Francis Omaswa

Francis Gervase Omaswa (born in 1943) is a Ugandan cardiovascular surgeon, academic and administrator. He was installed as the chancellor of Soroti University, one of the nine public universities in Uganda at that time, in August 2022.

He previously served as the chancellor of Busitema University, another Ugandan public university, between 2009 and 2017. He has served in that capacity since June 2009.

Background, education, and personal life Omaswa was born in Mukura Village, Kumi District, in the Eastern Region of Uganda, circa 1943. His parents were Yafesi Ijookit and Matilda Acom.

He attended Mukura Primary School from P1 to P4, then transferred to Koloin Primary School from P5 to P6. After passing his Pprimary Leaving Examinations, he joined Holy Angels Junior Secondary School in Soroti District for his Junior One and Two. He then studied at St. Mary's College Kisubi, for both his O-Level and A-Level education.

In 1964, he was admitted to the Makerere University School of Medicine, graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. In 1974, he received a Master of Medicine in surgery degree from Makerere University.

Omaswa is married to Dr. Catherine Nyapidi Omaswa, an anesthesiologist, also a graduate of Makerere. He returned to Uganda in 2008 and was appointed chancellor at Busitema University in 2009. Member of the Institute of Medicine – elected in November 2014 Chairman of the task force to set up Teso University, a proposed private institution of higher education, based in Soroti In 1991 he was knighted with the rank of Officer (Brother) of the Order of St John.

Academic authorship He has also contributed greatly toward medicine through his research which is well documented by reputable journals and other scholarly publishers and some of his work includes:

Managing Ebola from rural to urban slum settings: experiences from Uganda. This study established that palliative care improved survival and that focusing on treatment and not just quarantine should be emphasized as it also enhanced public trust and health seeking behavior. The medical education partnership initiative (MEPI): innovations and lessons for health professions training and research in Africa. This study documented the implementation of MEPI which was a $130 million competitively awarded grant by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to 13 medical schools in 12 Sub-Saharan African countries and a coordinating centre (CC). Informal health workers: to be encouraged or condemned? This paper outlined the role of informal health workers in settings where there are challenges with the formal health systems Global health partnerships and the Brocher Declaration: principles for ethical short-term engagements in global health. This study outlines the declaration's strategies aimed at providing guidance for effective implementation of appropriate global health efforts. Building communities of practice MEPI creates a commons. The next WHO Director-General's highest priority: a Global Treaty on the Human Right to Health. The article discusses the major challenges that the director general should pay attention to. The contribution of the medical education partnership initiative to Africa's renewal. This paper outlines the role of MEPI in transforming Africa's health sector. Strengthening health systems in low-income countries by enhancing organizational capacities and improving institutions. The paper established that an increasingly dynamic and interdependent post-Millennium Development Goals (post-MDG) world requires new ways of working to improve global health, underpinned by a complex adaptive systems lens and approaches that build local organizational capacity. Abolition of cost-sharing is pro-poor: evidence from Uganda. The study documented the effects of the abolition of user fees on utilization of health services in Uganda with emphasis on poor and vulnerable groups. Competency-based medical education in two Sub-Saharan African medical schools. The study found out that show that CBME can be implemented even for the low-resourced countries in Africa, supported by external investments to address the human resources gap. Contact tracing and the COVID-19 response in Africa: Best practices, key challenges, and lessons learned from Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. Medical Education Partnership Initiative gives birth to AFREhealth.