Shifting Terrain: Agendas for Health Policy and Systems Research in a Time of Critical Global Change
A panel discussion in the Transforming Health Systems: Conversations That Matter series.
Shifting Terrain: Agendas for Health Policy and Systems Research in a Time of Critical Global Change
22 May 2026, 17:00 – 18:30
Event Details
Date: Thursday 22 May 2026
Time: 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM BST
Venue: Lecture Theatre (Room 118), Marshgate Building, UCL East, London
Format: Hybrid: attend in-person at UCL East or join online
Registration: Free - places are limited to attend in-person and are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis
About This Event
Join us at UCL East for an evening in conversation with Professor Irene Agyepong and Professor Kabir Sheikh and a panel of health systems and policy research leaders. Together they will lead a dialogue on the future of health systems research in the Global South, co-designing agendas for a field at a critical juncture.
Over the past three decades, health policy and systems research (HPSR) has evolved into a distinctive field, shaped by Global South grounded scholarship and practice, and an explicit recognition of politics, power, and partnership as constitutive of health systems. The field now faces new and pressing conditions: geopolitical restructuring and post-aid realities, expanding commercial influence, emergencies fuelled by conflict and climate change, AI-driven transformation, and a post-truth information environment. This session will surface questions about the research problems, methods, partnerships, and forms of evidence the field needs most in our current era of crisis and opportunity.
This dialogue will inform the forthcoming Research Handbook on Health Systems in the Global South (Sheikh, Zhang, Collins and Irene Agyepong, eds.), a flagship volume setting out emerging agendas for research, policy, and practice.
The event is free and open to all. Students, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and anyone with an interest in health systems, health policy, and health equity are warmly invited to join us at UCL East.
Co-Convenors
- Professor Irene Agyepong | Public health physician; Foundation fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Faculty of Public Health
- Professor Kabir Sheikh | Director, UCL Centre for Global Health Systems and Policy
Panel Discussants
- Professor Tolib Mirzoev | Professor of Global Health Policy in the Department of Global Health and Development, LSHTM, UK
- Dr Rene Loewenson | Director, Training and Research Support Centre, Zimbabwe
- Dr Keith Cloete | Head of Department, Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, South Africa
- Dr Maryam Bigdeli | Health Systems Specialist; Former WHO Representative and Head of Mission, Morocco
About the Series
Transforming Health Systems: Conversations that Matter is a series of dialogues convened by the UCL Centre for Global Health Systems and Policy. Health systems around the world are undergoing rapid and profound change – shaped by urbanisation, the growing reach of private commerce, and the accelerating impact of digital and AI technologies. These conversations bring together global experts, health leaders, and frontline practitioners to explore how to innovate and manage change amidst complex realities.
Sessions are publicly broadcast, recorded, and archived.