Robert is a Global Health and International Development practitioner with 25 years of experience, known for his expertise and advocacy on public health issues, poverty alleviation, and equity, and has provided strategic guidance and technical support to over 20 African countries in disease management and control of communicable diseases, including Malaria and HIV/AIDS, and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including Ebola and most recently, COVID-19.
He is currently the Lead Advisor of Disease Outbreaks and Epidemics at the African Risk Capacity (ARC), a specialised agency of the African Union. Before this, he had spent almost ten years in the World Health Organization and worked in the Health Security and Emergencies Programme, Malaria Control Programme at WHO/AFRO, and HIV and the older person at WHO HQ. In addition, he has held other leadership positions with UNICEF, the Global Fund, The African Leaders Malaria Alliance, HelpAge International and the Centre for Development of People. From 2015-16 he served as the Strategic and Technical Advisor to the Deputy Minister of Health and managed the day-to-day operations of the Ghana Emergency Operations Centre for Ebola.
Robert is a Chevening Scholar, an ex-Independent Study Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS, UK), he is also an Aspen Senior New Voices Fellow, as well as a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group for Universal Health and Preparedness Review (UHPR) and a member of the 2023 Technical Review Committee for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).
He holds an MSc. in Global Public Health from The Queen Mary University of London; an MA in Rural Development from the University of Sussex, UK; a Certificate in Epidemiology & Biostatistics from John Hopkins School of Public Health, USA; and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography & Sociology from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, Ghana.
Robert is passionate about his call to development work. He dedicates his time to promoting Global Health Security, Health Equity, Preparedness and Response to Disease Outbreaks and Epidemics, Sustainable Development, Human Rights and Gender equality.