World Vision International
Dr Stefan Germann
Director World Vision International Global Health Partnership & Health Research unit
Zimbabwe-born Stefan Germann leads World Vision International Global Health Partnerships & Health Research unit based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Stefan has over 15 years experience in child health related development, relief and advocacy work in Africa, working in various health leadership roles with a number of different agencies. His work includes management of a large rural hospital in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, which included establishing and managing a midwifery training school. He also worked at regional level in East & Southern Africa in the support of an expanded response to children and AIDS.
In 2005 he joined World Vision International’s emergency relief team as the director for the integrated technical sector teams in the Asia Tsunami response which included major health components. Throughout 2010 Stefan played an active role in the development and related consultation process for the UN SG Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health. He holds a number of board and advisory board memberships and currently is the civil society representative on the Advisory Board of the Global Health Program at The Graduate Institute, Geneva, focusing on the role of NGOs in global health diplomacy.
He has been actively involved in PMNCH for a number of years, especially most recently in relation to the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health, CSO/MNCH-related accountability issues and has worked to second a MNCH policy person from Vision to the Inter-Parliamentary Union to enhance parliamentary support for MNCH in a number of key countries.
For Stefan, engagement in MNCH is not only professional, but driven by his personal experience: he credits the lives of two children and wife to the effective emergency obstetric care received during their deliveries in Zimbabwe.