Programme

Hon. Dr. D. P. Parirenyatwa qualified as a medical doctor from the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in Nigeria. He has wide experience working in both the Private and Public Health Sectors. Parirenyatwa served as Deputy Minister of Health & Child Welfare (4yrs) and then as Minister of Health (12 yrs.), in Zimbabwe, where he championed the fight against HIV & Aids. Parirenyatwa hails from a medical family. His father the late Dr Tichafa Samuel Parirenyatwa was the first African (black) doctor in then Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The largest referral hospital in Zimbabwe was named after the late doctor. One of Parirenyatwa’s sons is also a doctor. Parirenyatwa has chaired the African Union Health Ministers and also the SADC Ministers of Health. He is a past President of the World Health Assembly, the governing body of the WHO. He chaired the UNAIDS board and co-Chaired ICASA 2015 in Zimbabwe. Parirenyatwa is a Fellow of the College of Primary Care Physicians (Zimbabwe). He promotes Continuing Medical Education and Medical Research including Traditional Medicine and is the past chairman of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Zimbabwe. He specialises in Health Policies and Health Strategies and is the Executive Director of Chest Medical. Parirenyatwa is the immediate past Vice President of the 6th SAA Executive Board. He is a Senator in the Parliament of Zimbabwe.

Skilled leader in global health with over 24 years of experience, focusing on the African health landscape. Since October 2024, Dr Benjamin Djoudalbaye serves as Head of Interim Secretariat of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) in Kigali, Rwanda. Before that, he was the Head of Division of Policy and Health Diplomacy at the Africa CDC, where he led initiatives in infectious diseases and health diplomacy, shaping public health policies and health diplomacy across Africa. He holds a Medical Degree from Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey and specialized in Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, France. Additionally, he completed advanced studies in HIV/AIDS, Sexual Reproductive Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He also holds a Master’s in Population Studies and Public Health from the University of Ouagadougou.

From 2020 to 2024, he served as Executive Secretary of the African Union COVID-19 Response Fund, leading efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. He also served from 2022 to 2024 as Ag. Regional Director for the Africa CDC Regional Coordination Centre for Central Africa in Libreville, Gabon. He was also Senior Health Officer for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Other Infectious Diseases at the African Union Commission (AUC) from 2009 to 2018, where he oversaw transformative public health programs. His leadership in crisis management included heading the African Union’s mission to combat the Ebola outbreak in the DRC (2017-2018) and leading the African Union Support to Ebola in West Africa (ASEOWA) as Head of Mission Support and later Head of Mission in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea (2014-2016).

As a public health expert, he successfully led large-scale health initiatives, demonstrating strong skills and competencies in coordination, strategic partnership development, and resource mobilization. His leadership has been critical to advancing Africa’s health diplomacy in line with Aspiration 3 of the agenda 2063.

In addition to his work in policy, advocacy and health diplomacy contributed to global health research, authoring and co-authoring numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and publishing a book on psychiatry

Yvette Raphael is currently the Executive Director of Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in Africa. Yvette is a Member of the African Women’s Prevention Community Accountability Board and also Serves on the Board of Trustees of MTV Base Staying Alive. Yvette Alta Raphael is a consummate leader in the fight against HIV. And is committed to HIV Prevention Research and Development Advocacy. As a woman who has been living with the virus for over 20 years, she has experienced first-hand what HIV stigma, insufficient prevention education, and reduced access to healthcare can do. She utilized her natural leadership abilities to co-found the Tshwaranang Care Center for People Living with HIV & AIDS (PLWHA).

Ms. Raphael has spoken around the globe including several International AIDS Conferences to advise researchers, advocates, and policy makers on how to best win the war against HIV and AIDS. Her passion has been to improve the health outcomes for young women and girls, but her trusted expertise has also been lent to developing policies at the work place and to create better, more efficient structures to utilize the available governmental resources to End AIDS. Furthermore, Ms. Raphael is a trusted globally renowned advocate on effective and efficient education to the community regarding new and developing research for medications that treat and/or prevent HIV. Yvette is featured in the 2018/2019 exhibition at Smithsonian Museum titled out breaks (those who survive, those left behind). She is Also a member of the Global Community Advisory Group for the ECHO trial.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/141217/laws-men-women-rights-south-africa-hiv-aids-stigma http://www.avac.org/blog/demanding-prep-sa-aids-2015-scenes-activist-%E2%80%9Csmackdown%E2%80%9D http://www.avac.org/blog/facts-001-cannot-mean-end-women http://www.avac.org/blog/15-advocates-watch-2015