Francis Ohanyido
Dr. Francis Ohanyido is a physician and current National NTD Advisor/Representative (Head of Mission equivalent, Nigeria) of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, an initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute Washington, DC. He is also notably a Senior Fellow the West African Academy of Public Health (WAAPH), a major research, training and implementation organization, and Board Member of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, Nigeria. Close to two decades, Ohanyido has worked with diverse international organizations like the UNHCR, UNICEF, and WHO across Africa, as well as USAID flagship RMNCH and Policy projects in Nigeria. He worked with UNHCR in Liberian humanitarian setting. He has at various times served as a Technical Advisor to the Senate Committee on Health in Nigeria and also Senior Technical Consultant to the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, and was a member of the coalition that successfully supported Nigerian government to midwife the National Health Act until its passage in 2014. He served as high-level liaison to The Presidency/National Planning Commission for Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) programme with funding from Save the Children Nigeria, and advocated for nutrition desk officers in some of the line ministries in Nigeria. More recently, he served as the National Pneumonia Coordinator in Nigeria, funded by USAID Nigeria and implemented by John Snow Inc. (JSI) in collaboration with UNICEF, under the auspices United Nations Commission for Lifesaving Commodities for women and children (UNCoLSC). He was notable for working with NAFDAC and US Pharmacopoeia and other partners to successfully market-shape for local production of dispersible Amoxicillin tablets for childhood pneumonia, as well as Chlorhexidine. He has a medical degree from University of Jos, postgraduate training in public health, ICT and management. He is a fellow of both the Royal Society for Public Health (UK) and the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (UK), Senior Fellow of the Academy of Learning Nigeria and alumnus of TH Chan Harvard School of Public Health’s flagship health outcome research course. He is a martial artist, poet and strong advocate for African leadership Renaissance.