Redefining the Impossible
Dr. Debrework Zewdie on how to successfully drive a global health agenda
Dr. Debrework Zewdie has had an impressive rise to head one of the most prestigious development programs in the world. A leader in the truest sense, Dr. Zewdie’s career spans three decades of combating infectious diseases in various roles that include strategy, policy, management, academia, public service and science. On May 5th, 2015, she reflected upon her wealth of experience, as part of the Voices in Leadership webcast series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
An Ethiopian national, Dr. Zewdie’s doctoral training in clinical immunology in London set her path towards a career in infectious diseases across the globe. When she entered the World Bank in 1994, ensuring support for HIV/AIDS programs was challenging. Pharmaceutical treatments were expensive and affected patients belonged to marginalized populations such as drug users and sex workers. To win over her biggest opponents — World Bank economists — Zewdie reframed the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a ‘development crisis’:
“We had to use that language. Nobody was going to pay attention if we just pitched it as yet another health problem.”
Her unique strategy secured $1 billion in direct funding towards fighting HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, and set the groundwork for the subsequent restructuring of the global AIDS funding landscape. Dr. Zewdie later went on to head the World Bank’s largest program in health, the multi-country AIDS Programme (MAP). She, however, is hesitant to take all the credit herself, and admits that success is always defined by your team: “Nobody does anything by one’s self — it’s a group effort.”
In between her roles at the World Bank, Zewdie served as the Deputy Executive Director at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Reflecting upon her leadership in these powerful agencies, Dr. Zewdie shared with the Leadership Studio her view on three critical components to development work.
First, she highlighted the need for a dialogue with local organizations, and warned agencies against adopting a prescriptive approach.
“Just because somebody’s coming with a briefcase full of money doesn’t make them your superior.”
Second, Zewdie emphasized that empowering local organizations is necessary to ensure long-term sustainability when funding from external sources runs out. This includes teaching local organizations to manage their resources, measure impact and write grants to secure future funding.
Lastly, Dr. Zewdie highlighted the need for development agencies to focus efforts on strengthening infrastructures. Using the example of Ebola, she noted that viable health systems are crucial to ensuring that countries are prepared for such pandemics. “Ebola in 2015 is testament to how badly we did development in health all these years…if we had a viable health system [and] a surveillance system, many of these countries would have been on top of it.”
Currently, Dr. Zewdie is a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Chan School. Here, she teaches students about the value of leadership through her own experiences. In her own words, this has been a “tremendous privilege.”
As the Studio session came to a close, Zewdie parted with words of encouragement. She urged the next generation of leaders to embrace their passion for change, emphasizing that change is hard, but commitment is key. When faced with skeptics, Zewdie encouraged a goal-oriented and data-driven approach, wisely stating that “knowing what you want to do and having excellent evidence will turn even a deaf ear the other way around.”
For more from the Voices in Leadership (@VoicesHSPH) series at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (@HarvardHSPH), visitwww.hsph.harvard.edu/voices.
Story edited by Emilia Ling
