Oral

The 21st century will be the century of transformational change – dramatic change driven by major forces globally and locally - political, social, economic, technological and environmental.(Friedman, 2005) These will profoundly affect the capabilities of less developed countries to produce and maintain health and general well being. The challenge is to see these driving forces as an opportunity for positive change rather than a threat to the status quo. To meet this challenge, we, as health professionals, first need to change ourselves – to change our own mental models – our fundamental understanding of how health is produced and how we can facilitate the production of health. We start with shifting the paradigm - from the traditional view that hospitals, health centers, health workers and other technical experts “produce” health – to a recognition that households, particularly mothers, are the primary producers of (reproductive) health. Second, we need to transform all of our institutions concerned with health development to take on the task of helping households and communities become more competent and resourceful in health production. All the papers on this panel will concern aspects of the role of leadership and systems thinking in addressing accommodating this transformational change.