Professor Don de Savigny

Professor de Savigny, an epidemiologist and public health specialist, is currently Emeritus Professor of Health Systems and Policy Research at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland. He is also an Honorary Professor and former Heath Clark Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He has extensive experience conducting and facilitating health research in low-income countries, having lived and worked in Africa for many years, most recently as the lead research facilitator for the Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Program (TEHIP) at the Ministry of Health in Tanzania. Between 1988 and 1996, he was Principal Health Specialist for the International Development Research Center, Canada. Before that, he was the Head of the Swiss Tropical Institute Field Laboratory in Tanzania (now the Ifakara Health Institute) and a senior scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Health Laboratory Services Branch.

Prof de Savigny has served on a number of advisory panels, including as Chair of the WHO Health Metrics Network Technical Advisory Group, Chair of the WHO Roll Back Malaria Working Group on Scalable Malaria Vector Control, Chair of the WHO/WB/UNDP TDR Scientific Advisory Committee for Evidence for Anti-malarial Policy and Access, and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the INDEPTH Network of Demographic and Health Observatories, the WHO African Malaria Expert Committee, the Board of Directors for HealthBridge Canada, and the Council for Health Research for Development.

Prof. de Savigny’s current research focuses on systems approaches to strengthen Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Africa, as well as the health system effects of Global Health Initiatives.