David Nabarro

David Nabarro is Professor of Global Health at the Imperial College London and supports systems leadership for sustainable development through his Switzerland based social enterprise 4SD (Skills, Systems and Synergies for Sustainable Development). Furthermore, he is Advisor at the Global Commission on Adaptation in Rotterdam. He secured his medical qualification in 1974 and has worked in over 50 countries – in communities and hospitals, governments, civil society, universities, and in United Nations (UN) programs.

David Nabarro worked for the British government in the 1990s as head of Health and Population and director for Human Development in the UK Department for International Development (DFID). From 1999 to 2017 he held leadership roles in the United Nations system on disease outbreaks and health issues (e.g. as Head of WHO’s Health Emergencies group, UN System Senior Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Ebola or Head of UN’s response to cholera in Haiti), food insecurity and nutrition (e.g. as Coordinator of the Movement to Scale Up Nutrition or as special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Food Security and Nutrition), climate change and sustainable development (as Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change).

In May 2017, Dr. Nabarro came second in the race to become the next Director General of the World Health Organization. In October 2018, he received the World Food Prize together with Lawrence Haddad for their leadership in raising the profile and building coalitions for action for better nutrition across the Sustainable Development Goals.