Safir Sumer

Safir is an industrial engineer with a post-graduate degree on economics. She has experience in health systems and health policy, research-technological development, education, employment and labor markets. Her regional experience covers Middle East, South Asia, East Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Europe and East Africa, specifically Kuwait, Uganda, Nepal, Ethiopia, Moldova, Bhutan, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Timor Leste and Myanmar. Her experience in health sector includes output/results-based financing, health systems analysis and assessment, strategic planning, health system performance assessment, universal health coverage, impact evaluation, health sector review and health budget and financing analysis. She took part in a research team to evaluate the Turkish health system, recent reforms and universal health coverage and is the co-author of the Lancet special article for Turkey . Her experience in employment and labour markets includes projects on testing-assessment and certification of vocational qualifications, labour redeployment models, small business start-up assistance and business incubators. She provided technical assistance to Turkish public sector with a particular focus on strategic planning process, results-based approaches, performance management, integrated planning and budgeting and monitoring and evaluation. She took part in health project design and development efforts in Turkey and has completed a case study on People-Centred Health Care in Turkey where the primary care model, chronic disease management, integration of primary care with higher levels of care are analysed within the scope of the Health Transformation Programme. She currently works on global health policy and health systems where the specific focus is on Universal Health Coverage, improving access to care and to medicines in low and middle-income countries, public-private partnerships, non-communicable diseases and means to improve utilization in primary care .