Dr. David Nabarro
Strategic Director, 4SD
From March 2020, David Naborro serves as Special Envoy of WHO Director General on COVID-19. David is currently Co-Director (since mid-2019) and Chair of Global Health at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College, London. He is Strategic Director of the Swiss-based social enterprise 4SD (Skills Systems and Synergies for Sustainable Development), established in 2017, training and mentoring leaders for sustainable development. In 2017, he was awarded the World Food Prize for work in advancing nutrition. David is co-chair of the forum on Climate Change and Health which will complete its work at the World Innovation Summit for Health, November 2020. Since June 2018 David has curated the Food Systems Dialogues as a contribution to the transformation of food systems: they have involved more than 1700 leaders in 29 locations within the last 18 months. From July 2018 David contributed to preparations for the UN’s September 2019 Climate Action Summit. David co-facilitated the coalition that advanced the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) workstream (co-led by China and New Zealand). From 1999 to 2017, David was an official of the UN, serving in various positions: senior UN systems coordinator for avian and human influenza, Coordinator of the High-Level Task Force on Global Food Security, Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, Chair of the Advisory Group on reform of the WHO’s work in outbreaks and emergencies, Head of the UN’s response to cholera in Haiti, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Ebola, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for food security and nutrition, and Special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.