Scholarship / Chevening - Three British Universities Course choice [6]

Hello all,
Please share your thoughts on my essay for the Chevening Scholarship. Thanks!

the choice between two London Schools and The University of Edinburgh

Prompt: Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future. Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

As a public health researcher, I worked on multiple projects with an orientation on health systems and policy. With a background in clinical medicine and then in epidemiology I found myself supplementing my knowledge through self-learning and asking a lot of questions. The components of health systems have much to do with governance, human, resource, and financing than just epidemiology of diseases. I believe a formal training on these aspects would enhance my knowledge and skill to work more effectively in this field.

The MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Finance at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is a joint program with the London School of Economy and Political Science. This will be an extraordinary opportunity for me to learn from two top-notch universities recognized worldwide. I can build a strong foundation on processes, policy actors and their agenda, and factors affecting contemporary and historical policy-making through the Health Policy, Process, and Power course. Some courses tailored to highlight developing country cases such as Health Systems and Policies in Developing Countries and Economic Analysis for Health Policy in Low-and Middle-Income Countries will be extremely helpful for me to evaluate health systems and policies in these countries and conduct economic analysis to appraise different models of revenue collection and pooling and compare different outcomes in terms of equity and efficiency.

At the University of Edinburgh, the MSc in Health Policy offers a strong focus on governance. I will learn to apply human rights principles to change government policy through international legal instruments in the Health and Human Rights module. Health is no longer shaped by manmade geographical boundaries and is subjected to influence by international agenda and policies. The Global Politics of Public Health module will equip me to address the challenges to promoting policy coherence across global health, development and trade agenda and take into consideration the increasing significance of the commercial sector and civil society in global health policy in my work.

In working with the urban poor I have learnt that inequalities health can arise from multiple sources including behavioural/cultural, psychosocial, and material. Health has many non-health determinants yet not weighed upon in Bangladesh's national health policy which lacks multi-sectoral strategies. In the MSc International Health Policy programme at London School of Economics & Political Science I will have a better understanding of the role of government and impact of economic, social and health policy in creating or reducing inequalities thereby apply the knowledge to assess policy interventions through an equity lens for vulnerable populations.

Bangladesh has just transitioned to a lower-middle income country which is accompanied by drastic changes in foreign aid and national budget reforms. This is an opportune moment for national policymakers to take stock of past learning from national, regional, and international history and re-engineer the health sector through identifying diverse sustained financing mechanisms to achieve universal health coverage and reduce health inequity and burden. As such, there is a potential role for me to contribute at this juncture of revised health policy formulation through proper training and exposure to the cog-wheels of the field.

Scholarship / Pursuing Master's degree to change from an epidemiologist into a Health Policy Analyst and Advocate [5]

Hello,
I am sharing my draft essay on career plan. I would appreciate your feedback and comments!

Chevening Career Plan essay

Prompt:

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans ...

One of the key reasons I am pursuing a Master's degree is to transition from an epidemiologist to a Health Policy Analyst and Advocate. Bangladesh's urban health system (UHS) is rather complex due to the bifurcation of governance mandate from two different ministries- the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of Local Government, poor coordination between them, and a prevalence of the private health sector that goes largely unregulated. Despite multiple donor led projects, the country still has not devised a viable urban health policy and a model urban primary health care (UPHC). There is a lack of civil servants trained in health policy who can guide the financing and strengthening of the UPHC with national resources. And as is widely known about low-and-middle-income-country policy makers, there is little appetite for research backed evidence. My intention is to build my expertise in health policy, planning, and financing to bridge the translation of knowledge from research to action by working closely with the Ministry of Health in Bangladesh in the design and implementation of an accountable and equitable UPHC system.

DFID-UK implements several multi-year projects that directly or indirectly addresses the development of the health sector such as Better Health in Bangladesh and Excluded People's Rights in Bangladesh. My immediate plan on returning to Bangladesh is to find employment with international development consultancy organizations such as Options-UK that work with the MoH to manage the DFID funded projects. This will not only place me as an expert in health policy to enrich these projects and guide the MoH's policy to be more equitable for the urban poor and the disabled but also bolster my network within the MoH itself. This will enable me to pursue my longer-term plan of joining the MoH as an in-house policy analyst and eventually become a policy maker. As an insider, I can leverage my position to emphasize the role of evidence-based policy and its implementation. I envision re-engineering the national health policy with a conviction towards Universal Health Coverage and formulating a context appropriate health insurance system which is non-existent in Bangladesh.

As I establish my commitment to strengthening the health systems and gain trust within the government wing, my ultimate aim is to collaborate with other sectors such as ministries of environment, food, housing, primary education, youth and sports, and road transport to integrate health as a determining factor in their policy decisions. This is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals that are ratified by most countries, including the UK, and forge a path toward living with dignity for the general people in the face of multi-faceted challenges such as aging, climate change, and forced migration. As Chevening provides scholarships to applicants from a diverse background, I expect to encounter some of them with strategic positions in these ministries and to gain their support in this endeavor through my Chevening network.

Scholarship / Incident with a mobile phone showed my leadership skills - Chevening essay [2]

Chevening Scholarship- Leadership skills essay

I will be grateful for constructive feedback on my essay I have prepared for the Chevening scholarship.

In 2015 when I was working at (organization name) I had won a competitive research grant from WHO AHPSR as the lead investigator. During that time, I frequently visited the Finance Department to expedite the process of budget code finalization and get the activity running. On one of such visits, I entered into their office to find a few people with worried faces standing in groups and one employee hysterically repeating how she had left her mobile phone near the printer, ventured back to her desk for two minutes and returned to find it gone. Standing their as an outsider I saw their senior manager was returning to his room with several other staff following suit.

"Wait!" shouted I. "Are we just going to let this incident go? Can we have everyone's bags and desks checked?" The senior manager replied that according to Human Resource policy we cannot force people to have checked on suspicion. "Well, I am sure this is something we don't want to happen to ourselves and that at workplaces we need to be able to trust our colleagues. That cannot be ensured if such incidents are dismissed without some immediate action. Would everyone present in this office be willing to volunteer to have their belongings examined?" Surprisingly, everyone agreed to this suggestion including the manager. I requested him to select three people from his staff who would go around and check everyone. They had their bags checked by each other first. They did an efficient search for the mobile phone was found and returned to the owner. The fate of the mobile grabber remained with the senior manager and the HR department.

The manager came over and thanked me for handling the situation so neatly and commanded his staff to always prioritise my project related tasks! Until that incident I saw leadership as it came with my job responsibility- securing grants, creating work plans, delegating tasks, ensuring work integration and timely outputs. Trainings and workshops arranged by HR taught me a lot of things- how to manage conflicts in the team, how to manage a project, or run a new data analysis software. But these do not always equip us for responding to such random events. Through this incident, I discovered myself in a new light. I had the presence of mind to go beyond the established protocol without violating it and motivate people, even without any authority over them, to work towards a common goal of achieving something good that is beneficial for most people. Albeit this was in a small sphere, but exposing myself to more experiences and taking up more advanced roles I believe I can only strengthen these abilities to apply them in more profound matters related to governance of institutions and health systems in my country.