Unlocking Universal Health Coverage 2030: The Power of Health Financing

Jon Fairest, Head Sanofi GHU

Dr. Andrea Feigl, CEO, Health Finance Institute

• Link to policy note including novel framework

Andrea brings extensive leadership experience in academia, the public sector, international organizations (WHO, WB, OECD), and the global non-profit sector. Andrea’s past work focused on the economics and policies of preventing and treating the economic burden of chronic diseases, as well as on health financing and governance. Andrea has been recognized as the innovator of the Evidenced Formal Coverage Index metric for universal healthcare coverage, has co-founded the Young Professional Network for Chronic Diseases (YP-CDN), and is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards. She has authored several high-level reports, including Development Aid Flows for Chronic Diseases for the Center for Global Development and a leading WEF/Harvard report on the global economic burden of chronic diseases. A native of Austria, Andrea received her PhD in global health from Harvard University, MPH and BSc (First Class Honors) with a full scholarship from Simon Fraser University in Canada, and IB from Red Cross Nordic United World College in Norway.

Jon Fairest is head of the Global Health Unit at Sanofi where he leads strategy and implementation of the newly launched non-profit, sustainable business that will operate in the 40 poorest countries in the world to expand access to 30 essential Sanofi medicines. Jon joined Sanofi in 2002. He held general manager roles in Bulgaria, Finland, Portugal and Canada before taking the position of head of the Africa region. In 2019, Jon became head of external affairs for Eurasia, Middle East and Africa and served as head of trade and revenue management, a transversal organization across Sanofi Global Business Units. Jon began his career with Bayer in the United Kingdom where he held positions in sales and marketing. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Anne-Claire AMPROU is the French Ambassador for Global Health and, since April 2022, the French negotiator of the international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. After starting her career as a hospital director, she joined the Inspectorate-General of Social Affairs. She was a member of the Ebola task force and then Deputy Director General for Health at the French Ministry of Solidarity and Health. Before coordinating the French response to the Covid-19 crisis in 2021, she was Chief General Manager of Universcience, a cultural and scientific institute.

Dr. Prastuti Soewondo is currently an advisor to the Minister of Health, supporting the Minister in evidence- based inputs to improve primary, secondary, and tertiary health care, as well as public health services and health financing, which includes Indonesia’s national health insurance, JKN. Dr. Soewondo serves on the board of commissioners of Mandiri InHealth, Indonesia’s largest state-owned insurance company. She also currently serves on the Board of the Teaching Hospital University of Indonesia and Jakarta Hospital. She has previously served on numerous boards, perhaps most relevant to this session is the Board of Indonesia’s Social Insurance Administration Organization (Badan Pelaksana Jaminan Sosial Kesehatan). Dr. Prastuti Soewondo received her Master and PHD degree in Health Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles; School of Public Health. Since 1986, she has taught and served for the University of Indonesia’s School of Public Health and served as a research consultant and principal investigator on numerous health projects focusing on strengthening the health system, health financing and insurance.

Dr. Aquina Thulare is the lead Technical Specialist on Health Economics for the National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa’s Ministry of Health, a role that she has held since 2009. Her responsibilities are in the areas of policy and legislative development, health financing and economics, as well as the development of institutional arrangements for the South Africa’s NHI Fund. She represents South Africa on the technical structures of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, that is ceased with the development of the WHO CA+. She is also actively engaged in South Africa’s participation in multilateralism in platforms such as the BRICS Health and the G20 Health Working Group. She represents South Africa on the World Health Organisation’s Universal Health Coverage structures – such as UHC2030 Steering Committee and its Task Force and in other health financing platforms of the WHO. At the height of the pandemic, she played a critical role in supporting the Ministry in its Covid-19 response. She holds an MB ChB; BSc (Hons)Reproductive Medicine; Master in Public Policy Management and a Master of Business Administration with a focus on political-economy on health, justice, health equity and the related socio-economic determinants of health.

In the position of Assistant Director-General of the Universal Health Coverage, Life Course Division, Dr Aylward drives the Organization’s agenda to make primary health care available to all without financial hardship, and oversees WHO’s work on health systems, immunization and reproductive, maternal and child health. Prior to taking up this position, Dr Aylward led WHO’s Transformation Agenda and the Organization’s involvement in special initiatives such as the multi-agency Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) Hub and the G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force. Dr Aylward has 30 years of experience with WHO, working at all three levels of the Organization and serving in a range of leadership positions including Director of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative Partnership, Assistant Director-General of the WHO Polio and Emergencies Cluster, Executive Director of the WHO Emergencies Programme, and Deputy Director-General for the West Africa Ebola Response. He also served as the Special Representative of the Director-General to the United Nations Emergency Ebola Response (UNMEER) from September 2014 to July 2016. In 2016, Dr Aylward led the establishment of the new WHO Emergencies Programme, then managed the reform of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) before returning to WHO in late 2017 to lead the design and implementation of WHO’s ongoing Transformation Agenda.

Dr Aylward is a physician and epidemiologist with a Medical Doctorate from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, a diploma from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, and a Master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States of America.

Dr. Monique Vledder is the Head of the Global Health, Nutrition and Population Department at the World Bank leading the team responsible for technical assistance, analytical work, partnerships and learning on key global health issues including service delivery, climate and health and pandemic preparedness among others. Until recently she was the Head of the Secretariat for the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), a multi-stakeholder global partnership housed at the World Bank ensuring all women, children and adolescents can survive and thrive. Monique led the design of the GFF business model as well as the establishment of the GFF Secretariat and the successful expansion to 38 partner countries. The GFF provides catalytic financing and technical assistance to low and lower-middle income partner countries, supporting the development and implementation of country-led national health plans to scale up access to affordable, quality care.

Monique is passionate about innovative and smart investments to improve women, children and adolescent health and her expertise in reproductive health, health systems strengthening, and financing and service delivery has been built over more than 25 years of global health experience working in various regions including Africa, Latin America, and East Asia. She led World Bank financed country programs on health systems reform and primary health care in Latin America and East and Southern Africa. She also managed U.K. Department for International Development programs on women’s health, health financing and inequality in Brazil and led a portfolio of maternal and child health and nutrition programs for World Vision International in Indonesia. Prior to the establishment of the GFF in 2015, Monique managed the Health Results Innovation Fund, an initiative that focused on innovations in health financing and frontline service delivery.

Monique holds an MD from the University of Amsterdam, an MPH in International Health from Harvard University, a diploma in health economics from the University of York and a certificate in Women and Leadership from the Said Business School in London. She is a proud mother of two.

Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao is the Chief Resource Mobilization and Growth Officer. Since joining Gavi in 2011, her leadership has been instrumental in raising critical resources to provide equal access to vaccines for all and to drive diverse financial instruments (such as International Financing Facility for immunization (IFFIm), Advanced Market Commitment (AMC), and the Matching fund (MF). Ms. Saraka-Yao has helped increase Gavi’s footprint with the private sector and innovators. Currently, Ms. Saraka-Yao also provides leadership and direction to the strategic funding of COVAX, the global initiative for COVID-19 vaccines. In addition, she is the lead negotiator with G7 and G20 for Gavi.

Prior to joining Gavi, Ms. Saraka-Yao held several senior positions in international investment banks and multinational development agencies. She served as a senior executive to the President of the African Development Band and as Lead advisor to the Senior Vice President in charge of country operations and strategy.

During her fifteen years’ experience in development financing, notably at the World Bank Group, she played a key role in expanding the World Bank Group (WBG)’s private sector mandate and instruments in key emerging markets in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. She was awarded twice the WBG President’s Awards of Excellence for Innovation.

Marie-Ange is a French and Ivorian national. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Economics from the French Business School ESSEC. She is fluent in English, French and Portuguese.