Advisory Board

Cecilia Oh

Cecilia Oh is Chairperson of the SAVING Consortium’s Expert Advisory Board. She is a lawyer by training and has worked on development, trade and health issues for the past 20 years. She is currently the Programme Advisor with UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Group, based at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

Since 2014, she has coordinated the Access and Delivery Partnership, a global health project led by UNDP in collaboration with TDR, WHO and PATH, aimed at supporting health systems in low- and middle-income countries through strengthened institutions and human capacities.

Professor John O. Gyapong

BSc, MB ChB, MPH, PhD, FGCP, FGA

John Gyapong is a Public Health Physician and an Epidemiologist. Since August 2016, he has been the Vice Chancellor of University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). Prior to this, he was for five years, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research Innovation and Development and Professor of Epidemiology and Disease Control at the University of Ghana, and an Adjunct Professor of International Health at Georgetown University in Washington.

He had his medical education at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, and later pursued a Master of Science in Public Health in Developing Countries, and a PhD in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London.

He worked for the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service in Kumasi, Navrongo, Dormaa Ahenkro and Bawku. He was later Director of Research and Development of the Ghana Health Service for 12 years, and established and managed the Ghana Neglected Diseases Control Programme for 8 years.

He has served as chair/member of several international committees including the World Health Organisation. He is a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; and is a member of the Ghana Medical Association.

Professor Jürg Utzinger

Jürg Utzinger is the Director of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Basel. He holds an MSc in Environmental Science, a PhD in Epidemiology and pursued several years of postdoctoral research in demography and epidemiology at Princeton University in the USA.

His research, teaching and training interests pertain to the epidemiology and integrated control of neglected tropical diseases and health impact assessments of large footprint projects in low- and middle-income countries. He is engaged in trans-national global health research consortia with ongoing projects in China, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, and Tanzania.

Dr. Anthony Ofosu

Anthony Ofosu is currently the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service. He is a public health physician from Ghana with interest in health system strengthening and delivering health care to remote rural communities, as well as using information communication technology to address service bottlenecks.

He attended the University of Ghana Medical School and University of Ghana School of Public Health, where he obtained his medical degree and Master’s in Public Health degree respectively.

He holds a Master’s degree in Epidemiology from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He was a Population and Leadership Fellow at the University of Washington Seattle from 2001-2002.

He is a fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians. He has coauthored and published peer reviewed articles on various public health topics.

He led the implementation of the nation-wide deployment of an integrated national health information system using the dhis2. He also led in the deployment of the etracker for TB, HIV and maternal and child health services in the health sector. He has held various management positions in the Ghana Health Service. He was the District Director for Berekum District and Sene District from 1995 to 2010 and was the pioneer Medical Superintendent for the Sene District Hospital. He was the Deputy Director for Information Monitoring and Evaluation in the Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the Ghana Health Service from 2012 to 2019.

Delese Mimi Darko

Delese Mimi Darko is the Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority. She is a pharmacist with a master’s degree in Business Administration. Under her leadership as the Head of Safety Monitoring and Clinical Trials, Ghana become a member of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring in 2001 and the first country in West Africa to join the Programme. She also led FDA’s designation as a Regional Center of Regulatory Excellence in Medicines Safety, Clinical Trials and Drug Registration. As the CEO of the FDA, Ghana attained Maturity Level 3 status, the second country in Africa to attain this status.

Delese Chairs the WHO African Vaccines Regulatory Forum and serves on several international and local committees such as the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) Expert Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC), the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Blueprint on Research and Development Preparedness, the Steering Committee for West African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization project and the Steering Committee for Medical Products Regulatory Systems Strengthening and Harmonization Initiatives in Africa. She was appointed onto the WHO/ CIOMS Committee on Vaccine Safety to work with leading regulators from the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Japan, and other countries to set standards for global vaccine safety.

She received several awards for her exemplary work including the United Nations award for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Disease, the Glitz Africa’s award for Ghana Women of the Year Honors 2019 (Excellence in Health), the Ghana Business Standard Awards for the Female Business Leader of the Year 2019 and the advertising Association of Ghana Special Recognition award for her role in regulating the advertisement of FDA regulated products. She is a devout Christian and is married with two children.

-KB-OkuAfari

Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari

Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari is the Acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Ghana. Prior to his appointment, he had been Director of various directorates in the Ministry of Finance, including Director for the Economic Research and Forecasting Division, the Director for the Policy Analysis Division, Director for the Real Sector Division and more recently, as Director, Special Duties in the Ministry of Finance. From 2016 to 2019, he was appointed Executive Director at the African Development Bank in Abidjan, representing Ghana and four other countries on the Executive Board of the Bank, guiding policy direction at the Bank. He also worked at the International Monetary Fund as a special appointee in 2000/2001.

Mr. Oku-Afari has long-standing engagements in policy dialogue, consultations, and financial and international negotiations. He was awarded the “Africa Day of Administration and Civil Service Award” in 1998 in recognition of his hard work as a Civil Servant.  He has served on a number of boards of public institutions including as Director of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID); Commissioner of the Ghana Securities and Exchange Commission; and as a member of the Ghana Statistical Service Board. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Economic Policy Management Programme run by the Economics Department of the University of Ghana, and is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Transport.

He is a United Kingdom Chevening Scholar, who holds an M.A. in Economics of Money, Banking and Finance from the University of Sheffield, UK; a postgraduate diploma in Economics and Economic Policy, Finance and Banking from Centre d’ Etudes Financières, Economiques et Bancaires (CEFEB) Paris, France; and a B.A. (Hons) in Social Sciences (Economics and French) from UST, Kumasi.