Prof. Don de Savigny

Head of the Health Systems Interventions Unit

Swiss Tropical & Public Health, Switzerland

Health Systems

Professor de Savigny is an epidemiologist and public health specialist. He is currently Head of the Health Systems Interventions Unit in the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical Institute, University of Basel. He is also an Honorary Professor and former Heath Clark Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has extensive experience in conducting and facilitating health research in developing countries and has lived and worked for many years in Africa, most recently as lead facilitator for the Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Program (TEHIP) for the Ministry of Health in Tanzania. Between 1988 and 1996 he was Principal Health Specialist for the International Development Research Centre, Canada. Prior to that, he was the Head of the Swiss Tropical Institute Field Laboratory in Tanzania (now the Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre). He currently sits on a number of advisory panels including Chair of the Health Metrics Network Technical Advisory Group, Chair of the WHO Roll Back Malaria Working Group on Scalable Malaria Vector Control, the Scientific Advisory Committee for the INDEPTH Network of Demographic and Health Observatories, the WHO African Malaria Expert Committee, the Gates Malaria Partnership, and the Council for Health Research for Development. His current research focuses on interventions to strengthen health systems in developing countries, and on the health system effects of Global Health Initiatives for scaling up access.