Dr. Mukesh Chawla, PhD (Economics), has more than three decades of experience advising governments and international development partners across Africa, Asia, and Europe on health systems, health financing, and pandemic preparedness. His work has focused on health sector reform, the design and scaling of innovative health programs, and the development of sustainable financing solutions to strengthen health system resilience. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Prior to these roles, Dr. Chawla spent over two decades at the World Bank, where he led numerous global initiatives on health systems and pandemic preparedness. Since retiring from the Bank, he has continued to advise governments and international organizations on health security, including the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED). In this capacity, he works closely with the governments of Indonesia and Thailand to strengthen regional preparedness, support institutional development, and enhance surveillance, response, and risk communication capacities across Southeast Asia.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Chawla played a leading role in supporting low- and middle- income countries to strengthen preparedness and response. Working closely with WHO, UNICEF, Gavi, and multilateral development banks, he helped countries prepare for COVID-19 vaccine deployment and improve access to essential personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and critical care equipment.
Dr. Chawla has also been instrumental in advancing the global financing agenda for pandemic preparedness. He co-founded several international partnerships and task forces to address the chronic underfinancing of preparedness, helped establish the Global Health Security Agenda's Action Package on Sustainable Financing for Preparedness, and played a key role in developing the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility—the first mechanism to mobilize private capital for outbreak response. He represented the World Bank on the Steering Group of the Global Health Security Agenda, contributing to the development of the global architecture for financing health emergencies.
Beyond health security, Dr. Chawla is widely recognized for his work on the economics of population aging. He is the principal author of the World Bank's landmark report From Red to Gray: The "Third Transition" of Aging Populations in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, which examines the economic and fiscal implications of demographic change. During his World Bank career, he also led major health sector reform programs, including Turkey's Health Transformation Program, the development of Poland's social health insurance model, and reforms to strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of Slovakia's health system.
Dr. Chawla has published extensively in health policy, health economics, and pandemic preparedness, and continues to advise governments and international organizations on strengthening health systems and financing resilience against future health threats.