Magda Robalo

Dr. Magda Robalo is the president and co-founder of The Institute for Global Health and Development of Guinea-Bissau, which works with a diverse range of partners to achieve sustainable development outcomes. She is a public health physician and infectious disease expert whose career spans more than 30 years in the global health ecosystem.

As a former Minister of Health, high commissioner for the COVID-19 response in Guinea-Bissau, WHO representative, director of communicable diseases at WHO/AFRO, and global managing director of Women in Global Health, Dr. Robalo has spearheaded numerous successful domestic and international initiatives working across governmental, multilateral, and civil society organizations. She has a track record of promoting gender equality and equitable access to quality health care, social justice, ethics, and accountability.

Dr. Robalo has solid knowledge and robust experience with a broad range of public health issues, gender equality, ethics, and governance and serves on several boards and councils, connecting and interacting with a vast network of experts and policymakers in global health.

Dr. Robalo holds an MD from Universidade do Porto, Portugal, with a postgraduate certificate in public health and tropical medicine (Universidade Nova, Portugal) and a master of sciences in epidemiology (Université Laval, Canada).