The NEXT TWG was set up to address the challenges of unacceptable exclusion of the Francophone community from the global health discourse through targeted capacity building, research and advocacy.

Dr Aduragbemi Banke-Thomas is a medical doctor, public health practitioner, policy, and development professional, academician and researcher. His research is focused on exploring and addressing issues on and strategies to optimize cost-effectiveness, geographical access and quality of maternal, newborn and reproductive health care in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Banke-Thomas completed his training in medicine and surgery at the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Nigeria and subsequently went on to complete a Master’s in Public Health (with distinction) and another in Health Policy and Programme Management at the University of Sheffield, UK and EHESP French School of Public Health, France respectively. Both of which were achieved as part of the Erasmus Mundus funded Europubhealth programme.

He obtained his PhD in International Public Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom. Presently, he is a senior lecturer in Public Health at the University of Greenwich, UK. He is also a visiting Research Fellow at the LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Reproductive Health Research and Innovation, Lagos, Nigeria, and Principal Researcher at the Senghor Chair in Health and Development in sub-Saharan Africa, University of Ottawa. Adura is a member of the editorial board of Reproductive Health and BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth.

This is the link to his publications: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-0131