Nairobi, Kenya. July 5, 2024 – Africa Public Health Foundation (APHF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Francisco Songane as its interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) starting July 1, 2024.
Dr. Songane has over 40 years of extensive experience in Health. He is not new to APHF as he was previously an Interim CEO between January 2021 – May 2023, where he played a critical role in setting up the Foundation’s structures, and in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in support of Africa CDC. He is also a Governing Council member who has been involved in the strategic support of the Foundation.
Dr. Songane is a former minister of Health of Mozambique (2000-2004), has had an extensive involvement in the international community that has included serving as Executive Committee member and board member of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. He was also a member of Task Force 4 of the UN Millennium Project (2002-2004), analysing the practicalities of achieving the goals related to maternal and child health, a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the International Vaccine Institute, and served in several Advisory Committees.
He was the Founding Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health hosted at WHO, and later Chair of the Forum 2012 on Research for Health organized by the Council on Health Research for Development, where he served as senior Health Advisor. Further, he was UNICEF Representative in Angola from July 2013 to October 2016 where he was directly involved in the efforts to tackle a major yellow fever epidemic, the worst in the last decade that became a global public health threat. Since April 2020, he is member of the council of the Africa Public Health Foundation, a foundation set up to mobilize resources for Africa CDC.
Dr. Songane trained as a medical doctor and obstetrician/gynaecologist at the Eduardo Mondlane University and Maputo Central Hospital in Maputo, Mozambique as well as at St. James University Hospital in Leeds, England. He has a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University and Master of Science in Financial Economics from the University of London, England. He is married and has three children.
The Governing Council led by the Chair Dr. Bernard Haufiku, welcomes Dr. Songane and looks forward to working with him to achieve the Foundation’s mission of investing in Africa’s Health. Dr. Haufiku stated, “Dr. Songane was the right person to be interim CEO as we embark on the recruitment process of a permanent CEO after the departure of Dr. Ebere Okereke.”
Note to the Editors
About the Africa Public Health Foundation
The Africa Public Health Foundation exists to forge partnerships and mobilise resources to support critical public health initiatives across the continent, in support of Africa CDC. Established in September 2019, APHF is mobilising flexible funds to accelerate the Africa CDC-led COVID-19 response and the initiatives that will follow, with the aim of strengthening public health systems. For more information and to sign up for APHF’s newsletter, please visit http://www.aphf.africa.
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For Africa Public Health Foundation
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