International Advisory Group
Dr Avin Amin
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
Avni Amin works at the WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research on violence against women. Her primary focus is to support countries – Ministries of Health – in the translation and uptake of WHO’s normative guidelines and tools to strengthen health systems response to violence against women. She has led the development of clinical guidelines for responding to child and adolescent sexual abuse, the RESPECT prevention framework, and is a lead author of the WHO global plan of action on strengthening health systems response to addressing interpersonal violence, in particular against women and girls and against children. Avni is a passionate feminist scientist with a fierce commitment to gender equality and women’s health. She has a PhD in International Health from the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is originally from India and considers herself as a global citizen.
Professor Sonia Bhalotra
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Professor Sonia Bhalotra is an applied economist with research interests in the areas of skill creation, early childhood development and health (including mental health) and her work seeks to understand the role of the family and of the legal and political environment. She is currently working at the University of Warwick. A large fraction of her work has an emphasis on gender. She has held appointments at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Essex. She is Fellow of the International Economics Association, the UK Academy of Social Sciences, CEPR London, IZA Bonn, IEPS Brazil and SFI Copenhagen. She obtained a BSc Honours in Economics at the University of Delhi and an MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford. She is currently serving as Principal Investigator for an European Research Council Advanced Grant, and Co-Investigator to :ESRC Research Centre for Microsocial Change at University of Essex, ESRC-funded Human Rights Big Data and Technology Project at University of Essex, CEDIL-funded project on maternal depression with National Institute of Health, US, amidst other smaller research awards. Her research interests are labour and econometrics, development and history, and political economy. Her work has contributed to understanding skill creation, the long run benefits of early life health interventions (clean water, antibiotics, infant care); maternal and child health including mental health (maternal depression, adolescent mental health), maternal mortality; domestic violence, gender inequality; the political economy of public service provision; accountability and the right to health; implementing universal health coverage; parental investments in children; intergenerational mobility, the gender pay gap and women’s labour force participation, and the dynamics of mortality, fertility and sex selection. Her research is set, inter alia, in India, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, America, the UK and Sweden.
Associate Professor Delan Devakumar (Chair 2024 – Present)
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Delan is a Professor of Global Child health and an honorary consultant in Public Health in the Global Health division of Public Health England. He is co-director of the UCL Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents. He qualified from the University of Manchester and then worked in clinical paediatrics in the UK and New Zealand. After completing a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, he worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres as a paediatrician in Pakistan (Kashmir earthquake), South Sudan (cholera outbreak) and Myanmar (post-cyclone Nargis). He was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and then NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Public Health in UCL. He completed a masters in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD from UCL, funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship. Delan is chair of ICHG, a special interest group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He was a commissioner and steering group member of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health and is currently lead for child and adolescent health in Lancet Migration. He is the lead for the upcoming Lancet series on racism and xenophobia and is chair and co-founder of Race & Health and a member of The Lancet Group for Racial Equality (GRacE).
Irudaya Rajan
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Irudaya Rajan was a Former Professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Kerala (close 40 years of post-graduate experience). Currently, he is the chair of the KNOMAD (The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) World Bank working group on internal migration and urbanization. He is one of the expert committee members to advise the Government of Kerala on Covid-19. He has published in international journals on social, economic, demographic, psychological and political implications of migration on individuals, community, economy and society. He is the editor of the annual series India Migration Report since 2010 and South Asia Migration Report since 2017 published by Routledge. Founder Editor in Chief, Migration and Development (Taylor and Francis).
Dr Santino Severoni
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Dr Santino Severoni is Director a.i. Division of Health System and Public Health and Special Advisor, Migrants and Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He has over 24 years’ experience as an international technical advisor and executive, working for governments, multilateral organizations, nongovernmental organizations and foundations in eastern Africa, central Asia, the Balkans and Europe. He is a medical doctor, health economist, epidemiologist and experienced system manager, having worked for governments, multilateral and nongovernmental organizations, and foundations in eastern Africa, central Asia and Europe. During his professional career, Dr Severoni has dedicated his work to global health with a particular focus on health sector reforms, health system strengthening, health diplomacy, aid coordination/ effectiveness, management of complex emergencies and, since 2011, coordinating the public health aspect of migration for WHO/Europe. His professional work has been dedicated to global health, focusing on health sector reform, health system strengthening, health diplomacy, aid coordination/effectiveness and management of complex emergencies. He coordinated the Public Health Aspects of Migration in Europe and leads the Migration and Health programme for the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He worked to establish the WHO Global Migration programme, provided inputs to the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact on Orderly, Safe and Regular Migration, established the Knowledge Hub on Health and Migration and coordinated the first report on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region.
Dr Moeketsi Modisenyane
NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, SOUTH AFRICA
Dr Modisenyane is the Director of Global Health at the National Department of Health, South Africa, with over 20 years of experience driving impactful change in public health, health systems strengthening, and policy advocacy at a senior executive level. He previously served as the President of the Public Health Association of South Africa, a Fellow of International Program in Public Health Leadership and Male Allyship in Global Health Leadership. His career has been defined by a commitment to improving health outcomes and advancing equitable access to healthcare in South Africa and Africa. Dr Modisenyane is committed to advancing the African health agenda in global health and is passionate about solidarity, collaboration, and equity. His leadership spans numerous national, regional, and international platforms, where he has played pivotal roles in fostering global solidarity,
advocating for equitable representation and decision-making power for African voices in global health forums and initiatives, and advancing key national and African strategic priorities. His commitment to mentoring young professionals and supervising postgraduate students underscores his passion for nurturing the next generation of health leaders who are rooted in their contexts and yet globally connected. Dr. Modisenyane holds a PhD from the University of Pretoria.
Dr Kolitha Wickramage (International Advisory Group Chair 2022-2024)
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR MIGRATION
Dr Kolitha is the UN Migration Agencies’ Global Health Research and Epidemiology Coordinator responsible for providing technical guidance on research and evidence generation across IOM’s three health programmatic areas: medical examinations for migrants and refugees; technical cooperation on migration health with member states; and health action in humanitarian and post-crisis contexts. He is based at UN’s Global Data Institute (GDI) In Berlin, Germany. He worked with WHO from 2004-2009 in health action in crisis projects, providing health care to displaced populations in protracted civil conflict and natural disaster settings, and undertaking research in humanitarian contexts. Since joining IOM in 2009, has managed a broad spectrum of migration health projects ranging from post-conflict health systems recovery to West-African Ebola outbreak response, to coordinating multi-country research studies on migration health from Middle East and North Africa to Asia Pacific region. He received Presidential honours in Sri Lanka for his work on advancing a national migration health policy through an evidence-informed, inter-sectoral process. He has co-edited and reviewed series on migration and health for BMJ, PLOS Medicine, Lancet journals, and has contributed to flagship UN reports such as the Word Migration Report. Kol co-founded a global migration health scholars’ network (MHADRI) dedicated to supporting research scholarship, especially within developing regions.
Previous IAG Members
Dr B Camminga (International Advisory Group Member 2022-2024)