UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL WEDNESDAY 22ND JULY 2026 
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Butaro, Burera, Rwanda, 22^nd July 2026, The University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) working with the Consortium of Medical Schools-Africa (COMS-A) will host the Inaugural Paul E. Farmer Butaro Dialogues on Health Equity and Innovation on UGHE’s campus in Butaro. 

The Paul E. Farmer Butaro Dialogues will convene more than 100 leaders, including senior government officials, academic institutions, philanthropic foundations, clinicians, civil society groups, students, and young innovators, all working to catalyze equitable access to health innovations.  

This edition has one focus: Closing the gap between proven innovations and their implementation in maternal, newborn, and child health. 

During the day, delegates will work through sessions on the innovation-to-implementation pipeline, across four stages: education, research, implementation, and policy. Each year, globally, approximately 287,000 women lose their lives to preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 4.9 million children die before the age of five. UGHE and COMS-A see this less as a knowledge problem but more as a delivery problem, one of getting proven tools to where they’re needed, funding them, and committing to keep them there. 

“Today, we ask the global health community to measure the distance between what we say we value, and what we actually deliver, and to close it,” says Prof. Philip Cotton, UGHE Vice Chancellor.  

“Through COMS-A’s network of 191 institutions across 37 countries, what happens in Butaro will shape how the future generation of African health professionals is trained, and how proven innovations reach mothers and newborns equitably and at scale.” says Prof. Lionel Green-Thompson, President of COMS-A and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town. 

The inaugural Dialogues marks the start of a sustained platform for equitable health innovation across Africa, carried forward in the same spirit of accompaniment and hard-won progress that defined Paul’s life’s work. 

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About UGHE 

Founded in 2015 by Partners In Health, with the leadership of the late Dr. Paul Farmer, the University of Global Health Equity trains a new generation of health leaders to build and sustain equitable health systems across underserved regions. Based on its Butaro campus in Rwanda, UGHE serves as the secretariat of COMS-A. Learn more at ughe.org. 

About COMS-A 
Launched in March 2025, in Kigali, Rwanda, the Consortium of Medical Schools – Africa is a unified, African-led platform strengthening medical education, research, and healthcare delivery across the continent. It brings together deans and medical education leaders from 191 institutions across 37 African countries. Learn more at coms-africa.org. 

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Media Contacts: 

UGHE: communications@ughe.org  
COMS-A: info@coms-africa.org