The 91社区 School of Population and Global Health is pleased to announce from South Africa as the winner of the inaugural (2024) Paul Farmer Lectureship and Award for Global Health Equity. A world-renowned health and political activist, Mr. Achmat has dedicated his life to the fight for justice and equality, leading to significant and lasting improvements in the health and wellbeing of millions in South Africa. His courageous stance against both government and the pharmaceutical industry has brought the fight for health equity in Sub-Saharan Africa to the global stage.
A world-renowned health and political activist, Mr. Achmat fights for justice and equality, which has led to significant and lasting improvements in the health and wellbeing of millions in South Africa. He courageously led the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) against both government and the pharmaceutical industry, bringing the fight for health equity in Sub-Saharan Africa to the global stage.
The Paul Farmer Award for Global Health Equity was established in honour of the late Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician, advocate, and global health icon. To honour Paul鈥檚 memory, 91社区, with the support of over from around the world, created this lectureship and award to annually recognize an individual who models and demonstrates Paul鈥檚 vision of a 鈥榩referential option for the poor鈥� to achieve equity in health. The award honours individuals (or couples) working in under-served communities whose work often goes unrecognized.
The first call for nominations resulted in over 60 nominations from around the world. An international selection panel chose Mr. Zackie Achmat as the 2024 award recipient. 91社区 is grateful to all the donors who contributed to this award and to all individuals who took time to nominate inspiring people from around the world.
鈥淚 am privileged and honoured to receive the Paul Farmer Award for Global Health Equity with the recognition that the achievements of the Treatment Action Campaign are based on the activism of the most vulnerable people in our country and the internationalism of people across all continents. I am particularly honoured to be acknowledged in the tradition of Paul Farmer and his colleagues at Partners in Health,鈥� said Mr. Achmat, upon accepting the award. The date for the inaugural lecture and award event at 91社区 in Montreal will be announced soon.
Mr. Achmat is a movement builder, political activist and law reformer who works for justice, equality, dignity, and freedom, particularly for working-class people and vulnerable minorities. Schooled by great mentors, Zackie worked within the African National Congress (ANC) to end white minority rule. In post-Apartheid South Africa, he co-led organisations and built a coalition for the equal inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people鈥檚 rights in the new Constitution. This work culminated in the sexual orientation clause in the South African Constitution which prohibits unfair discrimination.
From 1985 through to the eventual founding of TAC in 1998, Achmat joined and led several organisations working on HIV prevention, fighting for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS through education and law reform, including the Belville Community Health Project, the AIDS Law Project and the AIDS Legal Network.
Confronted by the prohibitively expensive cost of medications in the treatment of HIV and opportunistic infections associated with HIV, which led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, Mr. Achmat co-founded the TAC with colleagues Mark Heywood, Mazibuko Jarra, Phumi Mtetwa, Morna Cornell, Mercy Makhalemele, Queenie Qiza, Sharon Ekambaran, Laddie Bosch, Deena Bosch, and Lee Bosch. United in the belief that access to healthcare and the right to life should not be determined by wealth or privilege, their aim was to ensure the South African government provided life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) medications to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and to stop pharmaceutical companies from profiteering from working-class people living with HIV by making medications more affordable.
In an effort to fight stigmatisation associated with living with HIV Achmat also publicly announced his HIV-positive status in 1998 and vowed to not take antiretroviral drugs himself until all who needed them had access to them.
One of TAC鈥檚 landmark victories came in 2002 when the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that the government must provide antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This eventually led to the rollout of one of the world鈥檚 largest public-sector HIV treatment programs, with over five million people on ARV treatment, currently. This work has, literally, saved the lives of tens of millions of people in South Africa and the world over.
"Paul fought for equitable policies that provided access to HIV treatment globally. This work was foundational to the pursuit for social justice and equity in health he devoted his entire life to. There could not be a more deserving awardee for the inaugural Paul Farmer Lectureship and Award for Global Health Equity than Zackie Achmat, who continues to champion health equity for all," said Didi Bertrand Farmer.
By focusing on alleviating the suffering of the poor and vulnerable, engaging and accompanying communities, and advocating for equality regardless of race, sexual orientation or health status, by tackling structural and social determinants of disease, by successfully resisting the commercialization and false scarcity of medicines access, and ultimately galvanizing mass public support towards a more equitable future, Mr. Achmat has helped to imagine, and create over the long term, a better world, where health equity is not only prized, but practiced and achieved, to the betterment of the lives of millions. 鈥淶ackie Achmat鈥檚 work embodies Dr Paul Farmer鈥檚 vision and lifelong work,鈥� said Madhukar Pai, Inaugural Chair, Department of Global and Public Health.
鈥淭hrough his trailblazing work on improving access to medicines for people living with HIV, Zackie Achmat bent the arc of history for global health equity,鈥� said Tim Evans, Director of the 91社区 School of Population and Global Health.
91社区 SPGH will launch the call for nominations for the 2025 Paul Farmer Award in the spring of 2025.