William Newbrander Named USAID/BASICS Technical Director
April 21, 2008—April 21, 2008—USAID/BASICS is pleased to announce the appointment of William “Bill” Newbrander as Technical Director. In this position, he will supervise the project’s technical focus areas, including: pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy, malaria, nutrition for children and infants, newborn survival and health, and pediatric HIV/AIDS.
Newbrander succeeds Diana Silimperi, who recently became Vice President, Center for Health Programs at Management Sciences for Health (MSH).
Bill Newbrander has 25 years of experience in health systems strengthening in developing and post-conflict countries, with a focus on health economics, financing and health policy. He arrives directly from Afghanistan, where he oversaw MSH’s program of rapid impact assistance to the health sector and capacity building for the Ministry of Health. He was previously Director for the Center for Health Reform and Financing at MSH, and served as a health economist for the World Health Organization.
With USAID/BASICS’ current contract cycle set to conclude in September 2009, Newbrander will lead the effort to bring eighteen country programs and two regional initiatives to full implementation. The project’s portfolio comprises country programs that began over three years ago through targeted advocacy to Ministries of Health and more recent agreements for rapid scale-up of key interventions. In the past six months alone, USAID/BASICS has established new field-based programs in Malawi and Liberia, and assistance to the Afghanistan Ministry of Health began in March 2008.
“Longer-term country programs and rapid mobilization efforts share the same challenge,” Newbrander said. “When we are able to show the evidence-based impact they have on child survival, the strategies we use for capacity building and program expansion become models for effective implementation amongst a wide range of organizations working to accelerate child survival,” he added.