Dr Seye Abimbola is a health systems researcher. He has worked as a health care practitioner and/or researcher in Nigeria where he completed his medical training at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; in Australia where completed an MPhil in Public Health and PhD in health systems research at the University of Sydney, and in the United Kingdom where he was a Sidney Sax Overseas Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. From 2009-10, Dr Abimbola was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia, and from 2010-13 he was a research fellow at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in Nigeria. Dr Abimbola studies community engagement in governance, decentralised governance and the role of governance in the adoption and scale up of health system innovations. He is a senior lecturer in global health at the University of Sydney, and the editor in chief of BMJ Global Health.

Professor Fran Baum is the Chair of the Advisory Council of the People’s Health Movement. She serves as a Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Director of the Southgate Institute of Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University. She is a past National President of the Public Health Association of Australia.

Fran Baum is one of Australia’s leading researchers on the social and economic determinants of health. She is an expert on evaluation in community health, theories of health promotion, Healthy Cities, social capital and health promotion, and the political economy of health. In June 2016 she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of her outstanding work in public health advocacy.

Jan Beagle is a diplomat from New Zealand. Formerly, she served as the Under-Secretary-General for Management at the United Nations, and as Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS. She has more than 30 years of experience in diplomatic, political, strategic, management and intergovernmental and interagency affairs, and has made important contributions in leading and advancing change management initiatives in the Secretariat and at the level of the United Nations system. Ms Beagle also serves as the Chair of the High Level Committee on Management.

With a focus across the development, health, gender, human rights, peace and security and humanitarian spheres, Ms Beagle has consistently worked across sectors, promoting interlinkages for joined up strategic action. Ms Beagle is a leading advocate within the UN system for gender equality and gender parity. At UNAIDS she spearheaded the development and implementation of a Gender Action Plan which serves as an accountability platform to provide concrete measures to increase gender parity in UNAIDS, while forming the basis from which to strengthen organizational culture towards gender equality for all staff. She was one of the early appointed International Gender Champions–a leadership network that brings together senior female and male decision makers to break down gender barriers and served as a Co-Chair of the Champions Working Group on Change Management.

James Chau is a British-Chinese news anchor. He was a guest presenter on the award-winning show Horizons on BBC World News, and is now a Special Contributor to CCTV International. His programs are watched by over 100 million people in China and globally.

He has earned a special reputation for his in-depth interviews with world leaders in politics and science. In December 2016, he spoke with Ban Ki-moon in his last conversation as United Nations Secretary-General. Among others, he has interviewed Nobel laureates Kofi Annan, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, Muhammad Yunus and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi – and also Winnie Mandela, Joko Widodo, Robert Mugabe, Tung Chee-hwa, Paul Kagame, Arianna Huffington, Elton John and an exclusive with China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan.

He is a frequent moderator at major events: the UN High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance; the G20 Summit with Jack Ma and Justin Trudeau; the Global Partners Meeting on Neglected Tropical Diseases with donors including Bill Gates; and a conversation in Los Angeles on the future of global health with Laura Bush and Charlize Theron.

In 2009, James was named UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, and in 2016 he was appointed WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals and Health. Born in London, he studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music, and graduated from Cambridge University where the John CB Chau Prize in Engineering is named for his father. He lives in Beijing.

GH5050 Testimonial

Helen Clark, ranked by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the world, is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017 where she was the highest ranking woman in the United Nations.

Throughout her exceptional career Helen Clark has continued to achieve many firsts, including becoming the first elected woman Prime Minister of New Zealand and the first woman head of UNDP. As Prime Minister, she served for three consecutive terms. During her tenure at UNDP, the ratio of female to male staff reached 50 per cent, including at the most senior levels. She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders.

Helen Clark is a passionate communicator, and engages widely with the public, using social media as a tool to advocate on important global issues, and was consistently ranked as the top communicator at the UN for her continual interaction with broad audiences. A new film, ‘My Year with Helen’, follows her attempt to become the first female Secretary-General of the United Nations and her continued pursuit of breaking glass ceilings.

Dr Jocalyn Clark is Canadian public health scientist and professional journal editor, currently working as Executive Editor at The Lancet in London UK. She has experience working in numerous organisations including as Executive Editor at icddr,b, an international health research organisation located in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Senior Editor at PLOS Medicine, and Assistant Editor at The BMJ. She is also an adjunct Assistant Professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and former consultant to Grand Challenges Canada. She holds a PhD in Public Health Sciences, for which she was a doctoral fellow of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, studying the medicalisation of sexual assault and gender-equity in public health issues. Her recent Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency produced a 5-part series critiquing The Medicalisation of Global Health.

Jocalyn is dedicated to building capacity in research, writing, and knowledge translation among developing country investigators and institutions, and is a recognised leader in the mechanics of writing, writing for publication, publication ethics, social determinants of health, and global/women’s health. She has over 125 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist Senait Fisseha is a global leader in expanding access to reproductive health services, especially in developing countries. Dr. Fisseha chaired Dr. Tedros’ successful campaign in 2016-2017 as he was elected the first ever African Director-General of the World Health Organization and led his transition team. She guided the recruitment of the senior leadership team that for the first time represented top talent from 14 countries, including all WHO regions, and is 60% women.

Born in Ethiopia, Dr. Fisseha earned an undergraduate degree from Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois, M.D. and J.D. degrees from Southern Illinois University, and a certificate in International Human Rights and Comparative Law from the University of Oxford. She completed her internship (2000) and residency (2003) in obstetrics and gynecology and fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility (2006) at the University of Michigan. As adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at U-M, Dr. Fisseha advocates for training and capacity building in contraception and reproductive health services globally. Previously, Dr. Fisseha was medical director of Michigan’s Center for Reproductive Medicine and founding executive director of its Center for International Reproductive Health Training. She helped U-M forge strong partnerships with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and the St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, and was honored by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health in 2013 for her contributions to the health sector. In 2016, the U-M Medical Center Alumni Society presented her its Early Distinguished Career Achievement Award.

Katja Iversen is the President/CEO of Women Deliver – a leading global advocacy organization that champions for gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women with a specific focus on maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights. An internationally recognised expert on development, advocacy and communications, Katja has over 20 years of experience working in NGOs, United Nations agencies and corporations. She is a member of President Macron’s G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, the Unilever Sustainability Advisory Council, and the MIT Women & Technology Solve Leadership Group. Her unwavering commitment to the principles of equality, justice and human rights was celebrated in 2018 when she was named Dane of the Year. 

Sharmila Mhatre joined the Public Health Program at the Open Society Foundations as the deputy director in July 2016. Her expertise in health systems and policy research in low- and middle-income countries is founded on over 20 years of experience leading, designing and managing multi-sectoral health programs with government, donor, and civil society collaborators in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

Prior to joining Open Society, Mhatre worked at Canada’s International Development Research Centre for over a decade where she headed the Governance for Equity in Health Systems program (2010-2016). She is a board member of the British Medical Journal Global Health. Mhatre holds a PhD in health services research from the University of Toronto (1994).

Geetanjali Misra is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of CREA. Geeta, a seasoned activist and grant-maker, is a champion of sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and ending violence against women. Before founding CREA, she was Program Officer, Sexuality and Reproductive Health, for the Ford Foundation in New Delhi where she supported non-governmental organizations in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. She also co-founded SAKHI for South Asian Women in New York in 1989, a non-profit organization, committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin.

Geeta is a Board Member of Reproductive Health Matters (UK); and a Member of the Advisory Board of FHI360 (US). She was President of the Board of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) from 2006–2008. She co-edited Sexuality, Gender, and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia.

Ulrika Modéer is Director of the Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2018. Previously she was State Secretary to the Minister for International Development Cooperation, overseeing Sweden’s Policy for Global Development and international climate policy and the development cooperation components of the Swedish Feminist Foreign Policy. Prior, she was the Team Manager of the Environmental and Foreign Policy Team for the Green Party Parliamentary Secretariat and worked in a variety of roles at the civil society organization Diakonia, including as Policy manager (2009-2011), International Manager (2004–2006) and as Head of the Latin American department (2001–2003). Ulrika lives in Stockholm, is married with three children and holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Gothenburg.

Dr Muhammad Musa has an extensive background in leading humanitarian, social development, and public health organisations in international, cross-cultural settings. A medical doctor and public health specialist, he has a specialised training in maternal and child nutrition, and disaster management.

Before joining BRAC, he worked for 32 years with CARE International as one of its senior international management professionals. Twenty of those years were spent working in Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Asia region.

He has long experience in strategic leadership, governing board management, executive-level management of large-scale operations, and humanitarian and social development programme management. He specialises in people management, leadership development, conflict resolution, and organisational change management. He also has a proven track record in effective external relationship management, marketing, brand-building, communications, and fundraising for humanitarian and development projects. He has been successful in bringing about convergence of philanthropic approaches and entrepreneurial methodologies to create sustainable development programming that achieves impact on a large scale.

Dr. Sania Nishtar is the founder and president of Heartfile, a powerful and respected health policy voice in Pakistan, and founder of Heartfile Health Financing, an access-to-treatment initiative to support Universal Health Coverage in mixed health systems. She currently serves as  Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation.

Dr Nishtar’s experience spans the sectors of government, civil society and multilateral institutions. In 2013 she served as a Federal Minister in Pakistan’s interim Government, where she held four portfolios and was instrumental in re-establishing Pakistan’s Ministry of Health. She was the founding Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Accountability Panel for the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health and served as co-Chair of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity.  She currently co-chairs WHO’s High-Level Commission on Non-communicable diseases.

In the 2017 election of the World Health Organization Director-General, Dr Nishtar was nominated as a candidate by the Government of Pakistan. She was one of only two women nominated and was shortlisted as one of three final candidates. She is the author of six books, holds a PhD in medicine from King’s College London, and was the first ever female cardiologist in Pakistan.

Dr Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão from Brazil has been appointed Assistant Director-General for Drug Access, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals. Most recently, she was Director of Community Support, Social Justice and Inclusion at UNAIDS. In addition to her work at UNAIDS, she brings more than 30 years of experience working in the Brazilian public health system and has played an active role in enhancing access and decentralizing health services in the country.

Between 2006 and 2010, she served as Director of the National STD/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Department in the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where she led successful price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of HIV medication. During this time, she also represented the Brazilian Ministry of Health in the negotiations that led to the constitution of UNITAID in 2006, including its governing body, where she served as a board member until 2008. She was trained as a paediatrician in Brazil and holds an MSc degree in public health from University of London, United Kingdom.

Levi Singh is a 22 year old Youth Development Advocate from Durban, South Africa. He is a particularly forceful advocate for youth participation in sustainable development – including in the African Union Agenda 2063, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Strategy on Women, Children and Adolescent Health and the International Conference on Population & Development Beyond 2014 Review.

Mr Singh serves a UNAIDS provincial ambassador, as well as a Regional Youth Advisor to UNFPA. He is the National Focal Point for the ACT! 2015 Campaign supported by UNAIDS, UNFPA and 16 other international organizations. Among the notable successes of ACT!2015 in South Africa was the adoption of the first National Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Framework Strategy 2015-2019 (NASRHRFS). Mr Singh serves as representative of ACT!2030 (South African National Youth Alliance for SRHR) on the National Steering Committee, alongside members of the South African Government.

In April 2015, Mr Singh’s persistent advocacy bore fruit when he was appointed as the first youth delegate on the South African national delegation to the 48th UN Commission on Population and Development since South Africa’s readmission to the UN.

In October 2015, Mr Singh was elected as the Secretary General of the African Youth and Adolescent Network on Population & Development (AfriYAN). AfriYAN advocates for the rights of youth and adolescents across 23 countries in Eastern & Southern Africa.

Mr Singh plans on attending law school to study international and human rights law. He has a keen interest in diplomacy and aspires to serve within the diplomatic corps in the future.

Ravi Verma is Regional Director for the International Centre for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India. Over the past three decades he has worked on issues of men, masculinities, male sexual health and gender equality as they relate to violence against women, reproductive health including family planning and HIV and AIDS in India and the Asia region. He has published extensively on these issues in both Indian and international journals. Ravi is also serving as a Chair of the Indian National Technical Resource Group on Stigma and Vice Chair of the Indian National AIDS Control, Ethics Review Committee, and sits on advisory committees on the government’s response to child marriage, gender-based violence and adolescent health. He has served as a member of High Level Committee on the Status of Women (HLCSW), Government of India and the Rights & Empowerment working group of the FP2020 Initiative.