VC's first Open Lecture of 2016 focuses on children's rights

7 May 2016

Dear colleagues and students

I invite you to the first Vice-Chancellor's Open Lecture of 2016, where Emeritus Professor Marian Jacobs will speak on a topic that touches many of us deeply: “Children on the front page”, on Monday, 16 May 2016, at 18h00 in the New Learning Centre Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, Faculty of Health Sciences, Anzio Road, Observatory.

The Vice-Chancellor's Open Lecture is an important feature of the academic year, as it provides an opportunity for anyone in the Cape Town community, whether they are connected to the university or not, to have the benefit of hearing first-hand from academics, researchers and innovators who have distinguished themselves in their areas of expertise. Attendance to the lectures is free of charge as the series is one of the ways that the University of Cape Town seeks to give back to the Cape Town community.

Professor Jacobs is a former dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT. She developed a distinguished career as a public health paediatrician: focusing on service delivery, teaching, research and policy development for children's health and well-being. She championed child rights and engaged with children's organisations and the broad children's movements – always guided by her love for children. After leading the development of the framework for the first national programme of action for children in South Africa, she founded the Children's Institute at UCT and its predecessor, the Child Health Policy Institute. It was during this time that the South African Child Gauge was first published.

Professor Jacobs lives in Cape Town and has continued, even in her retirement, to contribute to health and development through the knowledge and experience gained in the course of a rich career. She holds positions in several national and global health bodies, including as advisor to ChildSafe; membership of the World Health Organisation's technical steering committee for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health; and chair of a working group of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.

Professor Jacobs' talk will help mark 10 years of the publication of the South African Child Gauge, the flagship publication of the Children's Institute. The Child Gauge draws on the latest research evidence to provide an annual snapshot of the status of children in South Africa.

Please see below for details of the VC Open Lecture and how to reserve your seat at the important event. I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely

Dr Max Price
Vice-Chancellor