Dr. ANARFI ASAMOA- BAAH - Deputy Director-General, World Health Organization.

Source: Ben Boateng/yourghana.com
Click for Full Image Size
Dr. ANARFI ASAMOA- BAAH - Deputy Director-General, World Health Organization

Dr. ANARFI ASAMOA- BAAH - Deputy Director-General, World Health Organization. Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, from Ghana, was appointed as WHO Deputy Director-General in January 2007. Dr Asamoa-Baah is a medical doctor with specialization in public health, with postgraduate degrees in health economics, and in health policy and planning, from the UK and USA respectively.

He started his career as medical administrator of a 180 bed district hospital, and then as Primary Health Care Coordinator for the Catholic Church in Ghana. Dr Asamoa-Baah rapidly rose through the ranks of the Ghanaian Health Services, from District Medical Officer; Provincial Director of Health Services; Director for Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Health, and the Director-General of Health Services in Ghana.

Dr Asamoa-Baah was instrumental in developing health sector reforms in Ghana and in establishing the Ghana Health Service. He was also a pioneer of the sector wide approach process to health development. Between 1988 and 1998 Dr Asamoa-Baah served as a WHO Consultant on Primary Health Care and health systems strengthening. He also served as a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), and on the Expert Committee of the Expanded Programme on Immunization.

Dr Asamoa-Baah started at the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998, as Senior Policy Adviser to Dr Brundtland, Director-General, having served as Co-Chair of Dr Brundtland's Transition Team. From 2000-2002 he was appointed as Executive Director for External Relations and Governing Bodies. His responsibilities included managing the Secretariat of the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board, strengthening donor and partner relationships, resource mobilization, and coordinating WHO's country work.

From 2002-2003 Dr Asamoa-Baah served as Executive Director for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals (HTP), which covered WHO's work on immunization, including polio, medicines, blood transfusion, diagnostics and laboratory technology, transplantation and essential surgical care. From 2003-2005 Dr Asamoa-Baah served as Assistant Director-General of Communicable Diseases, responsible for the revision and subsequent adoption of the International Health Regulations, strengthening of epidemic alert and response, and the neglected tropical infectious diseases.Dr Asamoa-Baah was also Coordinator of the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.

From 2005 - December 2006, Dr Asamoa-Baah was Assistant Director-General, for the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria programme. He guided the three departments and partnerships on strategy formulation to achieve universal access to high quality health care and treatment. In his present position as WHO Deputy Director-General, Dr Asamoa-Baah leads the formulation of specific strategies and advises programmes on WHO policies and operations. In the capacity of Deputy Director-General, he is also Co-Chair of the WHO Global Task Force on Primary Health Care.

Education
MB ChB, Ghana Medical School (1983)
MCommH, Liverpool Tropical School (1989)
Health Planning, University of Keele, UK (1990)
DHEcons. (Health Economics), Aberdeen University (1991)

Diploma in Health Policy, University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA (1992)