Annual Health Financing Forum

Tamar Gabunia is First Deputy Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia. She oversees operations of the Policy Department of Health, Labour, Social and IDPs; Regulation Agency for Medical and Pharmaceutical Activities; public health and Global Fund supported programs at National Center for Disease Control and Public Health. She is a certified family medicine specialist with Masters in Public Health from the University of Georgia, United States. She has spent the last 16 years in senior level management positions leading and supporting public health initiatives, including TB, Malaria, HIV, Primary Health Care, health financing, governance, and human resources.

Ben Akabueze, Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Nigeria Ben has over 23 years experience in Accounting, Consulting and Banking, and about 12 years in public financial management in a professional career which started at PriceWaterhouse (Chartered Accountants), and spanned Citibank Nigeria, United Bank for Africa and NAL Bank Plc, where he rose to the position of Managing Director/Chief Executive (2000-2005). He served as Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget from January 2007 till May 2015, having first been appointed by Governor Tinubu and then re-appointed for two terms by Governor Fashola. After a brief stint at running his own firm, BIA Consulting Ltd, a Financial and Strategic Management Consulting practice, with a strong focus on public financial management, he was appointed Special Adviser (Planning) to the President of Nigeria effective February 15, 2016, and on June 9, 2016 President Buhari appointed him the Director-General Budget Office of the Federation.

Dr. Mark Blecher is Chief Director: Health and Social Development in National Treasury of South Africa. His academic qualifications include a four year specialist degree in Community/Public Health at University of Cape Town and a PhD in an area of health economics. He has over 50 publications in the field of public health and health economics in a range of books and journals including the South African Medical Journal, SA Health Review, Vaccine, OECD book and others. He supervises a team of ten in the National Treasury and has previously worked in Policy and Planning and Health Economics in the public sector. His work encompasses many areas including National Health Insurance research and development, putting in place health conditional grants like the HIV/AIDS grant, heading Health and Social Protection Function Committees which make recommendations on sectoral budget allocations. His section of the Treasury also works on social grant modeling and budgeting, ECD and other aspects of Health and Social Development. He has also worked on aspects of social security development. Dr. Blecher was co-chair of UNAIDS Economic Reference Group and works regularly with various global organizations such as WHO, GAVI, Global Fund, GFF and others. He is currently co-authoring several international cross-country studies on UHC.

Somil Nagpal is the cluster lead for the World Bank’s health and nutrition programs in Indonesia and Timor Leste. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2009, Somil has served as the health insurance regulator for India, and also in the Indian ministries of Finance and Health. He has been associated with the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) since its inception, and also with the World Bank’s UNICO team, the UHC 2030 core team and other similar initiatives.

Kalipso Chalkidou is the Director of Global Health Policy and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development. Previously, she was the Director of Global Health and Development Group at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, helping governments build technical and institutional capacity for improving the value for money of their healthcare investment. She is interested in how local information, local expertise, and local institutions can drive scientific and legitimate healthcare resource allocation decisions whilst improving patient outcomes. She has been involved in the Chinese rural health reform and also in national health reform projects in the USA, India, Colombia, Turkey and the Middle East, working with the World Bank, PAHO, DFID and the Inter-American Development Bank as well as national governments. Between 2008 and 2016 she founded and ran NICE International, a non-profit group within the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Pungkas Bahjuri Ali is the Director for Health and Community Nutrition, The Ministry of National Development Planning/ The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) the Republic of Indonesia. His main duty is the formulation of planning and budgeting of national health and nutrition program. He has worked in various government program and project under the government including primary and referral health services, communicable and non-communicable disease, nutrition as well as health system strengthening. He holds a bachelor degree in food technology from Bogor Agricultural University, a master degree in Industrial Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, and a doctorate degree from Australian National University Canberra.

Ajay Tandon is currently Lead Economist with the World Bank based in Washington, DC. He works on several countries including most recently on India, Indonesia, Bhutan, Laos, and the Philippines. He received a PhD in economics from Virginia Tech with a dissertation that focused on the intersection of macroeconomics and population dynamics. Previously, over 2004-2007, he worked with the research department of the Asian Development Bank in Manila where he worked on issues related to human development. He also worked with the Evidence and Information for Policy department of the World Health Organization in Geneva from 1998-2003, primarily on measurement challenges including those related to correcting biases in self-reported responses in household survey data and on health system performance. He has held visiting research appointments at both Oxford University and Harvard University. He has written several publications on the issues of statistical methodology, health systems efficiency, health financing, domestic resource mobilization, and universal health coverage. He is co-author of several books, including most recently of ‘Going Universal: How 24 Countries Are Implementing Universal Health Coverage from the Bottom-up’.

Anupam Raj is an senior officer of Indian Civil Accounts Service from the Indian Civil Services. He is currently looking after the IFMIS vertical of Ministry of Finance. He has previously worked in Government Banking Division, Internal Audit Division, Data Analytics & Monthly Accounts Section and Technical Accounts Section of Office of Controller General of Accounts , Ministry of Finance. He has expertise in areas of Financial Technology, Integrated Financial Management Systems, Government Banking, Cash Management, Chart of Accounts and Government Budgeting. He has in his prior experience, worked in Public Financial Management System (PFMS) Project of Ministry of Finance and treasury, accounting, internal audit & budgeting functions of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Environment Forests & Climate Change and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. He was the lead for the design and development of Non Tax Receipts Portal of Government of India, Payroll System of Government of India, Treasury Single Account System of Government of India and several other digital modules on the IFMIS platform. He has authored several articles on Public Financial Management in national publications in India. He has also worked with International Monetary Fund to assist in cash disbursement system design for Costa Rica and Technical Assistance Mission to Cambodia.

Possessing more than 10 years of work experience in diverse financial positions, both in public and private field, David has gained an extensive insight within Budgeting, Financial Planning, Reporting (IFRS, IPSAS, PEFA) and other aspects of Public Finance Management. Currently he is a head of the department at the State Treasury (MoF Georgia), responsible for ensuring efficient and safe Investment of public funds.
David earned Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Finance at Tbilisi State University. He also holds MBA Degree from Tbilisi State University and another Master’s Degree in Finance from Bank of Georgia Teaching University (Caucasus University). Currently David is pursuing PhD degree in Business Administration, doing his doctoral work on “International Financial Markets and Capital Market Development in Georgia”.

Triin Habicht is a Senior Health Economist at the World Health Organization. She was a Head of Health System Development at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) from 2015-2017. Prior to that she was a Head of Department of Health Care at the Estonian Health Insurance Fund where she worked since 2006. Previously she worked as the Head of Health Policy Unit in the Public Health Department at the MoSA (2004-2006) and as a health economist at the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (2001-2003). Her work has been mainly focused on all aspects of health system financing including development of different payment and contracting schemes for health care providers but also assessment of new health technologies, enhancement of health care quality assurance system and transforming hospital and primary health care provider network. She has taught health economics and health financing policy at the University of Tartu.

Ed Olowo-Okere, a Nigerian national with three decades of experience working on governance issues around the world, leads the World Bank’s Public Sector and Financial Management team in the Governance Global Practice. This group is focused on helping countries build capable, effective, accountable, transparent, and inclusive institutions that deliver citizen-centric services, facilitate private-sector growth, and build trust in Government. Mr. Olowo-Okere joined the World Bank in 1998 and has held various positions in operations, including Director of Governance overseeing Africa, MENA and ECA regions, Senior Advisor in the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions practice group, and Director of the Core Operational Services Department in the Africa region. Before joining the Bank, Ed held public- and private-sector positions in Nigeria, Britain, and New Zealand. He holds a Bachelor of Science (First Class Honors) Degree in Accountancy from the University of Maiduguri and a Masters’ Degree in Accounting, with Distinctions, from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He has a Ph.D. in Management with a specialization in Change Management and Public Financial Management from the University of Bath, United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He has researched and published in reputable international journals and lectured at undergraduate and graduate levels in Nigeria and New Zealand on accounting and finance.

Professor Kwon is a health economist and has worked over 30 years on UHC, health finance, and health systems & policy. He has held visiting positions at the Harvard School of Public Health, London School of Economics, University of Toronto, University of Tokyo, University of Bremen, and Peking University. He was the Chief of the Health Sector Group in the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He is the founding director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health System and Financing at Seoul National University. He has served as president of the Korean Health Economic Association, the Korean Association of Schools of Public Health, and the Korean Gerontological Society. He is the Associate Editor of Health Policy (Elsevier), and was the editor of the Korean Journal of Public Health and the Korean Journal of Health Economics. He holds PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1993) and taught at the University of Southern California School of Public Policy until 1996. He has been a member of board or advisory committees of Health Systems Global (HSG), WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization), and WHO Centre for Health and Development. He has occasionally been a short-term consultant of WHO, World Bank, and GIZ for health system and financing in Algeria, Armenia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Srinivas Gurazada (Srini) is the Global Lead, Public Financial Management (PFM) at the World Bank and is based in Washington DC. He is responsible for synthesizing global knowledge on PFM to help Governments implement fiscal policies effectively. His expertise and interest include budget reforms (including Programme budgeting), revenue mobilization, accounting and financial reporting (IPSAS) reforms, internal controls (IFMIS), audit (Supreme Audit Institutions) and anti-corruption. He works extensively in PFM assessments (PEFA, PERs, FinHealth etc) to support countries accelerate PFM in health sector reforms. He also works on public administration reforms, civil services reforms and political economy issues. He has over 28 years of experience in Public Financial Management and Governance having worked in the civil services of Governments of India, Oman & the United States, several United Nations organizations and the World Bank. He is the Convenor of Financial Management Technical Working Group (FMTWG) in the health sector and is a core member of UHC 2030. He represents World Bank at the ACTA alliance (Global Network on Anticorruption Accountability and Transparency in health). He is the World Bank’s focal point for Governance & Institutional responses in Health Sector.

Moritz is a Senior Economist at the World Bank working at the nexus of public finance and health. He is interested in how public financial management reforms can be an enabling force for efficient, and equitable service delivery. His work is currently focused on reforms in the Africa region where he leads various analytical programs that include how to deploy disruptive technology solutions. During his time at the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group, Moritz led various evaluations of World Bank support to public financial management reforms and has written extensively on what makes financial management information systems effective. Prior to joining the World Bank, Moritz worked as an advisor in the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar/Tanzania, where he supported the government in budget management and the introduction of health finance reforms. Moritz holds an MSc in Economics for Development from Oxford University and an MA in Economics from the University of Aberdeen.

Toomas Palu, MD, MPA, is the Adviser on Global Health Coordination in the World Bank office in Geneva. Before moving to Geneva Toomas served as the Global Practice Manager for the World Bank’s US$1.3B health portfolio of the East Asia and Pacific Region leading a team of 43 health and development professionals. Toomas is a member of the World Bank HNP Practice global leadership team. In his prior engagements, he led World Bank health programs in several countries in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union, served as a Director in the Estonia Social Health Insurance Fund Management Board and as a Deputy Director of the Tallinn Emergency Care Hospital in Estonia. His work has focused on health reforms and health systems strengthening in low and middle-income countries, sustainable transition of externally financed health programs, financing pandemic preparedness among others. Toomas has a cum laude Medical Doctor degree from the Tartu University in Estonia and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Harvard University in the US. He has also studied public policy and medical sociology in the Oxford University and health economics in the University of York in the UK.

Dr. Nguyen Khanh Phuong is currently Vice-Director of the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, Ministry of Health. She has served in the institute for more than 20 years. Dr. Phuong is viewed as a leading health economist with experience in health financing, health economic and health system reform in Vietnam. She also has a strong background on policy evaluation and monitoring, research proposal design and development, provider payment methods, hospital services cost, health technology assessment and project evaluation. Dr. Phuong has been involved in several studies which provided evidence for developing important health policies on health insurance and health financing reform. She is currently a member of HTAsiaLink Scientific Board, HTAi Asia Policy Forum Organizing Committee, and the Joint Learning Network, among others. She graduated from Hanoi College of Pharmacy and earned a master of science in Health Economics from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She earned a PhD degree in Public Health from the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology.

Aanu’ Rotimi is a seasoned health advocate advancing good governance through meaningful and equitable citizen engagement aimed at delivering good healthcare system and achieve universal health coverage in Nigeria and other LMIC countries. Currently, she is the Program Manager with Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), a national CSO with organizational members and individuals across the country advocating for better health care for all Nigerians at all levels. Aanu’ leads the secretariat of the Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC) hosted by HERFON, the Nigeria foremost civil society coalition working on health with member organizations where she is harnessing the diversity to collectively pursue a health system and reforms that works for everyone. Aanu’ has led several advocacy engagements towards improving policy and fiscal space for health. She has developed several interface mechanisms to facilitate meaningful collaboration between government, civil society, and citizens by initiating and hosting the first ever National CSO interactive webinar with the Federal Ministry of Health. She inspired and is working with partners to develop a CSO health financing accountability framework for use in the 36 states and FCT of Nigeria. She is presently leading the implementation of two COVID-19 focus projects to support the national response and mobilize actions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Dr. Shafinaz has extensive experience in healthcare and public health programming, including strategic planning, program design, capacity building, monitoring, implementation, and management of health systems strengthening programs in national and international settings. During her 28 years working in public health, Dr. Shafinaz has supported the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in providing both programmatic and overall technical leadership for health programs focused on improving the health of vulnerable and underserved populations. Currently she is working as Senior Technical Advisor in Save the Children and leading the Field Implementation team of USAID’s MaMoni Maternal and Newborn Care Strengthening Project that serves about 22 million people of 10 intervention districts in Bangladesh.

Oksana Movchan is the Acting Head of the National Health Service of Ukraine, where since 2018 she has coordinated the development of the first benefit package in Ukraine. Ms. Movchan has 11 years of experience in the financial and investment sector in Ukraine and abroad, and for 8 years served as a senior executive for public sector strategic projects and initiatives. Her expertise includes design and administration of risk management systems, debt markets analysis, fixed income portfolio management, investor relations, strategy development, and general management of asset management businesses and pension funds.

Ellen Van de Poel leads the GFF’s health financing work stream and supports GFF partner countries to develop and implement strategies to increase their domestic resources for health and improve the efficiency of their health spending. Before joining the GFF, Ellen was an associate professor of health economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research, which focused on evaluating health financing reforms and measuring equity in health, has been published in leading journals.

Kartikeya Misra is the Special Secretary Finance (Institutional Finance) & Managing Director of the Andhra Pradesh State Financial Corporation. Prior to assuming this position, he was the Director of Health and Family Welfare with the Indian Administrative Service, in which position he led some of the major initiatives for the delivery of telemedicine services in Andhra Pradesh. After a short stint in the private sector in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in New York at the beginning of his career, he had moved to the public sector in 2010 where he has been holding a variety of positions in several Indian states. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Management and is a multiple recipient of the Indian Express Awards for Good Governance.

Dr. Anthony Ofosu is a public health physician from Ghana with twenty-five years' experience working in the public health sector in Ghana. He has an interest in health system strengthening and using information communication technology to address service bottlenecks. He is currently the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Health Service. Prior to this position he served as the Deputy Director in charge of Information Monitoring and Evaluation in the Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division in the Ghana Health Service. In that position he led the country-wide roll out of the dhis2 in Ghana as well as the roll out of dhis2 etracker for the collection of transactional data from services rendered at primary health care facilities in Ghana. He was also involved in the Novartis-supported roll out of telemedicine in some regions in Ghana.

Fernando, MD joined UHG Brazil in 2012 and he has held leadership positions in Americas and Amil. Additionally, he holds an Executive MBA from Insper Sao Paulo, Brazil and concluded a leadership program in Harvard Business School, Boston, USA. Fernando joined Amil in March 2018, as Clinical Management Director and with his team of managers has implemented some projects such as Mental Health Program, UCC and Remote Management, all recognized as a balance between sustainability and an increase of patient outcomes and experience. Fernando assumed, in January 2020, the position of Amil Chief Medical Officer.

Marvin Plötz, a German national, is an Economist at the World Bank where he advises governments on health financing and service delivery reforms, with a focus on Latin America & the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. In addition, his work focuses on the analysis of medical insurance claims data in both the areas of service delivery (e.g. to construct measures of system and provider performance) and health financing (e.g. to simulate the impacts of health insurance reforms). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Econometrics from Maastricht University and a master’s degree in Economics & Finance from the Centre for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI), Madrid, where he studied as a scholar of the German National Academic Foundation.

Dr. Cid is regional advisor in health economics and financing of PAHO/WHO in Washington D.C. In the last five years he has been involved in technical cooperation to the countries of the region of the Americas with emphasis on transformation processes of health systems and their financing. Dr. Cid worked as a full-time professor at the Catholic University of Chile (2010-15) and he was head of the Presidential Advisory Commission for Health Insurance Reform (2014-15). Previously, Dr. Cid worked in the public health sector in Chile (1995-2010). During this period, he was head of the Department of Studies, and of the Department of Health Economics at the Ministry of Health and, worked as senior economist in the Superintendence of Health. Dr. Cid is past president of the health economics association of Chile and the health economics association of LAC. His training includes a master's degree in economics from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in health economics by the Duisburg-Essen University, Germany.

Diane Wu is a Health Specialist at the World Bank, where she manages global partnerships on health financing and immunizations. From 2016-2019 she was a Technical Officer at the World Health Organization in Geneva, and previously advised numerous public and private sector multinationals on strategic issues as a Senior Consultant with Monitor Deloitte. Diane began her career as a physician at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada. She holds an MPH from Harvard University and an MD from the University of British Columbia, Canada and is board certified in Family Medicine.

Dr. Alex Mutanganayi currently serves as the COVID-19 Response Team Leader for Save the Children in the DRC. A medical doctor and health advisor specializing in both humanitarian relief and development contacts, he has over ten years experience managing large health programs in complex and fragile settings, including deployments to DRC, Rwanda, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone. He began his career working as a Health Advisor at RACOJ/SIDA (Reseau des Associations Congolaises des Jeunes), later continuing work as a medical doctor in hospitals both inside and outside the DRC. Dr. Mutanganayi served as a medical advisor for a health and nutrition project with International Medical Corps, and as an HIV doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières. He joined Save the Children for the first time in 2014 to respond to the West Africa Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. Since that time he consulted on risk and governance for school health and nutrition programming in Mali, launched Save the Children's Ebola Outbreak response in the eastern part of DRC, and is now leading Save the Children's COVID-19 response in DRC.

Alma Crumm Golden is currently the Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Golden has worked in private pediatrics, indigent health services, academic medicine, public health, healthcare administration and health policy. A graduate of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Dr. Golden later became the director of pediatric services for UTMB’s Maternal and Child Health Program, establishing and managing 16 clinics in south and east Texas serving unfunded, Title V and Medicaid children and families. During her career, Dr. Golden has served as faculty at both the University of Texas Medical Branch and Texas A&M Health Science Center. She also served as a Presidential Appointee from 2002 to 2006 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Population Affairs in HHS, which included Family Planning, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Embryo Adoption and Abstinence Education. Prior to her current role, Dr. Golden also served as the Executive Director of USAID’s Global Development Lab and Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Global Health.

Aye Aye Thwin is a member of the Senior Foreign Service at USAID, with over 25 years of international experience in health financing and sector reform in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines. Prior to joining USAID, she has worked with GIZ, WHO, and on the faculty at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Aye Aye joined USAID in 2003, and served as health office director in the Philippines and the Regional Development Mission Asia. She is currently Senior Advisor for health systems and financing at the Bureau for Global Health, at USAID/Washington and leads on health sector cooperation with the G7 and G20. Aye Aye is a medical doctor with a doctorate in public health economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Florizelle (Florie) Liser is the third President and CEO of CCA. Ms. Liser brings expertise and an extensive network on trade and Africa to her new role, along with a strong track record of working with the private sector to translate policy into action. She is the first woman to lead the Council since its founding in 1993.

Ms. Liser joined CCA from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she was the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa since 2003. At USTR, she led trade and investment policy towards 49 sub-Saharan African nations and oversaw implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Previously, Ms. Liser served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Industry, Market Access, and Telecommunications from 2000-2003. She also served as Senior Trade Policy Advisor in the Office of International Transportation and Trade at the Department of Transportation from 1987-2000; worked as a Director in USTR’s Office of GATT Affairs, and served as an Associate Fellow at the Overseas Development Council (ODC) from 1975-1980.

Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Council for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Advisory Committee and Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee for the Export-Import Bank (EXIM), and a Board member with the Women in International Trade (WITT). Ms. Liser holds a M.A. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science from Dickinson College.

A visionary entrepreneur & an industry captain, Dr. Amit N. Thakker has been a groundbreaking pioneer in the integration of private sector within the health system in Africa. Dr. Thakker actively supports governments, corporates, health organisations and development partners to foster effective Public Private Partnership initiatives towards improved health outcomes.

He is the Executive Chairman of Africa Health Business, President of Africa Healthcare Federation, Chairman of the Kenya Healthcare Federation and currently serves as a Director with LumiraDx & Ghanima Limited.

As an active member of several institutions including international business group YPO Gold (Nairobi Chapter), Dr. Thakker also chairs the University of Naurobi Alumni Medical Chapter & serves as an advisor to Asia Africa Investing & Consulting ltd.

Dr Thakker founded Avenue Healthcare, a Kenyan based integrated private health service provider in 1995 which led him to receive the “Best Male Entrepreneur of the year” award by Rotary International in 1999. He also won the “Best CEO” award by Titans Global in the Business & Professional Services category in 2017 & proudly received the Chairman’s Award by Kenya Medical Association in 2004.

Africa Health Business is an African health consultancy, advisory and investment firm that aims to improve access to quality affordable healthcare in Africa.

Gijs Walraven, MD MPH PhD, is Director for Health of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), and is based in Geneva. In this role, he is the General Manager for the Aga Khan Health Service (AKHS) Companies which are located in South and Central Asia, East Africa and the Middle East. Dr. Walraven is Honorary Professor in Community Health Sciences at the Aga Khan University. Dr. Walraven joined the Aga Khan Development Network in 2003. Before this he worked for a period of 15 years in Africa in health care provision, management and research, with a major emphasis on district health systems. AKDN has been engaged in health systems strengthening for nearly a century. The AKDN health system includes more than 400 health centres that provide primary health care, as well as 21 hospitals that provide for secondary/ tertiary health care. Increasingly, health service delivery takes place in public-private partnership agreements. AKDN also has a large and growing portfolio in technical assistance to governments, in training and education, as well as (implementation) research. Dr. Walraven is the chair of AKDN’s Covid-19 global task force.

Dr. Walraven has been on several occasions technical advisor to the World Health Organization, and he co-chaired the global expert committee on recommendations for optimizing health workers’ roles to improve access to key maternal and newborn health through task shifting.

Dr. Walraven has published widely (more than 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals, h-index 44), presented at international conferences and travelled to discuss and advise on various research capacity building and district/provincial health systems projects. He is also the author of ‘Health and Poverty: Global health problems and solutions’ (Routledge, London), which received first prize in the category ‘health and social care’ in the 2011 British Medical Association Annual Book Awards.

The main theme uniting Dr. Walraven’s ongoing research interests is ‘health research for development’, by putting emphasis on including ‘relevance’ or ‘responsiveness’ to local health and development issues in addition to ‘excellence’ of research; and by maximizing the link between research and (health) action.

An entrepreneur evangelist with over 25 years of experience in diverse business fields, Ajoy found his true calling in his quest to bridge the staggering healthcare accessibility gap in India. Driven by his vision to reinvent the healthcare landscape at the grassroots, he founded Gramin Health Care, the first such startup focused exclusively on primary healthcare. Before starting his own venture, Ajoy has been associated with some of the most successful organizations across the globe. He has been an advisor to corporate giants like Harris Corporation, Ital Cable, Tech Mahindra, Tellabs Maxis, UTStarcom, Hughes Software System, and IP Unity. Under his leadership, companies have seen exponential growth and geographical expansion in the global market.

A strategic investor, Ajoy also has a remarkable presence in telecommunication, geospatial, and content businesses. He has invested in a number of companies across the world including
Optimal Home Health (US), Emmanuel Health Care (US), Paridyam Healthcare (India), Medical Second Opinion (India), Doc on call (Myanmar), Intersat (USA), Belgium Satellite Services (Belgium), and CERT Telematics (Abu Dhabi), among others.

However, a desire to make a difference in the rural healthcare scenario of India has become his driving mission. Through Gramin Healthcare, he intends to expand the reach of basic healthcare services to the under-served populations of rural India. Strategic use of technology and the
creation of requisite human resources is at the center of this initiative that has spread to as many as seven states within 3 years of inception. A series of technology and telemedicine powered primary healthcare centers and polyclinics are redefining the way healthcare is delivered and accessed in rural areas. An invaluable data-mine is also being processed that can provide an essential bridge for major corporate houses and people of the underserved community.

Under his leadership, Gramin Health Care is bringing about a paradigm shift in the primary health care scenario of villages, tier 3, 4 areas where affordable and accessible healthcare services have been a non-starter. Ajoy also has an MBA degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an ElectricalEngineering degree from M.S. University, Baroda, India.

Dr. Praveen Gedam is the Additional Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority (NHA) in the rank of Joint Secretary to Government of India. He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of 2002 batch, Maharashtra cadre. As second-in-command at NHA, he assists the CEO in its functioning and also supervises the work of various verticals and coordinates with ministries, organizations, State Governments and other stakeholders.

Dr. Praveen Gedam is a National Talent Search Scholar and MBBS doctor by education. He has held several important positions as a career bureaucrat and, prior to joining NHA, he was the Private Secretary to Hon’ble Minister of Railways and Coal. A go-getter by nature, Dr. Gedam has led institutions to their optimum level.

Before joining Government of India, he served the Government of Maharashtra in various capacities. He was Transport Commissioner of Maharashtra, where he spearheaded a massive computerisation exercise involving all 50 offices under him and ensured computerization of database of more than 27 million vehicles and 30 million driving license holders of the state. Dr. Gedam has also served as the Municipal Commissioner of Nashik and Jalgaon, Collector of Solapur and Osmanabad, CEO of ZP Latur and Director of the Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency.

At the cutting-edge field level, spanning over a decade in various parts of Maharashtra, Dr. Gedam was responsible for critical government interventions concerning socio-economic development, including those in public health. He is known for the turnaround in Maternal and Child Health indicators in Latur, one of the most backward districts of the state, due to targeted interventions, systematic medical check-ups and massive community mobilization exercises. From 2006 to 2009, his 3 year mission led to a considerable increase in deliveries at hospitals which went up from 48% to 93%. There was also a fourfold reduction in the number of cases of severe malnutrition in children and a drive for medical check-up of 162,000 school children, out of which 1,327 underwent surgeries. He has also tied up with UNICEF to prepare micro-plans to ensure the long term sustainability of these
initiatives.

In 2015, Dr. Gedam was handpicked at the 11th hour and entrusted with the task of organizing and managing the mega-event of Kumbhmela in Nashik which is the third largest human congregation on earth. In the run up to the preparations, he led a team of thousands.

Charles has more than 30 years of operational and strategic management experience in public, private and health insurance settings and has applied this knowledge in both emerging and developing markets around the world. His expertise and experience range from designing and evaluating investment opportunities in the private health sector through to whole health system design and implementation of policy/strategy. He has a practical understanding of challenges facing health systems in emerging markets and the opportunities presented for relevant and sustainable public-private collaboration as well as insight to the nuances of successful private health business growth in emerging markets.

Oyebanji is a consultant for the health financing global solutions group at the World Bank. He is a trained physician and health economist with over 14 years’ experience in health financing policy, health system reform, program implementation and social development working in West Africa and the United Kingdom. He recently served as the Technical Director of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), a Federal Government of Nigeria initiative with a dedicated funding equivalent to 1% of Nigeria’s annual revenue. Oyebanji also served as senior adviser to the immediate past Federal Minister of Health in Nigeria, providing strategic advice on health policy and financing, while also helping to articulate the vision for the sector and leading accountability for program implementation.

Midori de Habich is the Technical Director of the USAID Local Health System Sustainability (LHSS) project. She is an economist with over 25 years of experience in research, policy design, and implementation. As Minister of Health of Peru (July 2012 to November 2014), she led comprehensive health reform in Peru aimed at achieving universal health coverage. Between 1995 and 2012, she served as Chief-of- Party of several USAID supported health projects in Peru, providing technical assistance for the development of management and financing systems within the Peruvian Health Sector. Prior to these projects, she also served as Chief of the Department of Macroeconomic Indicators and the Department of Social Studies for the Central Reserve Bank of Peru.

Patrick Eozenou is currently Senior Economist at the World Bank in the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice. He has over 10 years of experience in development economics, microeconomics, and health economics with a strong focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the World Bank as a Young Professional, Patrick was a post-doctoral fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC. His current work focuses on health equity and health financing. Patrick has published articles in the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Development Studies, the Lancet Global Health, the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Health Affairs, PLoS Medicine, and the British Journal of Nutrition.

Sven Neelsen (PhD) is a health economist in World Bank’s Health Nutrition and Population Global Practice where he works on measuring and tracking progress towards UHC, as well as on assessing the efficacy of different health financing interventions to improve access to maternal and child health services. He has authored studies on the impacts of health insurance schemes and the economic resilience of households in light of health shocks in Peru and Thailand.

Elena is an Economist with the Junta Nacional de Salud (National Health Agency), within Uruguay’s Ministry of Health. Specializing in project management, she has led the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of both private-sector and public sector-funded projects from donors such as the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and United Nations. She has led the coordination of donor and implementing agencies throughout project implementation. In her role at the Junta Nacional de Salud she specializes in health management and is responsible for the coordination and supervision of multidisciplinary work teams in areas related to economic, financial and technological management. In addition, she works as a consultant providing technical assistance for the implementation of corporate social responsibility plans and activities for small and medium-sized companies.

Dr. Luis González Machado is the Director General of the Junta Nacional de Salud (National Health Board), part of Uruguay's Ministry of Health. Previously, he was the Director and an Advisor at the Chamber of Institutions and Health Companies of Uruguay, the Director of the Radiotherapy Service at the National Institute of Oncology, and the General Manager at the Mutualista Hospital Evangélico in Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition, he was also the Coordinator of both the Health Sector Strengthening Program and the Health Sector Modernization Program at the Ministry of Public Health, Inter-American Development Bank. Specializing in radiation oncology, he has also worked as a doctor and oncologist, and was a professor in the Oncology Department at The University of the Republic, Uruguay.

Dr. Soewondo is an academic at the School of Public Health Administration and Health Policy, University of Indonesia. She earned her PhD and MPH from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and her undergraduate degree from the University of Indonesia. She has served as Head of the Social Health Insurance Working Group of the National Team of Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), Indonesia.

Dr. Agnès Soucat is the Director for Health Systems Governance and Financing at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Before joining WHO, she was Global Leader Service Delivery and Lead Economist at the World Bank. She previously was the Director for Human Development for the African Development Bank, where she was responsible for health, education, social protection and jobs for Africa, including 54 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb. She has over 25 years of experience in health and poverty reduction, covering more than 70 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.

She was a pioneer of several innovations in health care financing including community based financing and performance based financing and authored seminal publications on these topics. She is also the co-author of the World Development Report 2004 “Making Services Work for Poor People” and of the Lancet Commission report “Global Health 2035: a world converging within a generation”. She was commissioner of the recent Lancet and Rockefeller Commission on Planetary Health. Dr. Soucat did also extensive work on the health labor market dynamics in Africa. Dr. Soucat holds an MD and a Masters in Nutrition from the University of Nancy in France as well as a Master of Public Health and Ph.D in Health Economics from the Johns Hopkins University.

David B. Evans is a consultant for the health financing global solutions group at the World Bank. He has over 40 years of experience in economics and health financing, including 25 years with WHO and 10 years as an academic.

Ms. Sylvana Q. Sinha, Founder and CEO of Praava Health, is a Bangladeshi-American lawyer and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience working in international law and development. Ms. Sinha built Praava Health from scratch after experiencing the challenges facing the Bangladeshi health system first-hand. After a family health scare, Ms. Sinha embarked on a year-long international and domestic listening tour to gain insights into the world’s leading health care models and hear stories from Bangladeshi health professionals and patients. These learnings were brought together into a single value-based design with the launch of Praava Health. Praava Health is a world-class health facility in downtown Dhaka that is raising the bar for healthcare in Bangladesh, combining family health and diagnostics with a model that incentivizes positive health outcomes over volume. By aligning patient values with doctor incentives, Praava Health is redesigning the way healthcare is delivered in Bangladesh and restoring trust in the system. Prior to founding Praava Health, Ms. Sinha practiced international law, working for the World Bank and other UN agencies on governance and legal reform. Ms. Sinha has degrees from Harvard (MPA/ID), Columbia (J.D.), and Wellesley (B.A.).

David Coady is the Assistant Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) of the IMF. Prior to that, he was a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and a lecturer in economics in the University of London. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics in 1992. His research interests include public economics, and he has worked extensively on policy issues related to the efficiency and distributional implications of indirect tax and public sector pricing reforms, and the evaluation of social protection systems. His research has been published in leading economic journals, and he has co-authored and co-edited books on the economics of social protection, benefit targeting, and health spending.