David Nabarro is coming off several high-profile roles as U.N. special envoy heading into his candidacy for the World Health Organization. Ban Ki-moon’s representative for the Ebola crisis, and subsequently for the Sustainable Development Goals, Nabarro is a high-profile candidate with vast experience across the U.N. system.
But Nabarro’s career didn’t begin in international diplomacy, and the work he does today is informed by decades of experience working in the field for organizations such as Save the Children, in hospitals and within the U.K. aid agency, he told Devex.
“Everything I do now I think back to the people with whom I was working in villages and towns in Southeast Asia or in the Middle East, in Africa and a little bit in Latin America, [and ask] is what I do now actually going to impact on them or is it just going to pass over the top?” he said.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
