Plenary 1

Dr. Gafar Alawode

Dr. Gafar Alawode has managed several donor-funded health system strengthening projects at the senior level in Nigeria and other developing countries, including Liberia and Uganda. He was a Country Manager for Liverpool Associates in Tropical Health (LATH), Program Manager for Global Found Round 8 Malaria Project, State Team Lead for the DFID-funded Partnership for Transforming Health System 2 (PATHS2), Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Health Finance and Governance project, and Country Director for Health Policy Plus. Gafar designed and worked with other stakeholders to introduce Universal Health Coverage (UHC)-related innovations, including the Legislative Network for UHC and Nigeria UHC Forum. 

He was appointed a member of the core group for the health financing resilience community of practice by the World Bank, and he led a team of other experts in preparing a policy position paper that advised 54 Commonwealth Ministers of Health on effective aid utilization and domestic resource mobilization for health. He was the Principal Investigator for Nigeria’s policy analysis of health taxes project and policy analysis of Local Government Area (LGA) autonomy and its implications for Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery, which were funded by the African Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR) and USAID, respectively. He’s currently the CEO at Development Governance International (DGI) Consult. He obtained a Master’s degree in Tropical Medicine from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, after acquiring his first degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. He also took executive courses in health system management at the Harvard School of Public Health.  He is a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health (FFPH) of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Academy of Public Health (FAPH). He holds the traditional title of Aare Gbobaniyi of Ijagbo Land.