Waiswa Nkwanga

At MSH, I lead three initiatives – UHC2030 Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM), SPHERE, and HEAR CSO –aimed at accelerating progress toward health equity through universal health care (UHC) to achieve the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

• Lead multiple advocacy initiatives to strengthen health systems for UHC through primary health care (PHC), resulting in UHC prioritization at global, regional and country levels.
• Direct advocacy and represent MSH at high-level forums including UN General Assembly, World Health Assembly, G7, G20, World Health Summit, and World Bank meetings, securing financial and policy commitments in political declarations and resolutions and expanding organizational visibility.
• Build and sustain strategic partnerships across stakeholders, including governments, multilateral agencies, regional bodies, global health initiatives, and civil society organizations to align advocacy efforts and messaging to influence policy decisions.
• Drive policy analysis, stakeholder consultations, and development of advocacy resources inform policy decisions and investments to strengthen health equity, access, and inclusion; actively shape dialogues on global health architecture reform.
• Implemented country dialogues in with civil society and communities in 42 countries to assess barriers they face in accessing care following the adoption of the 2019 Political Declaration on UHC. Findings from the consultations fed into the ACT for UHC Review published by UHC2030.
• Manage Secretariat team and Advisory Group, leading strategy development, program budgets, donor proposals and reporting, and cross-functional workplan coordination.

• Led a coalition of 14 partner organizations across five continents to design and implement joint biannual advocacy strategies for TB and research & development (R&D), contributing to increased domestic and donor financing for TB and R&D.
• Drove high-level engagements and elevated TB, and global health R&D in global fora including with WHO, G20, G7, and the World Bank, resulting in ambitious commitments.
• Directed annual strategic planning for partners, ensuring alignment of advocacy goals, program budgets, and multi-year funding objectives across the partnership.
• Managed grant compliance and reporting, delivering quarterly, annual, and closeout reports; co-developed two successful multi-year proposals totaling $23 million in funding.
• Represented ACTION in global and regional forums, leading strategic dialogues and presentations at the 2019 ICASA Conference and UNGA and contributing to cross-coalition advocacy efforts to end TB and HIV/AIDS.
• Initiated and directed the 2020 Kochon Prize winning multi-stakeholder analysis assessing COVID-19's impact on global TB programs, informing policy priorities and response strategies for countries.

• Successfully coordinated input into global health policy frameworks resulting in the inclusion of ambitious civil society asks into the United Nations Political Declarations on Tuberculosis and Universal Health Coverage (2018, 2019), and 2020 the WHO's TB Research & Innovation Strategy.
• Supported country-level partner engagement with TB-affected communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia to improve case detection and linkage to care.
• Developed policy analysis, recommendations, and advocacy materials on TB R&D and UHC alignment for diverse stakeholders including donors, governments, and civil society.

• Managed Secretariat operations, coordinating weekly partner meetings, agendas, and documentation to ensure effective governance and decision-making across the network.
• Designed and implemented M&E framework to track advocacy outcomes across the partnership, capturing lessons learned and demonstrating impact to donors and stakeholders.
• Delivered donor reporting across multiple grants, coordinating cross-team inputs and ensuring compliance with tight deadlines.
• Coordinated internal and external communications, including website content, social media, and advocacy listservs, strengthening partner alignment and external visibility.

• Assessed pre‑exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) access gaps among key populations in San Francisco and created advocacy materials to support community-based efforts to expand HIV prevention services