Our Alumni
AIG SCHOLARS IMPACT STORY
“I was highly privileged to be mentored by Dr Dere Awosika, who has an extensive impactful and untarnished career at the highest level in public service. Sharing her personal experiences, Dr Awosika exemplified the public service character. These sessions gave me a reality check, wise counsel, and guidance in connecting the dots between the MPP learnings and the next steps”.
Folasade is particularly grateful for the summer project she undertook with the Oxford in Berlin Global Public Health Strategy Group in Oxford, as it provided her with a career enhancing opportunity and the experience to contribute to a national project. The project focused on the use of digital tools to mitigate the supply of substandard or falsified COVID-19 vaccines in lower middle income countries and Folasade facilitated Nigeria’s participation in a workshop that birthed “the Abuja principles”, which distilled vital insights to be considered when implementing digital innovations in resource-constrained settings.
The experience she gained during the project made Fola an ideal candidate to be called upon to serve on the Technical Working Group (TWG) for implementing pharmaceutical traceability in Nigeria. Fola has been involved in preparing guidelines and organising workshops and training for stakeholders within the pharmaceutical supply chain, FMoH, other agencies and funding partners. These activities are in preparation for a full-scale implementation of traceability for all medical products in Nigeria by 2024. Fola says her time at BSG prepared her for this role.
“The knowledge I gained from effective use of evidence in policymaking, managing public sector organisations, and interest groups’ politics has proved extremely valuable in my work as a member of the TWG for implementing pharmaceutical traceability in Nigeria. Notably in planning stakeholder sensitisation programs, preparing concept notes, framing value and securing stakeholder buy-in for the project.”
Fola says that becoming an AIG scholar has changed her life, opening many doors of opportunities.
“I am eternally and immensely grateful for this privilege and I promise to make it count by recognising the responsibility and expectations that come with it. Ultimately, my greatest fulfilment will be to utilise all I have learned and experienced to make Nigeria function for the coming generation through an improved public sector”.
2020 AIG Scholar Folasade Osho is an Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). She is currently serving as a member of the Technical Working Committee implementing pharmaceutical traceability in Nigeria.
Folasade says that her Master’s in Public Policy degree (MPP) allowed her to gain the skills and capacity to use multi-disciplinary and global perspectives to tackle Nigeria’s public policy challenges.
“Interacting with world-class academics, policy experts, a diverse cohort and robust multidisciplinary course content broadened my perspective and allowed me to embrace global, historical and multidisciplinary perspectives when considering available options to address Nigeria’s policy problems.”
She attributes her success in Oxford to the solid academic support provided by the Blavatnik School of Government as well as the coaching and mentorship sessions that were an integral part of the AIG Scholarship programme.