International Working Group for Health Systems Strengthening

IWG Board Members

Benjamin Azariah Mosiwa | Africas Regional Representative

Benjamin Azariah Mosiwa is passionate about achieving health equity through improved financing and digitization of Primary Health Care in Africa. A holder of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Malawi and a MSc in Global Health Policy from the University of Edinburgh, Azariah has devoted himself to improving access, quality and cost of health services among underserved populations in Africa, through generating quality health equity evidence and advocating for better policies that minimize barriers to accessing needed health services. Azariah is a Board Member for the IWG in the African Region, and works to advance the vision of the organization through evidence-based advocacy as well as knowledge sharing as part of inspiring upcoming public health specialists to strive to solve practical health system problems across Africa.

Ramonde Patientia | Africas Regional Representative

Ramonde is a lifelong learner keenly interested in global health equity, health literacy and translational research. She’s been privileged to have worked in clinical research, public, and also private health sectors in South Africa and abroad, in paediatrics and child health, family medicine, and infectious diseases. She holds an MBChB from University of Cape Town (UCT), and Diploma in Child Health (College of Medicine, South Africa) as early qualifications. She was a founder member of a NPO involved in the clinical development of novel medications (bedaquiline, delamanid, pretomanid) and vaccines for infectious diseases, especially multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB). These medications now form the backbone of MDR and XDR regimens globally. She embarked on a journey to fulfill her love for global health and health systems stregnthening after completing Masters In Health Innovation in 2019, which focussed on digital technologies for adolescent health promotion in LMIC’s. Ramonde is currently engaged in her first year of Public Health (Epidemiology/Biostatistics) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She works part-time at the Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (CIDER) affiliated to the School of Public Health (UCT), where she is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and epidemiological research database support.

Lauren Tejkl | Americas Regional Representative

Lauren Tejkl is a founding member of IWG and current Board Member. She was the first Regional Director for AMR and continues to support active members. Her interests lie largely in how national policies can adapt to better serve all people, particularly displaced and migrant populations.

Amit Malik | Americas Regional Representative

Muna Abdelmoniem Mohamed Osman | Eastern Mediterranean Regional Representative

Dr. Muna Abdelmoniem Mohamed Osman is a senior Public Health consultant passionate about Healthcare Quality Improvement, Infection Prevention and Control, Reproductive Health, and Saving maternal and child lives. She is working for the Federal Ministry of Health/ National Reproductive Health Program/ Republic of the Sudan as senior consultant and she is responsible for the department of EmONC (Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care). She is an associate professor in Ahfad University for Women and Ibn Sina University in the Community Medicine department. She has worked for more than 10 years in the Sudan Ministry of Health in the field of public health, also worked in Saudi Arabia as a resident doctor / primary health care centers for 5 years. She strives to advance her professional competence and gain more experience in the field of work, and to do her best effort to improve her skills, knowledge and practical experiences to reach the best positions and the highest levels.

Fatima Sala | Eastern Mediterranean Regional Representative

Fatima is a Board Member (EMR) of the International Working Group for Health Systems Strengthening (IWG). She currently works as a data analyst for public-private partnerships at the Saudi Ministry of Health. Her interests lie in cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach to understanding complex, highly integrated systems.

Laura Haywood | European Regional Representative

Laura Haywood is a Public Health Specialist Registrar and medical doctor. She is a founding member and Board Member (EUR) of the International Working Group for Health Systems Strengthening (IWG). She is passionate about creativity, complex problem solving, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Joy Muhia | European Regional Representative

Joy Muhia is a global mental health professional, a Medical Psychologist & the Mental Health Innovation Network coordinator. She is also a Board Member (EUR) of the International Working Group for Health Systems Strengthening (IWG). Her research interests lie in strengthening mental health systems and policy to ensure equitable and quality access to mental health care.

Sudipta Ghoshal | South East Asia Regional Representative

Rachit Negi | South East Asia Regional Representative

Dr. Rachit Negi is a trained public health professional from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. Although his bachelor is in dentistry, he always has an aspiration to study and work in the public health arena. He did clinical practice before inflowing the world of public health and explore his interests in research, health promotion, advocacy. He strongly believes there is a huge gap in addressing public health issues in India and he wants to syndicate his interest and skillsets to create a difference in the public health ecosystem. With experience in TB from last couple of years with CHRI-PATH India Affiliate as State Lead for Uttarakhand , he has also worked in TBPPM space and identified the need of this collaboration to scale up the work towards TB elimination by 2025.  Dr Rachit also has experience working with international donors (The World Bank, USAID, GAVI, GFATM, CRS), he has identified his key strengths in research, stakeholder engagement , communication design, program management, and networking.

Sarah Guinto | Western Pacific Regional Representative

Kathleen Nicole Uy | Western Pacific Regional Representative

Nicole is a public health professional with profound experience in the monitoring and evaluation of public health programs and the implementation of private sector engagement or public-private mix strategies for tuberculosis in the Philippines. Her portfolio also expands to health economics, health policy, and implementation science. She’s passionate about making healthcare accessible, affordable, and sustainable through innovation. Nicole is also learning to code with R and Python for her love of working with data and exploring its applications in infectious disease modeling, social protection, and building healthy cities! She’s currently a graduate student at the University of the Philippines Manila College of Public Health under the Master of Arts in Health Policy Studies program. When not in class, Nicole spends her weekends spinning (cycling), traveling, or volunteering at JCI.

Malvikha Manoj | Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director

Malvikha Manoj is a health systems and policy practitioner, with a special focus on youth mental health and leadership. She is a lived experience advocate for mental health action. Additionally, she is a co-founder and co-Executive Director of the International Working Group for Health Systems Strengthening (IWG). Currently, she works as a Consultant at UNICEF’s MENA Regional Office and at HQ, supporting the child and adolescent mental health and data advocacy portfolio, as well as the cross-cutting nature of mental health across Child Protection, Health, and other sectors. Malvikha’s work is guided by the philosophy that power and privilege are critical lenses for understanding health system challenges and opportunities; and that without strong leadership, committed action, equitable policies, and cross-sectoral systems strengthening, it is difficult to push the needle forward to create health systems that work for all.

Bettina Buabeng-Baidoo | Co-Executive Director

Dr Bettina Buabeng-Baidoo is a medical doctor, debate coach, motivational speaker, and author. In 2020, she graduated from the University of Pretoria with distinction and as the top Family Medicine student. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public health at the University of Cape Town on the prestigious Mandela-Rhodes scholarship. Dr. Buabeng-Baidoo believes that the transformation of African health systems is essential for addressing socioeconomic disparity. She believes that access to quality health care is fundamental to the human right to dignity and is  particularly concerned with improving the accessibility and quality of mental health services in Africa. She will serve as co-executive director of the International Working Group for Health System Strengthening from 2022 to 2024. She has won the South African National University Debating Championships and the South African National Schools Debating Championships in the past. She was the head coach of the South African National Schools Debating Team from 2018 to 2019. She is the co-founder and editor of the Social Justice Stories series, a collection of short stories written by high school students in South Africa. Through her work with the SA debating board, she hopes to use debating as a mechanism to inspire a love for knowledge, critical thinking, and social advocacy amongst the youth.