Plenary Speakers

Ann Phoya, is a Public Health Nurse Midwife and Fulbright Scholar with a doctoral degree in Health Planning and Research and a clinical role in maternal and infant health obtained at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC, in 1993. She has worked for 38 years in the Malawi Public Health Services holding different positions covering nursing and midwifery practice, education, regulation, management and policy level. She has extensive experience in RMNCH, SRHR and HIV programming and policy development.

At policy level she has served as in the Ministry of Health as

• Head of Planning and Policy Development responsible for developing health policy and plans including overseeing their implementation.
• Director of the Sector-Wide Approach responsible for overseeing implementation of health sector reforms, partner coordination, resource mobilization and development and dissemination of health sector annual plans and reports
• Director of Nursing and Midwifery Services responsible for delivery of nursing and midwifery services in the country as well as development of nursing and midwifery policies
• Manager for Safe Motherhood responsible for operationalization of the safe motherhood concept in the country, and overseeing implementation of the first national safe motherhood program for Malawi
• Manager for Population and Family Planning Project responsible for implementing a World Bank funded learning project on integration of facility and community based family planning project.

At the education level, Ann is currently serving as an

• Adjunct Faculty, for the Master’s Community Health Program at KCN as well as an internal examiner for the Reproductive Health and , Midwifery Masters program

She has also served as
• A Full Bright Scholar in Residence and Adjunct Professor at Winston Salem State University, North Carolina, USA, responsible for internationalizing the maternal infant Health program;
• lecturer at Malawi College Health Sciences for Registered Nurse Public Community Health Program;
• An examiner for the Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi.

At Practice level, Ann has worked at Lilongwe General Hospital and Kamuzu Central hospital as a bed side nurse midwife, in different departments including operating Theaters.

At Regulatory level, Ann has served in many Standing Committees of the Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi, including serving as Deputy Chair and Chairperson of Council.

Following her retirement, in the Public Health sector in 2013, Ann joined University of North Carolina (UNC) Malawi Program where she served for 4 years (2014- 2017)as Director for a Safe Motherhood Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Her last formal employment was at MSH where she serves as Chief of Party for a USAID flagship funded ONSE Health Activity whose goal was to improve access to quality priority health services in Malawi.

Ann has also served as President of Midwives Association of Malawi for six years ( 2014- 2020). As President for the Midwives Association she played an advocacy role among midwives, and health sector players including government to ensure access to quality maternal- and child health services including family planning as a strategy for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. The advocacy supported government to accelerate its efforts towards achievement of health related Sustainable Development Goals.

In addition to serving as a Board Member for AMREF Ann is also serves in the Boards of the following institutions

• Chair for the Malawi Scotland Partnership ( MaSP), an NGO that fosters the long relationship between Malawi and Scotland including overseeing implementation of development project funded by the Scottish Government.
• Chair for Evidence Action, an International NGO working on improving access to safe Water in rural area of Malawi
• Council Member for the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences.

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