Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD

Recipient of the 2011 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award

he recipient of the 2011 Jimmy and Rosalynn risk is at the core of Dr. Tedros’ mission. Backed by his gov- Carter Humanitarian Award, Tedros Adhanom ernment’s commitment to improving health outcomes, T Ghebreyesus, is the Minister of Health of the Minister Tedros has lead the implementation of an ‘inte- Federal Republic of . A pioneer in grated health system strengthening approach’ to health de- research, Dr. Tedros has devoted his life to public livery—an approach which recognizes the indispensability service and scientiDc research. Prior to his appointment as of a robust and well-functioning national health system for Health Minister in 2005, Dr. Tedros served in a number of scaling up access to health services. His leadership has con- expert and leadership positions within the Ministry at both tributed to major gains made towards achieving the goal of federal and regional levels including as Minister of State and providing universal access to primary health care. Ais effort Head of the Tigray Regional Health Bureau. is being driven by Ethiopia’s community-based health ex- Dr. Tedros is recognized for his leadership in the rapidly tension program (HEP), which is viewed as the bedrock of evolving Deld of global health, and has worked to enhance Ethiopia’s decentralized health system. HEP provides a pair Ethiopia’s active engagement in major international fo- of full-time, salaried civil service staffers to work with com- rums. He has been serving as the Board Chair of the Global munities and help deliver a package of health promotion Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria since July and disease prevention interventions. To date, the program 2009 and has also been representing Ethiopia as the Chair has trained and deployed over 34,000 community-based of the Fourth Conference of Ministers of Health of the health extension workers throughout the country—almost (CAMH4) since May 2009. At the national doubling Ethiopia’s health workforce in a maFer of a few level, he also serves on a number of leading advisory bod- years. Ae institutionalization of this program is viewed as ies, including as Board Chair of the Univer- key to its early success and long-term sustainability. sity. Arough all his appointments and activities, he has kept Ae results so far have been impressive. Dramatic gains his eye on the prize: Bringing about a real and lasting im- have been made in controlling malaria. Defeating malaria, provement in the health conditions of his own country. Dr. Tedros said, “is one of Ethiopia’s top health priorities... “In his Dve years as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health,” says Ethiopia is addressing malaria through social mobilization.” Dr. John Hardman, President and CEO of Ae Carter Cen- In 2005, Minister Tedros spearheaded Ethiopia’s overarch- ter, Dr. Tedros “has embarked on an ambitious effort to im- ing goal of universal bednet coverage across the country. prove the health of Ethiopians through efforts to address Ae target to distribute 20 million long-lasting insecticide speciDc diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, and to im- bednets (LLINs)—designed to provide protection for an es- prove the structure and capacity of Ethiopia for health serv- timated 50 million persons at risk of malaria—was achieved ices, with a special emphasis on maternal care.” Building a by July 2007. “Ais was,” Dr. Hardman says, “one of the strong national health system and protecting Ethiopians at most ambitious and successful efforts in public health his- tory.” To accomplish the monumental task, Ethiopia’s top priorities over the coming Dr. Tedros convinced one group of organ- years. Efforts are currently being stepped izations to provide the enormous number up to build on the gains in child health by of LLINs and another group to carry out the strengthening community-based manage- complex job of distributing the nets and ment of common childhood illnesses, in- evaluating their efficacy. He also saw to it cluding pneumonia, expanding im- that his own government provided the re- munization, and strengthening newborn sources. Because of his efforts, Ethiopia care capacities at all levels. Dr. Tedros ac- moved from 6% LLIN coverage in 2005— knowledges that achieving maternal health to nearly 70% coverage in 2008. targets is a big challenge. But he is also op- HIV-related deaths and cases have also timistic about the renewed efforts that he been on the decline. Under Minister has been leading building a ‘women-cen- Tedros’ stewardship, Ae Carter Center tered’ health system which empowers notes that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS women and mothers to look aEer their among Ethiopia’s adult population has health and that of their families. fallen from 6.6% in 2002 to 2.3% in 2009. His active engagement in health gover- And over the same period, access to anti- nance at the international level has also retroviral therapy has been expanded from helped to strengthen partnerships with a a few thousand to hundreds of thousands. diverse array of bilateral and multilateral With a combination of interventions, agencies, international non-governmental under-Dve and maternal mortality have organizations and private foundations at also dropped signiDcantly. “Indeed, we country-level. In addition to his current believe that the vast potential of our health global health leadership roles, Dr. Tedros extension program remains largely un- previously represented Ethiopia in a num- tapped,’’ says Minister Tedros. ‘‘With ber of other leading international forums, stronger support and the right tools at their including as Chair of the Roll Back Malaria disposal, the prospects of what these Partnership (RBM) until May, 2009 and as ‘agents of change’ can achieve along with Chair of the UNAIDS Programme Coordi- their communities has greatly motivated… all in our pub- nation Board (PCB) from January to December, 2009. In lic health sector.” According to Dr. R.J. Simonds, Acting Di- addition, he was also Co-Chair of the Partnership for Ma- rector of the Center for Global Health at the Centers for ternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) from 2005 un- Disease Control and Prevention, the successful implemen- til December, 2009. In 2009, he also served as a member of tation of the training program is a credit to Dr. Tedros’ “vi- the High-Level Task Force for Innovative Financing for sion and foresight, and evidence of his determination to en- Health Systems, co-chaired by World Bank President sure Ethiopians and others in the region live healthier and and UK Prime Minister . longer lives.” He has also served as member of the Global Alliance for Meeting the ’ Millennium Development Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) Board as well as the In- Goals targets, particularly for maternal and child health, are stitute of Health Metrics and Evaluation Board. Science and medicine fascinated Tedros Adhanom Ghe- grams to produce more than 5,000 new graduates who will breyesus for a long time. As a college student at Uni- oversee more than 5,000 centers. Ais versity, he majored in biology. He graduated in 1986 and ambitious project demanded a complete restructuring of went on to receive a Master of Science degree in Immunol- the country’s health curriculum for non-physician training ogy of Infectious Diseases at the in and a renewed focus on community service. 1992 and a PhD in Community Health at the University of While he is always clear about his country’s most press- NoFingham in 2000. He has provided the global scientiDc ing public health problems, Dr. Tedros has also been sup- community with valuable malaria research and has pub- porting the control and elimination of neglected tropical dis- lished articles on his Dndings in publications such as the An- eases. One of the most noteworthy programs which has nals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Nature and Par- beneDFed from his support, says Ae Carter Center’s Dr. asitologia, and Ae Lancet. In a 1999 issue of the British Hardman, is the Guinea Worm Eradication Program and the Medical Journal Dr. Tedros published a major study of Trachoma Control Program that is designed to eliminate malaria incidence among young people residing near dams blinding trachoma. Under Dr. Tedros’ leadership treatments in northern Ethiopia. For that work he was named Young for trachoma have proliferated—from 1.7 million in 2005 to Investigator of the Year by the American Society of Tropi- more than 13 million annually. And more than 1 million la- cal Medicine and Hygiene. In 2003, he was also named trines have been built in the Amhara regional state alone. Young Public Health Researcher in 2003 by the Ethiopian So what does such a busy Health Minister do for leisure? Public Health Association. ‘‘I try to spend the liFle spare time I have with my family,” Asked about challenges for the future, Dr. Tedros said, says Dr. Tedros, who is married and has four sons and one “Aere are a number of challenges but we are stepping up daughter. “But of course, given the demands of my work our efforts to meet them.” He reiterated that the commu- they always complain that the time I spend with them is not nity-based health extension workers are making great enough.” An avid reader, Dr. Tedros says he also enjoys strides in educating Ethiopians about healthy living. “Aen,” reading all sorts of books in his free time, and tries to keep he said “there is the challenge of implementing our newly- abreast of current affairs and “...developments in all spheres designed public health management systems. We have de- of our world. My ultimate dream is to see our beloved signed a new early warning and surveillance system to de- Ethiopia become a healthy and prosperous country. I hope tect epidemics as early as possible. We are also revamping very much to see this within my lifetime. I truly believe there our health information management system to ensure are no limits to what we can achieve for our country if we all timely and accurate reporting of essential data at all levels. resolve to work together.” We have streamlined our health commodities supply chain “Minister Tedros has brought to his job enthusiasm and logistics management systems and initiated several born of personal experience working on public health pro- measures to strengthen our health workforce. Clearly, im- grams in the Deld, a technical knowledge of many diseases plementation of these newly redesigned systems will take and their transmission, vision and leadership and a com- time, but we have begun work in earnest and are conDdent mitment to serve the people of Ethiopia,” says Dr. Hard- that it can be done.” man. “Any one of these alone would warrant accolades, but He also has put into place a program to train students in the long-term impact of these in combination has the po- public health emergency management. According to Ae tential to transform Ethiopia and to present a model of lead- Carter Center, Dr. Tedros has accelerated training pro- ership, courage and devotion to health for all in Africa.”