Developing Fit-for –Purpose Health Workforce for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Africa | World Health Assembly, 2023

Dr George Kimathi, Director, Institute of Capacity Development, Amref Health Africa

Dr George Kimathi is the Director, Amref Institute of Capacity Development (ICD) and provides overall leadership to Amref’s Human Resources for Health (HRH) agenda. In this role he oversees diverse initiatives geared towards building a fit-for-purpose health workforce across Africa.
He leads transformational human resources for health partnerships with WHO, Africa CDC, USAID, JICA, Gates and various private sector players among others. Further, he sits on the WHO HRH Leadership Hub of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, among others.
George holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health. Besides, he has undertaken in-depth training in core Primary Health Care methodologies with particular interest in contextualized innovations for delivering Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Sub-Saharan Africa. He’s also an alumnus of the Centre for Corporate Governance. He has successfully supervised PhD and Masters Students in various universities. He is widely published and presented research/opinion pieces at regional and global fora.

Lolem Ngong, Chief of Staff, Amref Health Africa

Lolem B. Ngong is a seasoned Global Public Health professional, with more than 15 years of leadership in the Global Health Diplomacy sector. She has advised and led collaborations with governments, civil society organizations, academic institutions, multilateral organizations, and international donors. Lolem’s areas of interest include global health governance and use of strategic partnerships to address threats to public health. Lolem joins Amref Health Africa, from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, where she was a Senior Country Manager. Prior to her work with Gavi, Lolem spent over 7 years working with the United States (U.S.) Department of State, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, as a *PEPFAR Coordinator, leading multilateral programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Ethiopia. She also worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, serving as a Clinical Research Associate and Epidemiologist with the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination; as well as Senior Program Manager and Deputy Team Leader with the National Partnerships Team within the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. Lolem is passionate about education and enjoys hiking. * PEPFAR is the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Dr. Raji Tajudeen, MD, MPH, Head, Division of Public Health Institutes and Research, Africa CDC

Raji Tajudeen MD is a Medical Doctor with postgraduate qualifications in Pediatrics and Public Health. He is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians and African Public Health Leaders Fellow of the Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK. He has over 20 years of experience in Child Health and Public Health of which 16 years is at senior level. He has worked in different settings in the developing world; Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. Additionally, Taj has strong experience working on programmes and projects for different international organizations. Further, he has academic and working knowledge of Health System Management, Health System Strengthening, Health Diplomacy, Maternal and Child Health, and Health in Humanitarian Emergencies. He is currently the Head of Public Health Institutes and Research of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). He coordinates the establishment and strengthening of National Public Health Institutes across the 55 African Union Member States. He oversees the establishment of the five Africa CDC Regional Collaborating Centers. He coordinates the Africa CDC Institute for Workforce Development and oversees the continental public health research agenda. Taj heads the healthcare preparedness and countermeasures section of the Africa CDC COVID-19 response. He co-chairs the case management technical working group of the Africa Taskforce on COVID-19. Taj has publications in Medical journals and has co-authored a chapter in a medical textbook.

Dr. Austin H. Demby, Minister of Health Sierra Leone

Dr. Austin Demby is currently the Minister of Health and Sanitation for the Government of Sierra Leone. Prior to assuming his current role, Dr. Demby served as the Acting Director of the Office of Global Health at the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Dr. Demby began his public health career in 1980 as a research scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He then went on to become country director of the CDC field station in Sierra Leone (1987-1989) where he studied Lassa fever and other viral hemorrhagic fevers.

He has held research appointments at several institutions, including: Special Pathogens Branch, Virus Reference Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory Services, Colindale, United Kingdom, 1990-1993; Division of Pathology, Center for Applied Microbiology and Research, Porton Down, United Kingdom, 1993-1994; Special Pathogens Branch, DVRD, NCID, 1994-1997; and Diagnostic Mycobacteriology, TMB, DASTLR, NCID, 1998-1999.
Dr. Demby holds a doctorate degree in Clinical Microbiology from the University of London, England, a master’s degree in public health-epidemiology/biostatistics from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.

Hon Dr Jane Aceng, Minister of Health Uganda

Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng is the Minister of Health- Uganda. Dr. Aceng holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine (MBChB), MMED (Pediatrics), Masters in Public Health and a Diploma in Health System Strengthening. She is a Pediatrician expert and is currently at the level of Senior Consultant Pediatrics. She is also a Public Health expert.She has vast experience both as a manager and practicing medical personnel, which she accumulated while serving in various capacities as Medical Officer, Senior Medical Officer, Medical Officer Special Grade, Medical Superintendent, Consultant Pediatrician, Senior Consultant Pediatrician, Hospital Director and formerly as the Director General Health Services where she was responsible for coordinating technical functions for the delivery of Health services, a role she has fulfilled until her appointment as the Minister for Health. As Minister of Health, she possesses the Constitutional Powers and functions of spearheading the Ministry. Among them are Administration, Policy Formulation and Direction. She is also responsible for defending the Ministerial budget and issue orders and statutory regulations on the sector. In addition, she initiates and presents to Cabinet, the Ministry memorandums and accounts for the State, operations, function and achievements of the health sector.

Hon Sylvia T Masebo, Minister of Health Zambia

Hon Dr Susan Nakhumicha, Minister of Health, Kenya

Dr Susan Nakhumicha Wafula is a Kenyan politician and supply chain expert who was recently appointed as the new Cabinet Minister for Health. She oversaw supplies for the Global Programme for Research and Training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She worked at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital as the manager of procurement and logistics as well

Hon Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Minister of Health, Malawi

Hon. Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, M.P is the Minister of Health in the Government of Malawi She is a trained Biochemist, holding a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry and a Bachelor in Pharmacy. She has previously worked for such entities as Malawi Pharmacies Ltd and City Pharmacies Limited, as well as serving as a member of the Pharmacy Medicine and Poisons Board, City Pharmacies Ltd. She entered politics by winning the Parliamentary seat for Kasungu South East Constituency in the 2014 General Elections, which she retained in the 2019 Elections, following which she was appointed Minister of Health by Malawi’s President Chakwera in July 2020.

Hon Dr Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health, Ethiopia

Dr. Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin became the Minister of Health of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in March 2020. Prior to this appointment, she served as State Minister of Health since November 2018, leading the national health programs under the Health Sector Transformation Strategy. Dr. Lia is an obstetrician and gynecologist with extensive experience as a clinician, in health care leadership, academia, and hospital and program management, with over 20 years’ experience. Prior to joining the Ministry of Health, Dr. Lia Tadesse served as Program Director at the University of Michigan’s Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she has successfully partnered with several institutions, in both Ethiopia and Rwanda, to increase the quality of reproductive health services and training. Serving as the CEO and Vice Provost of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in Addis Ababa for seven years, Dr Lia led the hospital’s services and academic reforms, including forging collaborative relationships with several national and international stakeholders. Dr. Lia was also Project Director of USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) at Jhpiego-Ethiopia prior to joining CIRHT after leaving SPHMMC.
Dr. Lia’s passion is strengthening and reforming health systems, and she has received recognition for her accomplishments and advocacy for gender equity in access to quality health services and training. Dr. Lia Tadesse earned her medical degree from Jimma University, specialty training in obstetrics and gynecology from Addis Ababa University, and a master’s degree in health care administration from Jimma University.

Hon Elizabeth Achuei, Minister of Health, South Sudan

Dr James Campbell, Director, Health Workforce

Jim Campbell is the Director of the Health Workforce Department at the World Health Organization, and the Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA). His role at WHO has included overseeing the development of WHO’s Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 as adopted by the Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly, and support to the High-level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth established by the United Nations Secretary-General in March 2016 as an initiative to inform multi-sectoral engagement on the Global Strategy. The Commission’s report was published in September 2016 and sets out 10 recommendations and five immediate actions to address the global mismatch in the supply, demand and need for health workers. Prior to joining WHO and GHWA, Jim spent eight years as the founder/Director of a not-for-profit research institute. His publications include A Universal Truth: No Health Without a Workforce (2013), and the State of the World’s Midwifery reports (2011 and 2014)

Dr Vanessa Kerry, CEO, Seed Global Health

As the co-founder and CEO of Seed, Vanessa Kerry leads the organization in fulfillment of our mission—to help strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes for all. Her work stems from her interest in capacity-building to strengthen public sector health systems and communities in resource poor settings. She believes deeply that health is fundamental to economic, social wellbeing, and national security.

Through partnership with governments and in-country institutions, under Vanessa’s tenure Seed has helped train close to 30,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives and has impacted hundreds of thousands of lives. At Seed, Vanessa helped establish the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), a first ever public-private partnership with the Peace Corps, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the countries where the program works. GHSP supported health systems in five sub-Saharan African countries.
Her work has included innovative research in the nexus of national security, crisis response, and health including a two-year project with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. She has taught courses on the intersection of health, economy, politics, and security at the Kennedy School of Government and Yale University.

Vanessa has spoken at a number of venues on her work including the Aspen Ideas Festival, TEDXBoston, United Nations, World Health Assembly, Consortium of Universities for Global Health, Women Leaders in Global Health conferences, Devex, the Brookings Institute, Council on Foreign Relations, and other public fora. Her work has been featured by NPR, PBS, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Andrea Mitchell, Boston’s Chronicle, Boston Magazine, and Marie Claire Magazine among others. Prominent publications on her work include in the New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ, the New York Times, and The Lancet.

She is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Social Entrepreneur, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She as awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Public Policy from Northeastern University in 2015. She is on the Editorial Board of New England Journal of Medicine Evidence and Annals of Global Health. She was recently appointed to the President’s Council for International Activities at Yale University, as a Global Advisor to the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and on the Board at University of Global Health Equity.

She graduated from Yale University summa cum laude and Harvard Medical School cum laude, completing her clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. She earned her Master’s in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London Schools of Economics and of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently a critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and serves as the Associate Director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives at MGH Global Health. She directs the Global Public Policy and Social Change program at Harvard Medical School where she has focused on links between security and health. She is the mother of a seven- and 10- year old.

Dr Buddy Shah, CEO, CHAI

Trained as a physician and development economist, Dr. Neil Buddy Shah is an award-winning social entrepreneur, CEO, and global health funder who is passionate about making global health efforts as impactful as possible.

Dr. Shah was previously the Managing Director of GiveWell, a research and funding organization that directs hundreds of millions of dollars per year to programs in global health and development. GiveWell seeks to identify and fund the most cost-effective ways to save lives, and has recently emerged as one of the world’s largest private funders in global health.
Dr. Shah was previously co-founder, CEO and now Board Chair of IDinsight, a global development data analytics and advisory firm with offices across Africa, Asia, and the US. At IDinsight, he helped pioneer the practical application of cutting-edge data and impact measurement tools such as randomized controlled trials, machine learning and results-based financing mechanisms to improve the impact of life-saving and antipoverty programs across Africa and Asia. Buddy worked previously at the World Bank and MIT’s Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Buddy holds an AB in economics from Harvard, an MD with special distinction in global health policy from Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and an MPA in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr. Shah serves on the Boards of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Private Foundations Board Constituency); the Institute to End Mass Incarceration at Harvard Law School; Educate Girls; Giving Green; and IDinsight. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has served as guest faculty at Harvard Kennedy School and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and is a former Echoing Green Fellow and Forbes’ 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneur. He has lived and worked in India, Cambodia, Uganda and the United States.

Mr William Asiko, Managing Director of the Africa Region Office-to be represented

William is an experienced, results-oriented leader of international development institutions with both private and public-sector experience.

William started his career as an attorney for the Government of Kenya’s external resources department, handling transactions between the Government and international development finance institutions and monitoring the implementation of the obligations placed on the Government. William then moved to the private sector and, in a career spanning nearly 20 years with the Coca-Cola Company, held various positions in several countries, including the United States, Kenya, Morocco, the United Kingdom and South Africa. In 2007, William was appointed President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation based in Johannesburg, South Africa, managing programs in more than 30 countries across Africa, which he held for six years until May 2013.
William was formerly the Executive Director of Grow Africa, an innovative agricultural development partnership between the World Economic Forum, the African Union and NEPAD that accelerates private sector investment into African agriculture. Grow Africa runs over 40 programs in different value chains across 12 countries in Africa with an ambitious growth plan to take the Grow Africa model across all countries in Africa.

Before this, William spent three and a half years in Tanzania as Chief Executive Officer of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF), a pan-African development organisation that works with African governments to remove barriers to greater private sector investment in their countries. ICF ran 75 programs across 21 countries in Africa before completing its mandate in 2016.

Before joining Coca-Cola, William served five years as State Counsel in the Office of the Attorney General for Kenya and two years as a partner in the law firm of Hamilton Harrison & Mathews in Nairobi, Kenya. William earned a law degree from the University of Nairobi in 1987 and an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in the United States in 2005. He is a non-practising member of the Kenya Bar.

William is an avid advocate for efficient and sustainable economic development in Africa. He firmly believes that Africa will only truly transform when its growth story stops being Africa Rising and starts to be Africans Rising. He believes that development is multifaceted and must take a multi-sectoral approach and have a strong emphasis on women and youth to be sustainable and impactful.

Ms. Sabena Solomon, Head of Impact Partnerships, Global Health, GSK

Dr. Githinji Gitahi, GCEO, Amref Health Africa

A passionate advocate for pro-poor Universal Health Coverage, Githinji Gitahi joined Amref Health Africa as the Global Chief Executive Officer in June 2015. Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the largest Africa-led international organization, reaching more than 11 million people each year through 150 health-focused projects across 35 countries.

Until his appointment to Amref Health Africa, Dr Gitahi was the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, Smile Train International. Prior to that, Dr Gitahi was Managing Director for Monitor Publications in Uganda as well as General Manager for Marketing and Circulation in East Africa for the Nation Media Group. He held progressively senior positions at GlaxoSmithKline and worked at the Avenue Group.

Dr Gitahi is the former Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative for Universal Health Coverage (UHC); and has recently been appointed as the Co-Chair Strategic Advocacy Committee PMNCH and a member of the Unilever Sustainability Advisory Council. He serves on a number of Boards, notably – Board of Directors of The Standard Group in Kenya, Board of Trustees of Safaricom Foundation and Governing Board of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and prevention (Africa CDC). He is also a member of the Commission/Taskforce on Africa’s COVID-19 Response. Dr Gitahi holds a bachelor’s degree in Medicine from the University of Nairobi, a master’s degree in Business Administration from the United States International University, as well as a Certificate for Strategic Perspectives for Nonprofit Management from Harvard University.

In December 2018, Dr. Gitahi was bestowed the 2018 ‘Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear’ (MBS) by the President of Kenya, in recognition of his outstanding contribution and commitment to the health sector.

Dr Atul Gawande, Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID

Dr. Atul Gawande is the Assistant Administrator for Global Health. He is a renowned surgeon, writer, and public health leader. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, he was a practicing general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
He was founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and of Lifebox, a nonprofit making surgery safer globally. He also co-founded CIC Health, a public benefit corporation supporting pandemic response operations nationally, and served as a member of the Biden transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. From 2018-2020, he was CEO of Haven, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase healthcare venture.

In addition, Atul was a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and has written four New York Times best-selling books: Complications, Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal.

He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the winner of two National Magazine Awards, Academy Health’s Impact Award for highest research impact on healthcare, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Award for writing about science.