Based in Burkina Faso, Dr Meda is a medical epidemiologist, senior research scientist, trialist, evaluator, innovator, Professor of Public Health, international expert on health and development, particularly, in HIV/AIDS, epidemic-prone diseases, nutrition, and women & children’s health. He established an international reputation in the field of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV & other viruses through collaboration with various northern academic & research networks and institutions.

His research results were instrumental in launching the first PMTCT programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. He held several high-level positions in his career, including coordinator of French National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS) activities in Burkina Faso, Director-General of Centre MURAZ, the national health research centre, Health Minister, Special Advisor to Burkina Faso President. He has accumulated more than 30 years’ experience of working in health research, higher education, international consultancy, and senior management interacting with high-profile actors in global health landscape at WHO, UNAIDS, Gates & Buffett Foundations, international NGOs, to name few. He has conducted extensive multicentre international clinical trials funded by ANRS, DFID, EU, EDCTP, the last one was EBOVAC2/JnJ/Janssen vaccine trial against Ebola virus disease, and run several epidemiological studies among vulnerable populations.

He is a former member of UNAIDS/WHO Monitoring & Evaluation Reference Group and delivered more than 40 scientific reports from consultancies carried out in different African countries on epidemic-prone diseases surveillance and response, Global Fund health interventions impact assessments, and on effectiveness of institutional health research partnerships. He is the author of more than 300 articles published in international journals, a reviewer and member of editorial boards for a number of different scientific journals, and member of several national and international public health programmes steering committees, scientific review committees and networks. Now Executive Director of the Centre of Innovation for Development, Prof. Meda works to co-construct with all stakeholders, innovative gender-transformative solutions to tackle development challenges, in particular the social and economic transformation of women and girls.