Ephrem T. Lemango - Associate Director & Chief of Immunization in UNICEF, HQ in New York
Topic "The State of the World Children's Report 2023" - "For Every Child, Vaccination"
Dr. Ephrem T. Lemango is the Associate Director & Chief of Immunization in UNICEF, HQ in New York. He oversees the immunization and vaccines related work of UNICEF spanning across seven regions and over 130 countries. He has previously worked as the Regional Immunization and Primary Health Care focal in the World Health Organization (WHO) - Regional office for Africa, where he led interventions to strengthen Immunization systems and provided strategic leadership on the development of the vision for the Regional Immunization Agenda-2030. He comes with more than 16 years of progressive National and International experience on Immunization, Child health, Maternal health, Primary Health Care, and Macroeconomic issues, from which about 11 years is in Senior Leadership roles. Dr. Lemango, previously has served as the Director of Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition program of Ministry of Health, Ethiopia and the Executive Director for the International Institute for Primary Health Care in Ethiopia. In these roles, he has provided strategic leadership and introduced impactful programs that resulted in a significant improvement in the health of Children, Mothers and strengthening of Primary Health care systems in Ethiopia. His contributions have enabled the country to continue its success of curbing preventable Maternal and Child deaths through strengthening Primary Health Care. Priorly, Dr. Lemango served as an Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy in Mekelle University, Ethiopia and worked at grassroot level as National and continental advocate for Youth Reproductive Health and Empowerment.
Dr. Lemango is a staunch advocate and champion of Immunization, Child health and Primary Health Care. He has contributed to the advancement of immunization as a member of the Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (RITAG) of World Health Organization- Regional Office for Africa and the Global Equity Reference Group for Immunization. Dr Lemango earned his Doctore of Medicine degree from Addis Ababa University and Master’s degree in Health Management, Planning and Policy from University of Leeds. He also has a certificate in Medical Education from Cardiff University. Dr. Lemango has briefly served as a visiting Scientist in Harvard School of Public Health researching on Primary Health Care and Community health systems.