Muhammad Ali Pate

Dr. Pate pioneered the implementation of a national Midwives’ Service Scheme (MSS) to address the high maternal and child morbidity and mortality. The scheme is designed to mobilise midwives to selected primary health care facilities in rural communities to facilitate increase in skilled birth attendance and delivery of services. The MSS uses a cluster model of hub and spoke arrangement in which four selected primary health care facilities with capacity to provide Basic Essential Obstetric Care (BEOC) are clustered around a General Hospital with the capacity to provide Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEOC) and which serves as a referral facility.

Dr. Pate served as a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2016. He taught a course in the Department of Global Health and Population called, "Leadership Development in Global Health: Building Community Trust Networks."

Dr. Pate is also the former Minister of Health in Nigeria. His appointment in July 2011 follows his success as the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), in Abuja, Nigeria. He resigned as Nigeria's Minister of State for Health effective 24 July 2013 to take up the position of Professor in Duke University's Global Health Institute, USA. He also serves on the agenda committee of the World Economic Forum. Dr. Pate is an American Board-Certified MD in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA (Health Sector Concentration) from Duke University USA. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. He is formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy and an Adjunct Professor of Global Health of the Duke University Global Health Institute. He is also a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts.

Dr. Pate was appointed to run the NPHCDA at the peak of the polio epidemic crisis in Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the four PAIN countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria – where polio still exists and can thus be transmitted to other countries. Poliomyelities can be prevented through multiple immunisation with the polio vaccine. Receiving a minimum of four doses of the vaccine almost certainly provides lifelong immunity in children.

Abimbola S, Okoli U, Olubajo O, Abdullahi M.J., Pate M.A.. The Midwives Service Scheme in Nigeria. PLoS Medicine 2012: 9(5): e1001211.

Gupta N., Maliqi B., Franca A., Nyonator F., Pate M.A. Sanders D., et al., Human resources for maternal, newborn and child health: from measurement planning to performance for improved health outcomes. Human Resources for Health 2011, 9.16.

Pate M.A. in: Cochi, Stephen L, Walter R.Dowdle, editors. Disease Eradication in the 21st Century: Implications for Global Health. Strungmann Forum Report vol 7. Cambridge 2011, MA:MIT Press.

Wassilak S., Pate M.A., Wannemuehler K., et al.: Outbreak of Type 2 Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus in Nigeria: Emergence and Widespread Circulation in an under-immunised population. J Infectious Diseases 2011. 203 (7).

He has served on several national and international expert panels, including the Pacific Health Summit 2011, Seattle WA, USA, First WHO Health Systems Research Forum, Montreux, Switzerland 2009, Mckinsey's Geneva Health Forum 2009, Switzerland, Ernst Strungman Forum, Frankfurt, Germany 2010 and China-Africa Roundtable for Health 2010. He is also a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Steering Committee on Assessment of Impact of Polio Eradication on Routine Immunisation and a reviewer for OECD HQ Paris, Innovative Financing for Development 2010.

Jenkins H.E. Aylward B.R., Pate M.A. et al.: Implications of a Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus in Nigeria. New England Journal of Medicine 362. 24 June 2010.

In Nigeria the wild poliovirus WPV is mainly prevalent in the north of the country. In June 2009 Dr. Pate instigated a policy of engaging respected traditional rulers in the north under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto to help deliver the immunisation programme message, along with the development of an effective primary health care system which had failed in the previous decade. The cases of WPV reduced from 803 at the end of 2008 to only 11 cases in 2010.

Prior to his appointment to the NPHCDA in 2008, Dr. Pate had an extensive career spanning over 10 years at the World Bank in Washington DC and held several senior positions including Senior Health Specialist and Human Development Sector Coordinator for the East Asia/Pacific Region and Senior Health Specialist for the African Region. While at the World Bank, a major project led by Dr. Pate was the far-reaching health sector reform programmes in Africa, East Asia and other regions of the World Bank. Of note is his initiation of landmark Public Private Partnership to replace a National Referral Hospital in Lesotho, Africa. Dr. Pate was also awarded the prestigious Harvard Health Leader award of 2012.

Muhammad Ali Pate (born 6 September 1968) is the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank Group and Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF). In June 2019, it was announced that Dr. Pate will be appointed Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health effective 1 July 2019.