Flavia Bustreo

Dr. Flavia Bustreo is a leading physician, public health professional and advocate for the health and human rights of women, children, adolescents and the elderly, and is known for taking action on the social and environmental determinants of health. She is currently Chair of the Governance and Ethics Committee, at the Partnership of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) and Co-Chair of The Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People and Chair of the United Nations University’s International Institute for Global Health International Advisory Board. Dr Bustreo is also the Vice Chair of Fondation Botnar and member of the distinguished group, GWL Voices. Dr. Bustreo is a member of several other boards, and advises several governmental and non-governmental entities, such as the Global Future Council on Health and Healthcare of the World Economic Forum. Dr. Bustreo was Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2010 to 2017 and also served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, from 2015 to 2017. At WHO she led the organisation’s work in reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health, climate change, ageing, vaccinations, health and human rights, health and gender equity. Previously, she was the Executive Director of PMNCH, and served in a variety of roles at WHO and UNICEF. Dr. Bustreo also worked for seven years at the World Bank, where she managed the WHO-World Bank partnership concerning child health. This included formulating policy, influencing the allocation of resources at country level through lending instruments, and producing joint publications. Dr Bustreo is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in leading medical journals such as The Lancet and the British Medical Journal and a frequent commentator in the media on public health issues and international issues concerning women and children. For her scholarly work on the right to health, she received an honorary degree from Essex University. She has been the keynote speaker at several academic conferences and lectured at Cambridge University, Harvard School of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Universita’ La Sapienza, Rome, Padua University, University of Makeni, Sierra Leone, and many other universities.