By Eunice Naffie Mustapha, LL.M.
Next week marks 3 years since I specialized in National and Global Health Law. The path from theory to practice has not been linear. These 3 years have been instrumental in shaping who I am becoming and laying a solid foundation as I prepare for the next phase.
Even though I had worked on health law and policy over the years, including leading community access initiatives as a sexual and reproductive health consultant, I made a decision to acquire a Master of Laws to deepen my grounding, sharpen my analytical tools, and engage more intentionally with global health law scholarship and practice.
Lessons learned have included:
- Identify Institutions Strategically: Health law is broad and constantly evolving. It is important to choose institutions that help you build depth in specific areas while developing broad knowledge in others, thereby facilitating collaborations. Depth builds expertise and credibility, while breadth helps you understand how systems, disciplines, and stakeholders interact. Choosing an institution, therefore, requires research to identify alignments in values, opportunities, and long-term goals.
- Prioritize Process Training & Applied Learning: It is important to not only be a subject-matter person but also a process person. Subject-matter knowledge matters, but process training teaches you how to move ideas into implementation, navigate institutions, and contribute to execution. This is where translation from theory to practice takes place.
- Write, Publish & Stay Curious: Writing helps you think and sharpens your research skills. It teaches discipline, clarity, and intellectual humility. It is impossible to know everything, especially in an evolving field. The goal is not to be a perfect writer but to contribute meaningfully and consistently. Publishing expands your world by inviting others into your conversations and allowing you to join theirs.
- Embrace Public Speaking & Knowledge Sharing: Knowledge sharing helps you shape arguments, test ideas, and identify your gaps. Public speaking also teaches you how to communicate complex ideas to different audiences. We all have different personalities. The goal is to embrace your communication style while making room for improvement. It also provides opportunities to present your research and contribute to important conversations in the field.
- Invest in Professional Communities: Professional communities provide space for development, networking, and contribution. They expose you to new perspectives, collaborations, and opportunities that may not happen in isolation. Beyond networking, they create room for mentorship, support, and long-term professional relationships.
I am grateful to all the mentors, supervisors, colleagues, family members, friends, acquaintances, and my broader network for their support, patience, and direction. They helped me embrace being both a masterpiece and a work in progress, while God ordered the steps. My practical training period over the three years pushed me. I learned, unlearned, and relearned. As I step out of this phase and move towards my leading contribution phase to health law and development, especially in Africa, I am grateful for the honour of receiving a global health merit scholarship.
Looking forward to the next chapter of learning, contribution, and impact in health law and development. Follow me on LinkedIn to learn more about health law and policy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eunice-naffie-mustapha-9aa994376/
