Joy Phumaphi

Joy Phumaphi is executive secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, an alliance of 49 African Heads of State and Government. In this position, she has overseen the introduction of an accountability and action mechanism, for malaria, Women’s and child health across the African continent. She has served as a member of the UN secretary general’s High-Level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crises, chaired the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, and co-chaired the Independent Expert Review Group for Every Woman Every Child, reporting to the UN secretary general on developing-country-level progress on women’s and children’s health. She was a member of the UN Reference Group on Economics and a UN Commissioner on HIV/AIDS and Governance.

She served the People of Botswana as Principal Local Government Auditor and subsequently as a Member of Parliament holding portfolio responsibility in the cabinet, first for Lands and Housing, where she introduced the country’s first housing policy requiring that local authorities house all destitute; and then for Health, where she introduced the first public sector universal ARV program in the developing world. She later joined the World Health Organization as the Assistant Director General for Family and Community Health and was responsible for the 2005 World Health Report, “Making Every Mother and Every Child Count”. She has also served as Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank where she oversaw a dramatic expansion of the network evaluation program.

Ms. Phumaphi sits on the Board of several international organizations, is an advisor to a number of global health initiatives as well as been a key player with pioneering health initiatives including IFFIM, AMC and the independent accountability group for EWEC.