Jite Phido is a senior program manager on the scaling innovations team at Results for Development (R4D), where she manages the equity and inclusion, and systems innovation thematic areas at R4D’s International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) secretariat. She additionally manages IDIA’s global innovation advisors program, a network of technical experts, thought-leaders, entrepreneurs and system disruptors from low- and middle-income countries who share IDIA’s priorities and objectives, and use their expertise and experience to improve IDIA’s work.

Throughout her career, Jite has focused on participatory approaches to development that leverage community participation and inclusion. She has designed media interventions that have reached over 25 million Nigerians across the country in six languages. Her multimedia policy research on the role of community health workers in driving equitable health access for the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale project won an award from the Development Research and Projects Center in Nigeria. As a bridge fellow with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Jite was seconded as the technical assistant to the Women Affairs Thematic Working Group, supporting the federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development’s work mainstreaming gender equity and social inclusion in health, education, livelihoods and governance, into the federal government of Nigeria Medium Term National Development Plan (2021-2025), a historical first for a Nigerian national plan.

Prior to joining R4D, Jite was an Atlantic fellow for social and economic equity based at the London School of Economics’ International Inequalities Institute, where her focus of study was on gender equity and dominant media narratives and discourses around how marginalized people make claims and challenge power for a more just world. Before that, she was the program director at ARDA Development Communication Inc, a leading development communication non-profit based in Lagos, Nigeria, where she worked with local and international donors, partners, clients, government agents, civil society, and communities to design and produce radio programs, videos, distance learning toolkits, participatory theatre productions, print IECs, IVR solutions, and mobile applications that addressed Nigeria’s endemic inequalities through advocacy and by targeting barriers to systems change and increasing access to information, services, networks, and social inclusion.

Ms. Phido holds an M.Sc. in inequalities and social science from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MPH in global maternal and child health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a B.A. in biology with a minor concentration in French from Clark University.

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As a senior program officer at Results for Development (R4D) Ethiopia office, he provides technical leadership and program management to the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator project. He contributes to strategy, project management, and analytic activities to support the government of Ethiopia to sustainably finance their health systems and accelerate improvements in coverage, quality, and equity of rehabilitation services.

Throughout his career, Dr. Fitsume has focused on expanding and institutionalizing health care quality through systems thinking. As a senior health care quality advisor at Ministry of Health of Ethiopia, he championed systems thinking and knowledge management. He contributed to the design and development of Ethiopia’s Health Sector Transformation Plan and led the design and development of National Health Care Quality and Safety Strategy.

Dr. Fitsume holds an MD from Jimma University and a master’s in public health from Haromaya University. He is fellow at the International Society of Quality (ISQUa). He is native speaker of Amharic and Afaan Oromo and speaks fluent English.

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At R4D, Ms. Alphs provided technical support to the team in Tanzania and led work in Kenya for the Increasing Access to Life-Saving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Medicines. She also supported the design and successful implementation of the Tanzania pilot for the Transparency for Development Project.

Previously, Ms. Alphs worked with the Healthcare Research Team at the William Davidson Institute (WDI) managing a portfolio of projects related to improving access to essential medicines and health technologies in low-income countries. She provided technical, analytical and operational guidance on projects commissioned by various donors including the Gates Foundation, UNITAID, and USAID. Prior to her work with WDI, Ms. Alphs worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Tanzania where she managed the pediatric HIV program. There, she worked closely with the Ministry of Health to pilot innovative technologies to improve access to quality care and also to integrate new HIV/AIDS related commodities into the existing national supply chain system.

Ms. Alphs holds a BA and MPH from the University of Michigan. She currently lives in Tanzania and speaks basic Kiswahili.

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In his role as program director at Results for Development (R4D), Dr. Thio leads USAID’s health financing activity focusing on strengthening tuberculosis and maternal-child health through strategic purchasing in Indonesia.

Prior to joining R4D, Dr. Thio led UNICEF’s field office in Indonesia. In this role, he was responsible for ensuring sustainability and scale-up of UNICEF’s programs. He managed a district hospital and a primary health center and served as head of health services and health planning at two district health offices and headed managed care services at a provincial health office.  He coached and worked on capacity-building with provincial health office staff on quality assurance for HIV, STI and TB services. He also mentored provincial health staff.

Most recently, Dr. Thio served as a consultant to the World Bank on health security policy and disaster financing in Indonesia. He helped draft the Bank’s recent health security financing country report, communicating the importance of tracking government expenditures on health security. He is a member of the Association of Health Offices (ADINKES) in Indonesia.

Dr. Thio has traveled extensively to study the health systems of Australia, Israel, and the United States. He has an undergraduate degree in dentistry and a master’s in public policy and management from USC. He has initiated studies for a PhD in health economics.

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At Results for Development (R4D), Ms. Mmbaga is a program officer at R4D’s Tanzania office. As part of the market shaping team, she works on scaling-up access to pneumonia treatment for children. Her roles include supporting the development and operationalization of project work plans, development of qualitative and quantitative analytics, managing relationships with key partners including the public and private sectors, donor agencies and foundations.

In previous positions working on projects for JSI and USAID, Ms. Mmbaga provided technical assistance to the ministry of health in Tanzania. Her work there involved innovation and implementation of systems including: the integrated logistics system (ILS), ARV logistics, TB logistics system and the electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS). At the ministry of health in Tanzania, she coordinated supply chain activities, supply chain capacity-building, and supported efforts to improve health commodities availability and increase the visibility and use of data for decision-making.

Ms. Mmbaga holds a master’s degree in pharmaceutical science from Zaporozhe State Medical University in the Ukraine. She is a native speaker of Swahili and speaks fluent English and Russian.

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Mr. Faris is a senior market shaping specialist at Results for Development (R4D), where he provides technical assistance to the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSA). Mr. Faris provides assistance for the co-development of market shortcoming assessment frameworks and methodologies; leads cross-cutting market analyses including data collection, data cleaning and rigorous analytics; and provides guidance in the application of market shaping approaches to solving market shortcomings in Ethiopia’s public health system.

Over the past five years, Mr. Faris has managed transformation projects in Ethiopia and Liberia. Before joining R4D, Abyu was a senior technical advisor for Chemonics International where he oversaw the development of an emergency supply chain (ESC) framework for the Ministry of Health and National Public Health Institute of Liberia. In this role, he developed the governance and organizational structure for the Liberia ESC, identified and harmonize priority human and zoonotic diseases, quantified medicines and medical supplies needed to tackle potential outbreaks and associated warehouse and transportation needs. He also estimated total emergency supply chain preparedness costs for Liberia and explored different donor funding mechanisms. In 2018, he managed Ethiopia’s Pharmaceutical Fund and Supply Agency’s Center of Excellence (COE) initiative as project manager and consultant for John Snow, Inc. (JSI) on the USAID AIDSFree Project.

Mr. Faris holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Gondar and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Addis Ababa University. He speaks English and Amharic.

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At Results for Development (R4D), Dr. Yourkavitch is the director of monitoring, evaluation and learning for USAID’s Advancing Nutrition, the agency’s flagship program in global nutrition. In this role, she leads a team of experts to monitor and evaluate nutrition programs, conduct implementation research and build technical capacity for these activities around the world.

Dr. Yourkavitch’s consequential research in numerous publications has implications for maternal and child health and nutrition policies and programs around the world. She has led teams on several global initiatives, including USAID’s MCHIP and WHO’s RAcE Programme, in addition to USAID’s Advancing Nutrition. Throughout her career, she has guided health programs toward sustainable practices.

Before joining R4D, Dr. Yourkavitch worked for ICF for 15 years, conducting research and advising clients including the EPA, USAID, WHO, and CDC. Prior to working with ICF, Jennifer directed a maternal and child health program in Zambia for Project Concern International and provided technical support at the headquarters office.

Dr. Yourkavitch is an academic editor for child health at PLoS One, a Research Scientist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and an adjunct faculty in the maternal and child health department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Dr. Yourkavitch holds a PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, a master’s degree in epidemiology from San Diego State University, and a BA in international affairs from George Washington University. She is a native speaker of English, is proficient in Spanish, and is learning French. She is also skilled in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.

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Dr. Vanotoo is the senior program director of the community and primary health workforce program at Results for Development (R4D).  She oversees the development of primary and community health workforces within the USAID-funded Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (Accelerator) to ensure equity in the recruitment, training, and financing of community health workforces. She provides thought leadership and contributes to strategy development, partner engagement, collaborative learning, and the use of digital innovation to build countries’ community health workforces for quality primary health care.

Before taking up this position, Linda was R4D’s country director for Ghana. In that role, she successfully oversaw R4D’s large portfolio of work in Ghana, including supporting the Ghanaian government with their COVID-19 response and the scaling up of a nation-wide primary care network to improve health care for millions. She supported the harmonization and complete digitization of the process for assessment and accreditation of health facilities. She successfully supported the Ministry of Health’s research focused on health workers’ acceptance of working in hard-to-reach communities. She also supported the Ministry of Health in installing audio-visual equipment and holding the first hybrid health sector performance summit. She supported the development and endorsement of the Essential Health Service package for Ghana as well as the development of the Health Information Strategic Plan to inform and guide data harmonization, governance, and interoperability of health information in Ghana.

Throughout her career, Linda has focused on health systems strengthening to ensure equity in quality health care at all levels. She is the founder of the Promote Maternal & Infant Survival Excellence (PROMISE) Initiative, which advocates to make pregnancy a safer, more memorable experience and to improve maternal and newborn survival. Linda also launched The Pregnancy School, an innovative online program that disseminates information via YouTube, Facebook and Health TV  to improve communication between health workers, pregnant women and their families, including male involvement. She has written two books: The Pregnancy School: Communicating with Pregnant Women and their Families and Promise from the Womb, which have been used to train midwives and to set up other functional pregnancy schools. 

Prior to joining R4D, Linda was the regional director of health service for the Western and Greater Accra Regions where she supervised planning and implementation of public health activities such as immunization, disease surveillance and control and management of disease outbreaks. She also previously served as the senior capacity development advisor for Evaluate for Health/USAID Ghana.  

Dr. Vanatoo is a fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and currently coordinates the Family and Reproductive Course at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

She holds a B.Sc. and MBChB from the University of Science and Technology, Ghana; a master’s degree in tropical pediatrics from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; an executive MBA from Ghana Institute of Public Administration and a Ph.D. in public health from the School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon. She also holds a certificate in applied epidemiology from Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, USA and Kenyatta Medical Institute, Kenya. 

Linda is a Ghanaian but speaks fluent English and a bit of French. 

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Dr. Georges is a program officer with the global health team at Results for Development (R4D), where she provides technical and program management guidance to the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator (HSS Accelerator) in West Africa. She oversees and supports implementation, planning and development of country-level activities and works with country stakeholders, partners, leaders and staff develop approaches to enhance local capacities to improve health systems.

Dr. Georges has focused her career on implementing health programs in low-resource settings, targeting vulnerable communities using local resources and decentralized health facilities. Through this work, she developed expertise in local resource enhancement and community health strategies adapted to specific populations and their needs. From 2012 to 2014, she supported Haiti’s ministry of health in restructuring its national community health program.

Dr. Georges holds a medical degree from Haiti and completed a master’s in public health (MPH) from Georgia State University in the U.S. through a Fulbright Scholarship. She also holds a master of science (MSc) in tropical and infectious diseases from the University of Liverpool, England. She is a native speaker of Creole and French and speaks fluent English.

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Prior to joining R4D, Ms. Coleman was a Peace Corps education volunteer in Liberia where she taught middle school math and science and started a women’s group in the community. Ms. Coleman then became a program associate at a community-led development NGO in Sierra Leone.

Ms. Coleman holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Creighton University.

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