Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers 2025 Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture

During the event, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus received the 2025 Dag Hammarskjöld Medal, presented by Anders Hagfeldt, Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University, and Björn Holmberg, Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation. This year’s lecture, titled “Multilateralism, Health and Peace: Past Achievements, Present Difficulties, Future Hope,” explored the role of international cooperation in advancing global health and peace, highlighting both significant achievements and ongoing global challenges. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus honoured several Swedish individuals, not least Hans Rosling, a world-known Swedish physician and professor working with global health issues. 

SLU was well represented on stage by veterinary student Elsa Almersson, who participated in the panel discussion following Dr. Tedros’s lecture. Elsa raised questions on zoonotic diseases and the differing challenges faced by low-income and high-income countries, as well as the connection to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. She recently returned from a Sida-funded Minor Field Study in Zambia, where she was conducting her Master’s thesis on flaviviruses in goats, supervised by SLU researcher Jonas Johansson Wensman in collaboration with the University of Zambia.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture is held annually in memory of former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and the values he championed —commitment, humanism, and international solidarity.