“You wouldn’t have strong preparedness if you do not have a stronger health system. In order to strengthen preparedness, it implies you have to have a long‑term investment.”
– Dick Chamla
Emergency Preparedness Lead, Emergency Hub Coordinator, Nairobi, WHO Africa Regional Office
Dr. Dick Chamla leads the Emergency Preparedness portfolio and coordinates the Emergency Hub in the WHO AFRO region, managing investments and strengthening capacities among member states for the implementation of and compliance with the International Health Regulations (IHR). He also provides oversight to the teams responsible for predicting the risk of high-threat pathogens, assessing countries’ readiness capacities, researching innovations for medical countermeasures, and implementing regional frameworks for the elimination of cholera, yellow fever, and meningitis. He is currently leading WHO AFRO engagement in the Pandemic Treaty negotiations under the Inter-governmental Negotiation Body (INB), providing strategic support to the Africa Group and Egypt. Dr. Chamla is highly experienced in both development and complex emergencies, with a career dating back 27 years. He started with the Red Cross refugee program in western Tanzania, and has worked in conflict-affected northern Uganda, Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan. More recently, he led the WHO response to the largest cholera outbreak in Malawi and the Marburg outbreak in Tanzania. His expertise in health systems and recovery is anchored in advancing primary health care and optimizing opportunities presented by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to achieve health security and universal health coverage (UHC). Prior to his current role at WHO AFRO, Dr. Chamla has run large health programs at UNICEF in New York and Afghanistan, WHO in Geneva, Uganda, and IST/Harare, Medecins du Monde in China, New South Wales Health in Australia, and the Red Cross in Tanzania.
Director, Harvard Global Health Institute; Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health; David Bangsberg MD, MPH Endowed Chair in Global Health Equity, Mass General Hospital; Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Dr. Louise C. Ivers, MD, MPH, DTM&H is the Faculty Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and the Executive Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Global Health. Dr. Ivers is also the David Bangsberg Endowed Chair in Global Health Equity at MGH and a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Ivers has spent her career providing care to the rural and urban poor and engaging in patient-oriented investigation that offer solutions to barriers to healthcare. She works on the design, implementation, and evaluation of large-scale public health programs in resource-limited settings with the goal of achieving health equity. She has worked on healthcare delivery in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa. From 2003-2017, Dr. Ivers served in various leadership roles for Partners in Health, including Clinical Director, Chief of mission, and Director of strategic implementation. In addition to expanding access to healthcare for the poor, Dr. Ivers has contributed to published research articles on HIV/AIDS, food insecurity, and cholera treatment and prevention and is involved in global policy and advocacy.
At the 2026 Global Health Symposium, hosted by the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) on April 16, policymakers, practitioners, academics, and students gathered around a central idea: achieving global health equity in an age of scarcity requires moving from fragmented systems to shared responsibility.
