Professor Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PHD currently resides in Rwanda and is the Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) (in 2015), an initiative of Partners in Health which focuses on changing how health care is delivered around the world by training global health professionals who strive to deliver more equitable, quality health services for all.
She is a Rwandan pediatrician who returned to Rwanda in 1996, two years after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Since then, (1996-2016), she has provided clinical care in the public sector and served the Rwandan Health Sector in high-level government positions, first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda’s National AIDS Control Commission, then as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and lastly as the Minister of Health for 5 years.
Professor Binagwaho specializes in emergency pediatrics, neonatology, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS. She completed her MD at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and her MA in Pediatrics at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Dartmouth College and earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Rwanda College of Medicine.
She currently serves as a member of several advisory boards and groups among them the Africa CDC Strategic Advisory Group of Experts and the Wellcome Global Monitor. She also serves as a member of various boards of directors including the Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees and the Consortium of University for Global Health. She currently also serves on the African Union Commission on COVID-19 Response under the leadership of HE President Ramaphosa of South Africa. She is a member of a number of international scientific committees, working groups and task forces in global health for different institutions such as the Think 20 (T20) and the United Nations as well as for independent organizations such as the Africa Europe Foundation and the Cummings Foundation. Prof. Binagwaho also sits on the editorial board of several scientific journals such as the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Previously, she co-chaired the Millennium Development Goal Project Task Force on HIV/AIDS and Access to Essential Medicines for the Secretary-General of the United Nations under the leadership of Professor Jeffrey Sachs (MGGs, 2001-2006). Professor Binagwaho also co-chaired the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA) (2006–09) and founded the Rwandan Pediatric Society, chairing it until 2019. Since 2016, she has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, since 2017 a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, and a member of the World Academy of Sciences since 2021. In 2015, Professor Binagwaho received the annual Roux Prize and Ronald McDonald House Charities Award of Excellence. She was also named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020 and 2021. In 2022, Professor Binagwaho received the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for her crucial role in establishing a new public health care system for the most vulnerable in Africa, particularly in Rwanda.
Professor Binagwaho is currently a Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. Her academic engagements include research in implementation science, human rights to health, social justice, health services delivery, health systems strengthening, HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases and pediatric care. She has published over 230 peer reviewed articles.
