PHC in the News

Meet the Advisors to the Allies Improving PHC!

In the last few months, the Allies Improving PHC have grown to 125+ organizations, reminded leaders that PHC is a “3-for-1” investment in Health for All, and congratulated 13 winners of PHC advocacy micro-grants. Now, we are excited to continue this momentum by welcoming and congratulating the new Advisors to the Allies Improving PHC. See their full bios below.

This incredible group of eight leaders will be bringing their unique experience, passions and perspectives to guide the Allies into this crucial next chapter, in partnership with the PHCPI Secretariat, to ensure that we are maximizing the value of this growing coalition -- both for members involved, and for broader PHC advocacy. Because if ever there was a time to radically reorient health systems toward PHC and build the world we want, it is now. 

Learn more about the Allies Advisors below and help us spread the word on Twitter. 

Meet the Advisors: Full Bios (alphabetical order)

Dr. Lola Dare, Founder and President, Chestrad Global is a multiple award-winning author, community physician, epidemiologist, public health practitioner, development consultant, sociopreneur and irrepressible global health advocate for women, girls, young persons for over 30 years.  Lola is in the forefront of advocacy for resilient, secure, accountable right based health care services and systems strengthening based on the PHC approach. She engages policy makers, parliamentarians, multi-country donor-funded programmes and national governments including bilateral, multilateral, and intergovernmental organizations.Lola has nimbly linked investments in health to social protection, with resultant multi-sector actions for large scale impact. Lola has applied her cross culture experience in advisory as well as lead implementing roles within national and citizens led responses to the COVID19 pandemic in Africa, emphasizing on equity, infodemic management, cross sector linkages, social protection in addition to the urgent imperative to integrating COVID19 responses into PHC and other investments for human capital development and sustainable African economies. In her role as Founder and President of Chestrad Global –  a trail-blazing African-led networked global social enterprise and development agency with network members in Africa, Europe and the Americas – Lola has deftly applied context informed and people responsive innovations in evidence-and knowledge management for large scale impact on public health policy and practice. Her work has sought to positively disrupt traditional norms of development financing, focusing on not only financial inclusion for women and young people, but also expanding domestic resources for health, across a broad range of target populations and social sectors impacting on health outcomes.

Dr. Ibtihal Fadhil, Founder and Chair, Eastern Mediterranean NCD Alliance is also the former Regional Advisor, Noncommunicable Diseases at World Health Organization, EMRO (2008 -2016), commissioner -Lancet Commission on Women and cancer, member of WHO Strategic Technical Advisory Group for NCD prevention and control (2021-2023) and member of WHO/Civil Society Working group on NCD (2017-2022). Dr. Fadhil worked as the Ministry of health NCD consultant at the Ministry of Health in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Iraq where she actively contributed to strengthening NCD integration in PHC guided by WHO PEN protocols. She has held various academic and clinical positions during the last 36 years and has been working with regional and global institutions to strengthen PHC services and contributed to the development of guidelines on NCD screening at the PHC level. Dr. Fadhil served as a member of several national and international medical committees and public health associations. She has also published as a main author and co-author in several scientific journals.

Dr. Aminu Magashi Garba, Coordinator & Founder, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) has over 25 years’ experience in development work. He is the founder and coordinator of the Africa Health Budget Network (www.africahbn.info) that uses budget advocacy to influence adequate and efficient health spending and improved transparency and accountability in Africa. He is the Global Co-convener of the Community of Practitioners on Accountability and Social Action in Health (COPASAH -https://www.copasah.net/) and currently hosting its global secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria. He is a member of the Global Action Plan (GAP) for SDG3 Civil Society Advisory Group and a former civil society representative to the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Investors Group (2017/18). He is on the Board of Champions of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) hosted by WHO Geneva. He is a member of the FP2030 Accountability Advisory Group. In Nigeria, he chairs the Leadership, Partnership and Coordination Committee of Nigeria’s National RMNCAEH+N Multi-stakeholder Partnership Coordination Platform.

Arush Lal, PhD Candidate, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics & Political Science; Board Vice Chair, Women in Global Health; Community & Civil Society Representative, ACT Accelerator Health Systems & Response Connector, US/UK is a Member of the Chatham House Commission for Universal Health and a Community & Civil Society Representative for the Action for COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. He also serves as the inaugural Board Vice Chair for Women in Global Health. A doctoral candidate at the London School of Economics & Political Science, Arush explores the politics of global health governance and diplomacy, examining integration across global health security and universal health coverage. His research has been published in The Lancet and cited by the U.S. and U.K. governments and the G7. Arush has supported strategic advocacy and policy guidance across a range of topics, including pandemic preparedness and response, primary health care, and community health workforce. His work has spanned multilateral, government, and civil society roles, including at the World Health Organization, U.S. Office of Pandemics & Emerging Threats, and Partners in Health. A Gates Foundation Goalkeeper, WHO/UNICEF Primary Health Care Young Leader, and former Fellow at Emerging Voices for Global Health and Global Health Corps, Arush completed an MSc in Health Policy, Planning & Financing from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a BSc in Business Administration from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Neda Milevska Kostova, Chair, International Alliance of Patients’ Organisations, UK, President, IAPO Patients for Patient Safety Observatory, Switzerland is a pharmacist and public health specialist with extensive experience in low resource settings and international cooperation through health research, policy and patient advocacy. Currently she is a Research Fellow in health policy and management at the Institute for Social Innovation in Macedonia, and a post-doctoral researcher at the Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Neda is Chair of the International Alliance of Patients’ Organisations (IAPO), UK, and President of the IAPO Patients’ for Patient Safety Observatory, Switzerland. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the European Forum for Primary Care. In 2018, Neda was awarded the title Primarius by the Minister of Health for exceptional and long-term commitment and contributions to the advancement of the healthcare system and health status of the population in Macedonia. She also made contributions to both science and policy, by participating in research project implementation, policy documents development, and publishing a number of academic articles, scientific publications and policy reports.

Associate Professor Shabir Moosa, Executive Coordinator, AfroPHC is a family physician with an MBA and PhD. He works in public service clinics of Soweto and at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has extensive experience in rural general practice and the development of family medicine and primary care services in both rural and urban district health services in South Africa and Africa. Shabir is involved in development and research around family medicine, community-oriented primary health care (COPC) and health management for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Africa. He is Member at Large and past African President of WONCA (World Organisation of Family Doctors), and Executive Coordinator of AfroPHC, the African Forum for Primary Health Care (PHC), bringing African PHC team leaders together to advocate for PHC and UHC.

Patricia Nudi Orawo, Founder, STADA Kenya is an advocacy and policy specialist with over 10 years’ experience managing health advocacy projects specifically in the fields of Universal Health Coverage, Sexual Gender Based Violence, Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights, Social Accountability and Mobilization, Gathering and Dissemination of Research Findings on Human Rights Based Approach to Health (Accessibility, Availability, Acceptability and Quality of health services). She is a founder of STADA Kenya and numerous Reproductive Health grassroots initiatives and has additionally worked and consulted for PAL Network, KMET Kenya, Global Health Strategies, Women Deliver young leader’s project in Kenya, and AMREF among others. Currently she is the regional coordinator for the PUSH Campaign (East Africa). She is currently pursuing a master in Public Policy degree and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) (Hons). She is a 120 under 40 nominee, an International Women Health Coalition (IWHC) young leader and sits on a number of boards. She has spoken at the World Health Assembly, ICPD 25+, Commission on the Status of Women, UN High Level Meeting on UHC and ICFP’s Not Without FP Conferences. Patricia’s work is centered on engagement of duty bearers and rights holders to strike a cohesive balance between law & health and policy & practice. She makes sense of laws and declarations with a view of creating impact at the grassroots.

Chanthorn Phorng, Senior Coordinator: Partnership, Policy and Networking, Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance (KHANA), Cambodia has worked with KHANA for over 10 years under the portfolio of policy, partnership, advocacy and community system strengthening. Areas of focus include HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH), Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE), Gender Sensitivity, and other health-related issues. He currently serves as the Project Manager for various projects such as COVID-19 Response Mechanisms (C19RM), HIV/AIDS-related youth, Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) in TB programming, country partnership mechanisms in TB response, Harm Reduction and Advocacy, COVID-19 equitable access, and community engagement in primary health care initiatives. In addition, Chanthorn is doing some consultancy assignments funded by the ADB, APCASO, Youth LEAD, Global Fund, Youth Voices Count, APN+, and CGTA. Chanthorn holds master’s degrees in Project Management and Development and in Educational Management. He has technical expertise on partnership strengthening, advocacy initiatives, and community, rights, and gender (CRG) aspects targeting key, vulnerable, and marginalized groups/populations including men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who use/inject drugs, sex workers, people living with and experienced TB, LGBTI and at-risk youth. He has solidified technical expertise in community-led monitoring (CLM), rights-based approaches and community leadership and empowerment in the context of HIV/AIDS, TB, Sexual Reproductive Health and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).