SPOTLIGHT: Health policy trailblazer Precious Matsoso credits patience, faith and The Beatles
Precious Matsoso tells Spotlight how, over three decades, she helped shape some of the most consequential health policy negotiations in South Africa and in global governance. She also shares memories about her Soweto childhood filled with music, science and political uprisings.
Precious Matsoso, a South African health policy trailblazer, has spent three decades shaping significant health policy negotiations, both in South Africa and on the global stage. Her work includes leading negotiations on the world's first pandemic treaty, which was adopted in May 2025. During this process, Matsoso dealt with intense engagements and even used her melodious church voice to sing The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love," as a way to foster cooperation among delegates from 194 countries.
She has been recognized by TIME magazine for her contributions, being named on both the TIME 100 Health 2026 and 100 Most Influential People in the World 2026 lists. Matsoso emphasizes the importance of equitable access to pandemic-related health products and the need to address inequities that were evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, where African countries were often pushed to the back of the queue for diagnostics, protective equipment, and medicine.
The pandemic treaty aims to fix this by enabling the rapid sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential while ensuring fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.
Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
