RBM Partnership to End Malaria Secretariat
Dr Abdourahmane Diallo is a Medical Doctor with a Master`s degree in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and has extensive clinical and international public health experience.
Dr Diallo took office as the CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria in April 2019.
Dr Diallo was previously appointed as Minister and Health Advisor to the President of Guinea. Earlier, he served as Minister of Health of Guinea for two and half years. Before joining the government, Dr Diallo was the Director of Public Health and Supply Chain Systems Strengthening for the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by John Snow, Inc. Dr Diallo oversaw the technical work of more than 22 country offices, leading USAID core funded activities.
Prior to that, Dr Diallo served as Country Director for the U.S. President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funded by the Supply Chain Management System project in Tanzania. He was responsible for the overall management of country office strategic, technical, administrative, and financial activities.
Dr Diallo’s vast work has covered Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Marco Araniva Cubías joined the RBM Partnership to End Malaria in July 2020. Marco started his professional career in El Salvador where he had the opportunity to work with the National Government, UNDP and UNOPS managing different projects such as the rehabilitation of El Salvador`s International Airport and the implementation of the Rural Territorial Competitiveness Program. Then he moved to Geneva to work with UNOPS supporting the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Secretariat activities.
Marco has more than 10 years of experience in Project Management, Business Development, and Donor relationships. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and speaks Spanish and English.
Magdalena has a legal academic background (Master in International Trade Law, France) and started her career in the private sector in corporate legal services in Luxembourg. With the desire to have a greater meaningful impact in her work, she took a turn in her career by first joining the Danish public sector in the administration of a special school for children with autism and after a few years welcomed the opportunity to join the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in 2012.
Before joining the Secretariat of RBM Partnership to End Malaria in January 2021 in Geneva, Magdalena has worked with UNOPS in Tunis as Head of Support Services for the North Africa Region, in Brussels as Program Management Specialist in the Cities Alliance Secretariat, as well as in Copenhagen as Project/Admin Support in the former Europe and Middle East and Global Portfolio Support Offices.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Magdalena is a Slovak national, she speaks fluent English, French, Danish and basic Spanish.
Philippe Edouard Batienon is the RBM Country/Regional Support Partners Committee Sub Regional Coordination Officer for West and Central Africa with over 10 years’ experience in regional coordination, convening and facilitation of support to Malaria endemic countries in West and Central Africa. His current duties as a member of the RBM-Country Regional Support Partners Committee (CRSPC) include: coordinating Technical Assistance, convening managers and partners meetings, and in collaboration with WHO provide support for MPRs, MTR and MSP reviews. He also comes with experience in reporting and documentation of malaria related interventions success, challenges and best practices. Philippe has worked for six years as a consultant for many organizations including: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), UNICEF WCARO, WHO TDR and African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA). He holds a master’s degree in management from the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD), a Project Management certificate from Illinois States University and is currently completing a Master of Public Health, with the University of Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar School of Public Health. Philippe enjoys history, tennis, music and reading.
Lilya Boaron is the Assistant to the CEO and Board Chair. With extensive experience in the office/event management and HR administration across transport, pharmaceutical and legal industries, Lilya has a proven record of supporting high-level figures in the management of leading international organisations.
From 2011-2017, Lilya served as Executive Assistant to the Secretary General (Cheffe de Cabinet) at the International Road Transport Union headquartered in Geneva, prior to which she was based in the United Kingdom. Lilya speaks English, French and Russian.
Matthew Boslego is the Policy Specialist at the RBM Partnership. Prior to joining RBM, Matt supported malaria research in Ethiopia, Senegal, and Zambia at PATH and community development projects in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau with Tostan. He holds a Master in Public Policy from Sciences Po Paris and a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University and speaks English, French and Portuguese.
Ms Sara Gonzalez Andino holds an interdisciplinary PhD in data science simultaneously granted in 2001 by the Faculties of Medicine and Science of the University of Geneva. She received the M.Sc. degree in Theoretical Physics (with honors) from the University of Havana in 1985. She has wide-ranging experience in science, and innovation, higher education, as well as project cycle management including proposal development, budgeting and reporting, monitoring and evaluation.
Sara started her professional career in 1985 at the Cuban National Center for Scientific Research as Senior scientist. She later on joined the Human Brain Mapping Lab of the University of Geneva where she served as Senior Scientist for 2 years. Sara then became the Head of the Research Group at the Faculté de Médecine de l’Université de Genève (Geneva University School of Medicine), where she taught statistics, signal and image processing courses within the Lemanic Neuroscience Doctoral School. Moreover, Sara led research on neuroscience and successfully implemented a low cost Brain Computer Interface System awarded with the First Innovation Prize from the Geneva University Hospital. Sara was responsible for several innovative approaches to the statistical analysis of data and their modeling during her tenure. From 2013 – 2015, she worked at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne as Sr. Scientist focusing on statistical analysis of different modalities of neural data. After 30 years in research, she joined the StopTB Partnership in 2016 as their Data Manager. Moving constantly between analytical work and team or project management, she is passionate about making a direct impact in Health using novel technologies and trends in data science.
Radhika Jain is the Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation Senior Officer at RBM. She holds a master’s in finance and a diploma in international political economy with a focus on microfinance and development. Before joining RBM, she worked in the Health Sector in India focusing on rural health care. She has also worked in the private sector as a Mergers and Acquisition Analyst for an international consultancy.
Laura-Davina Kuen joined the RBM Partnership to End Malaria in April 2019. Laura started her professional development sector career in Latin America and later moved to Brussels to work for the United Nations. Throughout her career, Laura worked on various exciting European Union projects such as election observation missions, building partnerships with EU institutions and linking EU and UNOPS offices worldwide for collaboration and implementation of projects. Laura studied in Brussels and Vienna and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations. In 2015, she also obtained a Postgraduate degree in Communication and Human Resource Management. Laura speaks English, French and Spanish.
Dr Joshua Levens serves as Manager for the Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation Partner Committee. With over 18 years of professional experience, from university lecturer to public health specialist, Joshua has worked in the technical areas of HIV, TB, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, diarrhea, respiratory infections, reproductive and child health, monitoring and evaluation, health financing and governance.
He managed Tanzania’s first large-scale pay-for-performance programme for health with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. He also served as the United States Government Global Advisor in Tanzania and the Chair of the Oversight Committee for the Tanzania Country Coordinating Mechanism. Joshua holds a PhD in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from the Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in History from the University of Central Florida.
Daniso Mbewe is the RBM Country/Regional Support Partners Committee Sub Regional Coordination Officer for East and Southern Africa with over 25 years experience in systems analysis and development, knowledge and information management, coordination and facilitation of support to malaria endemic countries in East and Southern Africa including public sector in Malawi, Southern African Development Community (SADC) and RBM and multisectoral partnerships coordination. He also has experience in supporting SADC Military Health Services Malaria Program, a constituency of the RBM - Southern African Regional Network (SARN). Daniso holds a Master of Science in Business Systems Analysis and Design from the City University, London, U.K. and certificates in Knowledge Management and Effective Management from South Africa and Malawi respectively.
Dr Kaka Mudambo is a Malariologist and Public Health Specialist with over 30 years experience in epidemiology, disease control, EPR, disaster management and Military Deployment Medicine. He is employed as the Sub Regional Network Coordinator for East and Southern Africa of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria for East and Southern Africa and currently, also supporting coordination of Central and West African countries. In his early carrier, he fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe and after Independence remained in the Zimbabwe Military Health Services as the Director of Public Health and Research at the Defence HQ. The General was in 2003, appointed as the Regional Coordinator of the SADC 16 Member States Military Health Services (MHS) of which he was a founder member and responsible for all Military Health programs including malaria. He has over 30 years experience in malaria/disease control/elimination/Military Health and Military deployment/operational medicine, coordinating disaster management and arranging Access to Health Care in conflict Zones, humanitarian support among refugees and displaced communities (IDPs) – UN/AU/SADC Pease Support Operation. The General also lectured at the School of Health Sciences/Medicine, University of Zimbabwe and Bulawayo School of Medicine and has linkages with the University of Pretoria in South Africa as an external examiner and also co-supervising MSc and PhD students. He has 30 published full papers and over 45 published abstracts. The General is a founder member/Board Member/Chair of the Oversight Committee and Situation Room of the SADC Elimination Eight (E8). Dr Mudambo is a founder member of the E8, member of the E8 Technical Committee and coordinated E8 from 2009 up to the time the E8 Coordinator took over 2015. General Mudambo was instrumental in the establishment of the TKMI, TZMI, ZAM-ZIM, MAZAMO-mi, MOZIZA/TLMI and MOSASWA TLMI cross-border initiatives. In 2003 and 2014, he was the Commander Racing Against Malaria and in 2009 Commander of the Zambezi River of Life Malaria Expedition.
Monique joined the RBM Partnership to End Malaria in July 2019 as the Sub Regional Network Coordinator for West and Central Africa. Between 2008-2018, Monique worked as a public health specialist at the position of Director of Malaria Prevention Unit under the Rwanda National Malaria Control Program (NMCP). She has extensive experience in malaria strategies/interventions planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation for evidence-based decisions. She has also a large experience in the project development and grant financial and programmatic management such as the Global Fund and the President’s Malaria Initiative. Prior to the NMCP, between 2007-2008 she worked at TRAC Plus as a HIV Coordinator and between 2006-2007 she worked as a general practitioner at Kibagabaga District Hospital. Monique is a medical doctor and holds a Master’s in Field Epidemiology and Training Program (FELTP) from the University of Rwanda. Monique is married, has 3 children and loves cooking.
Rayana is the CRSPC Senior Officer at the RBM Partnership to end Malaria. Rayana has previously worked in the private sector with a specific focus on manufacturing where she also contributed to promote local development within The Gambia. She has experience liaising with governments, NGOs, local businesses and Ministries to achieve sustainable development. Rayana has also worked with the public sector ranging from her project with UNICEF on assessing the country risk of UNICEF's operations in The Gambia to providing support to portfolios at UNOPS based in Geneva. In academia, Rayana has extensive knowledge in the field of International Relations as well as that of Finance, Investment and Risk analysis.
Xenya Scanlon is the Strategic Communications Partner Committee Manager at the RBM Partnership. Xenya has worked for over 15 years in senior communications and advisory roles with major international organisations, including UN Environment, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and WWF, across three continents — in Africa, Australia and Europe. Immediately prior to joining the RBM Partnership, she was Director of Communications with the Right Livelihood Award, known as Sweden’s ‘alternative Nobel prize’.
She holds a Master’s degree in international relations from Moscow’s MGIMO University and a certificate of advanced studies from HEC-Paris, and is a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Programme. Xenya speaks English, French, Russian, Croatian, and conversational Italian and Spanish.
Maria Schiavo is the Strategic Communications Officer at the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and a Master's degree in Human Rights and Multi-level Governance from the University of Padua. Prior to joining the RBM Partnership, Maria has worked in communications for UN Environment, Padova's Human Rights Centre and SocialNews. She speaks Italian, English and French.
Dr Daddi Jima Wayessa is a Country/Regional Support Partners Committee Manager at the RBM Partnership, bringing with him over 19 years of experience in public sector in Ethiopia. From 2009-2017, he was Deputy Director General of Ethiopian Public Health Institute leading the Center for Public Health Emergency Management.
He led and coordinated efforts to ensure that the country was prepared to respond to outbreaks of diseases including malaria, and held senior roles in the Ministry of Health’s national malaria programme for more than 10 years. He also chaired the board of an anti-mosquito chemical producing plant in Ethiopia. A medical doctor by training, Dr Wayessa earned his Master of Public Health degree from the National University of Ireland, and has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications.
