Speakers
Edwine Barasa
"The equity and effectiveness of private financing for health in Kenya"
Dr. Edwine Barasa is the director of the Nairobi programme of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. Edwine is a health economist, and currently also heads the health economics research unit (HERU) of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya.He has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, a masters degree, and a PhD in health economics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Dr. Barasa has over 10 years practice and research experience in health economics and systems, with research interests in the economics of health systems, economic evaluation, and health systems governance. Edwine’s research interest include health financing, equity, efficiency, priority setting and resource allocation, costing and cost-effectiveness of healthcare interventions, the economics of hospitals, and health system governance.
Robert Yates
"Addressing the political economy of universal health coverage"
Robert Yates is a political health economist specializing in universal health coverage (UHC) and progressive health financing. He is a senior fellow of Chatham House, Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London where he is Project Director of the UHC Policy Forum. He is also a long-term consultant to The Elders on their UHC programme.
His principal area of expertise is in the political economy of UHC, with a focus on advising political leaders and governments on how to plan, finance and implement national UHC reforms. He has previously worked as a Senior Health Economist with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the World Health Organisation, advising numerous governments in Asia, Africa and Europe on health financing policy and health systems reforms.
He holds a BA degree in Natural Sciences and Economics from the University of Cambridge and a MBA, from the University of Leeds.
Naoki Ikegami
"Why public funding is not enough: How Japan has pursued equity and efficiency"
Naoki Ikegami is Professor at the School of Public Health, St Luke’s International University, and Professor Emeritus at Keio University, Tokyo. He was Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Keio School of Medicine, from which he received his MD and PhD. He also received a Master of Arts degree in health services studies with Distinction from Leeds University (United Kingdom).
During 1990-1991, he was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Medical School, and has continued to be a Senior Fellow at Wharton. He is a founding member of interRAI (a non-profit international consortium of researchers and clinicians focused on care planning instruments), and served as a consultant to the WHO and the World Bank. He has been President of the Japan Society of Healthcare Administration and of the Japan Health Economics Association. He has sat on various national and state government committees, including the Chair of the Investigative Specialist Sub-committee on Case-mix Based Reimbursement for Chronic Inpatient Care and member of the Reforming Elder Healthcare Council and of the End-of-Life Health Care Council.
His research areas are health policy, long-term care and pharmacoeconomics.
Anna Marriott
"The commercialisation of development assistance for health"
Anna Marriott is Public Services Policy Manager for Oxfam GB and leads on health policy for Oxfam’s Fight Inequality, Best Poverty! campaign. Anna is the author of several reports on both the financing and delivery of health care in low and middle income countries as well as a frequent blogger on Oxfam’s Global Health Check – a blog that seeks to challenge the debate on health care financing and delivery.
Prior to working for Oxfam, Anna studied and researched in South Africa on social protection and social policy and worked for a range of UN agencies as well as the UK’s DFID.