Lola Adedokun was a bright light in the health policy and systems research community, willing to take chances and try new things to ensure that those with greatest need had access to health care services in the United States of America and around the world. A great friend of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, her sudden passing earlier this week is a tragic loss.
Most recently, Lola served as the lead for the Aspen Global Innovators Group and as a co-chair of the Aspen Forum on Women and Girls at the Aspen Institute. But it was her previous role at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, where she headed up the African Health Initiative, that made her mark on health policy and systems research.
“I’ve always argued that, during her tenure, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was one of the premier supporters of health policy and systems research in the world – even if it wasn’t captured in official state-oriented statistics,” notes Abdul Ghaffar, the former Executive Director of the Alliance, who built the Alliance’s partnership with Lola and the Foundation. “This was due in large part to Lola’s advocacy and perseverance. She saw the challenges that countries like Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique and others were facing in terms of vertical funding for individual diseases and instead shepherded funds towards health systems strengthening. She was thoughtful, engaging and had the ability to inspire those around her.”
The Alliance partnered with the Foundation at the time to capture lessons from these approaches – especially through stories of change in Ghana and Mozambique. Lola was also the Foundation’s representative on the Learning, Engaging and Advocating for Health Policy and Systems Research (LEAP) Forum – and was a key advocate for empowering decision-makers to make better use of data and research. As part of the Forum, at a UN General Assembly side event in 2019 she reflected on how the Foundation’s long-term approach was driving change: “By investing at the district level and in the research institutions and supporting what we think of as rigorous questioning – it leads to a culture change. And if you embed that culture change of questioning and looking at data to answer those questions, it doesn’t really matter if there’s a new president in place. That’s what makes a resilient system.”
Her energy, enthusiasm and collegiality will be truly missed. “The sudden loss of Lola at such a young age is a devastating blow for her family and friends, with whom our thoughts are with at this very sad time, for the global health policy and systems research community, and all those fighting for greater social justice in health,” said Kumanan Rasanathan, the current Executive Director of the Alliance. “She had so much left to achieve - but Lola’s vision for more equitable health systems will resonate through the initiatives she championed, the institutions she influenced and the lives she touched.”