PLENARY 1
Deputy President, Republic of South Africa
Hon. Deputy President Mr. Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa assumed his current position in May 2014, after becoming the ANC Deputy President in December 2012. He was included among the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007.
Hon. Mr. Ramaphosa was elected African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General in 1991 and subsequently became head of the ANC team that negotiated the transition to democracy. Following the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, he was elected Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, which wrote South Africa’s new democratic constitution. He was awarded the National Order of the Baobab in Silver in 2009 for his contribution to the multi-party negotiations and for chairing the Constitutional Assembly.
Hon. Mr. Ramaphosa has previously served as Deputy Chairperson of the National Planning Commission, and, following a move into the private sector in 1996, founded Shanduka Group.
Ms. Andrea Núñez Argote
Vice President, World YWCA Board
Ms. Andrea Núñez Argote has volunteered in the YWCA movement for over seven years. Although not yet 30 years old, at her local
YWCA she has held Board positions as Secretary, President and Treasurer, working on projects related to young women and HIV & AIDS, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and women’s human rights. She is currently Vice President on the YWCA World Board.
Ms. Nikiwe Bikitsha
Broadcaster and Columnist
Ms. Nikiwe Bikitsha is a well-known senior broadcast journalist and columnist. She has worked on flagship news and current affairs shows for both SABC and eNCA TV channels. On radio, she has worked for 702 and SAFM and remains a contributor at 702. She also writes for the M&G newspaper.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is currently the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. He took up this post in November 2012. Prior to this he served as Minister of Health from October 2005 to November 2012. Dr. Tedros also served in a number of expert and leadership positions within the Ministry of Health at both federal and regional levels, including the positions of Minister of State and as Head of the Tigray Regional Health Bureau. First joining the Ministry in 1986, Dr. Tedros has dedicated his entire career to public service and scientific research, focusing on health concerns.
PLENARY 2
Regional Coordinator NORTH and Evidence Advisor, Evidence for Action
Dr. Aminu Magashi Garba is the Regional Coordinator NORTH and Evidence Advisor and lead for Evidence for Action (E4A) in
Nigeria. He also leads the Africa Health Budget Network being facilitated by E4A.
E4A is a five-year programme that aims to improve maternal and newborn survival in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. It focuses on using better information and improved advocacy and accountability to save maternal and newborn lives. Dr. Garba is responsible for leading the implementation of E4A in Northern Nigeria, facilitating evidence generation in maternal and newborn health, and packaging it to engage stakeholders via evidence-based advocacy and accountability. He is also the focal point in monitoring and evaluation.
Hon. Dr. Kebwe Stephen Kebwe
Deputy Minister of Health & Social Welfare, Tanzania
Hon. Dr. Kebwe Stephen Kebwe is the Deputy Minister of Health & Social Welfare Tanzania. He has been a Member of Parliament since 2010. Prior to that he served as a Medical Officer in the Kagera and Mara regions and as Assistant Director at Bugando Hospital.
Ms. Tsepiso Makwetla
News and Current Affairs Anchor, South African Broadcasting Corporation
Ms. Tsepiso Makwetla is currently employed as a News and Current Affairs anchor at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) at SAFM. She also hosts special current affairs broadcasts for the corporation. Ms. Makwetla has been a presenter on SABC 3 for several years, on both Interface and the News at 7. She has facilitated events for several international organizations, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the International Monetary Fund and the African Union.
Ms. Joy Phumaphi
Co-chair, independent Expert Review Group
Ms. Phumaphi is currently the Executive Secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, an alliance of 49 African Heads of State and Government. She also serves as Co-chair of the independent Expert Review Group, for Every Woman Every Child, reporting annually to the UNSG on developing country progress on women’s and children’s health. Ms. Phumaphi has served as a member of the UN Reference Group on Economics and as a UN Commissioner on HIV/AIDS and Governance.
Ms. Phumaphi currently sits on the Board of several international non-profits in global health, including Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership, Medicines for Malaria Venture, and RBM (Roll Back Malaria Partnership). She serves as an advisor for the Hilleman Laboratories, the Gates Foundation Malaria Program, and the Harvard Health Ministerial Leadership program.
Ms. Nargis Shirazi
Project Manager, It Takes Two Campaign; Co-founder, WO-MAN Foundation
Ms. Nargis Shirazi, a community psychologist with a Masters in Public Health, is a Cofounder of WO-MAN Foundation. She also serves as the project manager for the It Takes Two campaign that launched on Women’s Day in Uganda. Ms. Shirazi is a playwright and poet, and uses the arts and entertainment to promote positive health messages. She is passionate about family planning for youth and is an advocate of using creative channels to educate and promote it. Ms. Shirazi is currently working on her next play to be staged at the national theatre based on teenage pregnancy. She has had a hand in media, hosting a health show on one of Uganda’s biggest television networks, NTV, in 2010. She also played a character on a radio serial drama from 2006-2008 under the Yeah campaign on youth and HIV/AIDS. Melinda Gates recently mentioned Ms. Shirazi as one of the most inspiring women she met in 2013.
PLENARY 3
Deputy Minister for Social Development, South Africa
Ms. Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu is the newly appointed Deputy Minister for Social Development. She previously served as Deputy Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disability of the Republic of South Africa and has been a Member of Parliament since 1999.
Ms. Bogopane-Zulu is also a member of the South Africa National AIDS Council, a member
of the South African Federation of Disabled People, and a board member of Mmabatho Foundation. She has chaired and served on numerous committees related to children, youth and disabled persons.
Ms. Bridget Okeke Chukwudera
Senior Programme Manager, Concern International Development Initiative
Ms. Bridget Okeke Chukwudera is the Senior Programme Manager at Concern International Development Initiative. Ms. Chukwudera Bridget Okeke is a sociologist, a Ford Foundation Fellow International and development practitioner with practical
experience in maternal health, gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes, youth leadership programmes, women and girls’ empowerment, health systems, research, gender-based violence, gender responsive budgeting, HIV/AIDS, and adolescent health.
Mr. C.K. Mishra
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India
Mr. C.K. Mishra is the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the Government of India. He is also a Co-chair on the PMNCH Board. He has been a member of the Indian Administrative Service since1983.
Prior to his appointment as Additional Secretary, he served as the Joint Secretary, Medium and Small to Medium Enterprises and Principal Secretary in the Government of Bihar, holding portfolios of different departments such as Industry and Health and Power. He has held numerous positions in the Government of Bihar, including Resident Commissioner, Director General in Public Relations Department, and Director in various departments including Secondary Education.
Dr. Armando de Negri
Executive Director, World Social Forum on Health and Social Security
Dr. Armando De Negri Filho practices medicine in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is a member of the Peoples’ Health Movement (PHM-Movimiento por la Salud de los Pueblos), Executive Committee Coordinator of the World Social Forum on Health, former president of the International Society for Equity in Health (ISEqH) and former coordinator of the Latin American Association of Social Medicine (ALAMES – Asociación Latinoamericana de Medicina Social).
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin
Executive Director, UNFPA
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin is the fourth Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
At UNFPA, Dr. Osotimehin, a physician and public health expert, has introduced major reforms to make the Fund more focused and results-oriented and intensify efforts to improve sexual and reproductive health, particularly among young people. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Osotimehin served as the Minister of Health of the Republic of Nigeria. He previously served as Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS, which coordinates HIV and AIDS work in a country of more than 160 million people.
PLENARY 4
General Secretary, Young Women’s Christian Association; African Union Goodwill Ambassador, Campaign to End Child Marriage
Ms. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, a Zimbabwean, is World YWCA General Secretary. She is a trained human rights lawyer with extensive experience in conflict resolution and mediation. For some 20 years, she has been working on issues of women’s and children’s human rights, with a special focus on crisis countries. Active in the women’s movement, she has more specifically focused on issues of violence against women, peace with justice, property rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV and AIDS. Ms. Gumbonzvanda has also served as a member of the Commission on Information and Accountability on Women’s and Children’s Health.
Mr. Peter McDermott
Executive Director for Health, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
Mr. Peter McDermott is the Executive Director for Health of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and also serves as a member of the CIFF (US) Board of Trustees. Prior to joining CIFF, Mr McDermott had a distinguished career with UNICEF, having held positions in Africa, Europe and the United States over the last 21 years, including positions in Zambia, Somalia, Kenya, Senegal, Gambia and Nigeria among others.
In addition, at UNICEF he served as Chief of the HIV/AIDS section in the program division at UNICEF headquarters in New York. He previously served as Principal Advisor for HIV/AIDS in the Africa Bureau of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a post he held while on loan from UNICEF.
Ms. Lediana Mafuru Mng’ong’o
Member of Parliament, Tanzania
Ms. Lediana Mafuru Mng’ong’o is a Member of Parliament in the United Republic of Tanzania. She has held several positions in government, including working on HIV/AIDS, women’s economic empowerment and nutrition. She is the Chair of the Tanzania
Parliamentarians AIDS Coalition and the Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS, as well as Chairperson of the African
Parliamentarians Against HIV/AIDS. She is the former Secretary General of the Global Partnership of the Elected and Appointed Women Leaders (Global Power) African Region and a former member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union HIV/AIDS Advisory Committee.
Dr. Julian Schweitzer
Principal, Results for Development Institute
Dr. Julian Schweitzer is a Principal at the Results for Development Institute (R4D). Prior to joining R4D, Julian had a distinguished career at the World Bank, with recent positions as Director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Department and Acting Vice President of the Human Development Network. He has over thirty years of development experience with a focus on human development, and he has lived and worked in Asia, Latin America, Africa and East and Central Europe. His health sector interests include mHealth, health finance and health systems strengthening.
He has served on the board of a number of multilateral institutions and partnerships, including GAVI and the Global Fund. He chaired the Board of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health in 2009-10. He recently chaired the Finance Working Group for the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.
Dr. Marijke Wijnroks
Chief of Staff, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Dr. Marijke Wijnroks serves as Chief of Staff at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where she has broad responsibilities, and a particular focus on gender and human rights, and on engaging with all partners in the cause of global health.
Dr. Wijnroks previously served as Ambassador for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV/AIDS, and also Deputy Director of the Social Development Department, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands. She has more than 25 years of experience in global health and development work, serving in the government, at the United Nations and in civil society, and working in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
PLENARY 5
Ms. Nikiwe BikitshaBroadcaster and Columnist
Ms. Nikiwe Bikitsha is a well-known senior broadcast journalist and columnist. She has worked on flagship news and current affairs shows for both SABC and eNCA TV channels. On radio, she has worked for 702 and SAFM and remains a contributor at 702. She also writes for the M&G newspaper.
Dr. Flavia Bustreo
Assistant Director-General, Family, Women’s and Community Health, World Health Organization
Dr. Flavia Bustreo was appointed Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health in 2010. At WHO, she previously served as Deputy Director and then Director of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health from 2006 to 2010.
In 2004-2005, she served as Interim Deputy Director of the Child Survival Partnership.
Dr. Bustreo’s work has focused on policy development concerning child and maternal health, policy implementation and partnership-building with a wide range of stakeholders. In 2010, she led the development of the United Nations Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. In 2008, she contributed to the High Level Taskforce on International Innovative Financing for Health Systems and in 2005, to the UN Taskforce on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 & 5 to reduce maternal and child mortality.
Prof. Nila Moeloek
Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Indonesia on the Millennium Development Goals
Prof. Nila Moeloek serves as the Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Indonesia on the Millennium Development Goals, a ministerial-level post which she has held since 2010. As a part of this role, Prof. Moeloek is also the Indonesian Sherpa for the Network of Global Leaders in various events dedicated to the initiatives to improve women’s and children’s heath in developing countries.
Prof. Moeloek also leads a number of high-profile organizations in Indonesia. Foremost among these are her positions as
General Chairperson of the Indonesian Dharma Wanita (the largest women’s organization in Indonesia whose members are comprised of the women and wives of civil servants throughout Indonesia), General Chairperson of the Indonesian Ophthalmologist Association, General Chairperson of the Indonesian Cancer Foundation, and Chairperson of Medical Research of Faculty of Medicine at the University of Indonesia.
Mr. Yemurai Nyoni
Founding Director, Dot Youth Organization, Zimbabwe
Mr. Yemurai Nyoni – a 24 year old youth activist from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe – is the current Director of Dot Youth Organization and a youth representative on the PMNCHAdolescent Expert Advisory Group. His vast youth leadership experience includes serving as a Youth Family Planning Ambassador for Zimbabwe under the UNFPA, an Executive Committee Member of the African Youth and Adolescents Network on Population and Development, and the President/Facilitator of the Zimbabwe Young People’s Network on
Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV and AIDS. Mr. Nyoni is one of the 10 grant recipients under the Women Deliver C-Exchange Initiative that supports innovative youth-led projects to improve the health of women and girls. He is passionate about addressing developmental concerns affecting women and girls and has taken the lead locally and within the African region in working to end child marriage and challenging misogyny.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin
Executive Director, UNFPA
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin is the fourth Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. He holds the rank of
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
At UNFPA, Dr. Osotimehin, a physician and public health expert, has introduced major reforms to make the Fund more focused and results-oriented and intensify efforts to improve sexual and reproductive health, particularly among young people. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Osotimehin served as the Minister of Health of the Republic of Nigeria. He previously served as Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS, which coordinates HIV and AIDS work in a country of more than 160 million people.
Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez
Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID
Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez is the Assistant Administrator for Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), a position he assumed in August 2011. He joined the USAID leadership team with a vision to shape the Bureau for Global
Health’s programmatic efforts to accomplish scalable, sustainable and measurable impact on the lives of people in developing countries, as envisioned in President Obama’s Global Health Initiative.
Dr. Pablos-Méndez is a board-certified internist who previously served as managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he led its global health strategy on the transformation of health systems in Africa and Asia. He previously practiced as a professor of clinical medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University and has served on various boards and international commissions.
