007 BBC Reith Lecturer. He is the first holder of the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz chair in poverty studies at the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies, University of Malaysia. The author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books, including the New York Times bestsellers Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008) and The End of Poverty (2005), Dr. Sachs is a member of the Institute of Medicine and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining Columbia, he spent more than 20 years at Harvard University, most recently as director of the Center for International Development.

Dr. Sachs is introduced by Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, who is Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and co-founder of Partners In Health. Dr. Farmer also serves as UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti under Special Envoy Bill Clinton.

Click here to learn more about the Programs in Global Health and Social Change .