Personal information
Biography
I am a medical doctor with a master’s degree in business administration from UK & multiple postgraduate certifications in public health including health economics, research design and leadership. I am amongst the four women leaders who were selected, from a global applicant pool, for the inaugural cohort of the Harvard University Global Health LEAD Fellowship in 2019. I have recently won the Vice Chancellor’s Alumni Awards 2021 as conferred by the University of Surrey, UK in recognition of extraordinary professional achievements. Earlier in 2014, I received the USAID Maternal and Child Health Program Partner of the Quarter Award for outstanding performance, attention to detail, team spirit, and commitment to excellence.
I am a senior social development professional with 15+ years of leadership experience of working at the highest policy level, while engaging with senior political and bureaucratic leadership and serving as the focal point of coordination with multilaterals and bilateral for the government. I have a proven track record of developing and implementing large scale & highly complex national level social sector program and policy interventions aimed at strengthening the national health system, leading national research projects and strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems, while using both primary and secondary data, to enable evidence guided reviews, robust program appraisals and decision making at the highest policy level.
I sat in the Federal Planning Commission (PC), Government of Pakistan, headed by the Prime Minister where I lead the formulation of national budgets for the complete cluster of social sector portfolio which includes health, population, human rights, social protection with a cross cutting focus on addressing gender fault lines. I was responsible for the overall financial control & oversight of the cluster’s delivery & performance. I held periodic appraisal meetings of the public sector development portfolio, with cumulative value of over $1.2 billion, whereby I extensively used available data and evidence for robust reviews and decision making. Following COVID19, I was able to raise the health sector spending by 410 percent despite the economic crunch. This involved adapting the health financing through repurposing of governments funds and mobilizing external resources through active engagement with private sector, multilateral, bilateral and other key stakeholders.
I was leading the national gender portfolio and launched the first ever National Gender Development Policy Framework for Pakistan. I successfully rolled out a Gender Study across all federal ministries and associated departments to identify gaps and make recommendations for making workplaces conducive for women. I was further leading national consultations for the Investment Case for Gender with a focus on OOS girls, Low LFP amongst females and increasing female voter registration and turnout.
I have worked with a myriad of multilateral and bilateral agencies and established the National COVID19 Secretariat at the PC which serves as the conduit between the PC, donors and the development partners for effective coordination and technical backstopping that was critical for the COVID19 response planning and mobilizing finances for the same. As Deputy COP and Senior Technical Advisor for Marie Stopes International UK office, from 2013-2016, I provided management and technical leadership to one of their largest, highly complex and high value (USD 72 million) multi-year Project which was being implemented in Pakistan by five International NGOs. I actively coordinated with technical experts at MSI Headquarter for their annual business planning process, led the development of the annual workplans and participated in the budgeting process. Over these years as I occupied leadership positions in the development sector, I was successful in creating valuable cross sectoral linkages with the political, bureaucratic & technocratic leadership, academia & senior research professionals, bilateral & multilateral agencies, private & the non-profit sector. I sit on several boards, regional, national & international committees & working groups, & serve as senior advisor to multiple public & private sector institutions. I have led several large-scale research projects and steered development of national and international proposals. I have the recognized ability for generating high quality analytical reports, strategy documents, project proposals, and briefings papers. I have received accolade for my presentation skills both at the nationally and internationally.
Having sat on all sides of the table and gaining the extremely valuable experience of working at the highest policy level i.e., the Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan, I am committed to consolidate & further strengthen the capacities within the social sector in Pakistan.