The Partnership announces new Director
7 AUGUST 2009 \ GENEVA - The Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) has officially announced its new Director to be Dr Flavia Bustreo. Dr Bustreo has worked as Deputy Director of The Partnership since January 2006, and acting as the Head of the Secretariat since February 2009.
The announcement was made by Joy Phumaphi, chair of the PMNCH Board, in a letter to Board members: “It gives me great pleasure to share the auspicious news that Dr Flavia Bustreo has been officially appointed as Director of the Secretariat, as of 14 July 2009. This appointment follows our formal Board request to World Health Organization (WHO) following our discussion at the February Board meeting.” Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization - the member organization which hosts the Partnership Secretariat – made the announcement to the WHO on 29 July 2009.
In her letter, Mrs Phumaphi congratulates and praises Dr Bustreo’ dedication to The Partnership: “Flavia has consistently demonstrated extraordinary capacity and commitment in fulfilling her responsibilities both as Deputy Director and acting head of the Secretariat. Throughout the Partnership’s restructuring and transition process of 2008, and its new rollout in February 2009, she has been highlight responsive effective, and professional, and has played a key role in managing, supervising and motivating the Secretariat staff as well as engaging effectively with Board members and a range of critical partners.
“I know that you will join me in congratulating Flavia on her well-deserved appointment, and in saying that we look forward to continuing to work closely with her in carrying out PMNCH’s ambitious strategy and work-plan,” said Mrs Phumaphi.
An Italian-born physician whose career has spanned two decades, Dr Bustreo’s work in international health has focused on diseases affecting the poor and the disadvantaged. She worked in Italy with local NGOs with refugees from the former Yugoslavia and Iraqi children in the aftermath of the Gulf War. Dr Bustreo went on to assignments at the World Bank, Norway and in country and regional offices of the World Health Organization (WHO) including in Sudan, Senegal, Bangladesh, Copenhagen and WHO headquarters, Geneva. Dr Bustreo has been involved in key taskforces on global health, including the recent High Level Taskforce on International Innovative Financing for Health Systems launched at the United Nation (UN) General Assembly 2008, and the 2005 UN Taskforce on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 to reduce maternal and child mortality. A well-published scholar in the field of child survival, she has also been instrumental in the development of the monitoring and tracking initiative for MDGs 4 & 5: the Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival.