Report-back from the 2ND Africa-CARICOM summit on reparations
Date: Monday, December 8, 2025
Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Location: Zoom – registration required
Join us for a virtual conversation between FXB Director, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, and FXB Visiting Scientist Brittney Francis, PhD, MPH, who will share their takeaways after attending the 2nd Africa-CARICOM Summit in Addis Ababa in September 2025. The summit brought together member states from the African Union and CARICOM, along with UN entities and international NGOs, including the global African diaspora. The goal was to strengthen unity, deepen integration, and jointly pursue reparations and reparatory justice through a comprehensive transcontinental partnership framework, under the theme: “Transcontinental Partnership in Pursuit of Reparatory Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations.” The conversation will be moderated by FXB Research Associate, Serhat Yildirim, MD, MMSc.
Bridging the Atlantic: Legacy, solidarity, and reparations
Read a brief reflection on the CARICOM summit experience, penned by Dr. Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, and Dr. Brittney Francis, PhD, MPH, here.
Moderator:
FXB Research Associate
Serhat Yildirim, MD, MMSc
Dr. Serhat Yildirim obtained his medical degree from Ghent University Medical School in Belgium. Later, as a Fulbright and Fayat Scholar, he completed his Master of Medical Sciences (MMSc) in Global Health Delivery at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (Class of 2025). Dr. Yildirim’s research interests center on healthcare delivery in resource-poor and conflict-affected settings, with a particular focus on mental health and psychosocial support for displaced communities and former child soldiers.
For his master’s thesis at Harvard Medical School, under the supervision of Professor Theresa S. Betancourt, Dr. Yildirim conducted research on mental health services for male former Yazidi child soldiers in northern Iraq. His work explored the challenges and opportunities in delivering MHPSS interventions in humanitarian contexts.
For his master’s thesis at Harvard Medical School, under the supervision of Professor Theresa S. Betancourt, Dr. Yildirim conducted research on mental health services for male former Yazidi child soldiers in northern Iraq. His work explored the challenges and opportunities in delivering MHPSS interventions in humanitarian contexts.
In conversation:
FXB Center Director
Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH
Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, is director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights and FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights in the department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With more than 30 years of experience devoted to promoting health equity and social justice, both in the United States and abroad, Dr. Bassett’s career has spanned academia, government, and not-for-profit work.
FXB Research Scientist
Brittney Francis, PhD, MPH
Dr. Brittney Francis (she/her) is a social epidemiologist whose research explores how various interpersonal, institutional and systemic factors (i.e. structural racism, capitalism, cisheteronormativity, etc.) impact the development, diagnosis, and management of maternal hypertension for Black women globally, one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Dr. Francis is currently a research scientist at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Dr. Francis received her PhD in Epidemiology from Ohio State University, is an alumnus of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars Program, and the immediate past president for the Society for the Analysis of African American Public Health Issues.
Speakers’ remarks are based on their own scholarship and experience. As such, they speak for themselves, not for Harvard University.