Yesterday, United Nations health division the World Health Organisation appointed Dr Peter Waiswa as a member on their Advisory Board.
Dr Waiswa is an Associate Professor of Health Policy Planning and Management of the School of Public Health at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He did his medicine studies at Mbarara University, Public Health at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, and a PhD and Postdoc jointly at Makerere University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.
He has been part of many strategic policies and initiatives especially in the areas of maternal, newborn and child health. He is a leading African academic with over one hundred publications including books. He is also part of advocacy efforts especially to advance maternal, newborn and child health in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) era.
These efforts have contributed to the UN’s Ending Preventable Maternal Death and Disability strategy and the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) which are driving global policies with impact at scale up.
Dr Waiswa is co-lead of the EN-INDEPTH five countries study that is further validating how to measure these indicators in health systems in low and middle income countries. He was the Principle Investigator (PI) for the Saving Mothers Giving Life (SMGL) project in Uganda that achieved a 40% reduction in maternal deaths.
Dr Waiswa’s appointment to WHO’s advisory board was announced by Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, with a congratulatory tweet.
“I congratulate Prof Peter Waiswa of Makerere University School of Public Health on his appointment on the World Health Organisation Advisory Board. This is a great achievement for Peter and Makerere University. Thank you for making Makerere shine brighter,” Nawangwe said.