Magda Robalo is the President and Co-Founder of the Institute for Global Health and  Development (IGHD), Guinea-Bissau. 

An Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, she is a Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering  Committee and a Global Ambassador of the G7 & G20 Health and Development  Partnership. 

Magda Robalo is a public health physician with a career of over 30 years in the global  health ecosystem. A former Minister of Health of Guinea-Bissau, she led the COVID-19  response as the High Commissioner of the Presidential Task Force. 

For the past five years, Dr. Robalo played a leadership role at the Ethics and  Governance Committee of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.  Prior to these roles, Dr. Robalo was Director of Communicable Diseases and WHO  Representative to Namibia and Ghana, among other senior positions with the World  Health Organization Africa Region.  

In 2023, she led the establishment of a multinational, transcontinental Women in  Global Health Chapter, which brings together all Portuguese-speaking countries. 

She initiated and led transformative actions throughout her career, aiming to improve health outcomes, establish inclusive and accountable governance systems, empower  women and girls, and promote equitable access to quality health care. She is deeply  engaged in co-creating solutions for Africa’s health sovereignty, sustainable financing, and overall economic development. 

She is a member of various Boards and Advisory Committees and a Commissioner of  the Lancet Global Health Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health  Coverage, led by the Center for Primary Care at the Harvard Medical School. 

Dr Robalo is a medical doctor (Universidade do Porto, Portugal) with a postgraduate  diploma in Public Health and Tropical Medicine (Universidade Nova, Portugal) and an  MSc in Epidemiology (Université Laval, Canada).