Dr. Anand Sivasankara Kurup is a global public health leader and evaluator with more than three decades of experience in health equity, health systems strengthening, programme evaluation, and public health policy, including over twenty-one years with the World Health Organization. He currently serves as Senior Evaluation Officer at WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, where he leads strategic, thematic, and country evaluations that support organizational learning, accountability, and evidence-informed decision-making. In this role, he has overseen major evaluations of WHO’s global programmes, strategic plans, emergency responses, and country operations, working closely with WHO Offices, governments, United Nations agencies, and other international partners.
Since joining WHO in 2005, Dr. Kurup has held several leadership and technical positions. As Technical Officer for Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity, he helped advance WHO’s health equity agenda and contributed to the development of the Organization’s programme on social determinants of health following the landmark 2008 report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. As a Health Leadership Service Officer in WHO’s Beijing Country Office, he led initiatives to assess inequities in maternal and child health and support related policy and programme development. Earlier in his career, he held senior positions in India, managing large-scale HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes, community health initiatives, and international development projects implemented through partnerships with donors, government agencies and civil society organizations.
An internationally recognized expert on social determinants of health, evaluation, and health equity, Dr. Kurup has authored and co-edited influential publications that have informed public health policy and practice worldwide. He co-edited Equity, Social Determinants and Public Health Programmes, published by WHO, which received the British Medical Association’s 2011 Public Health Book Award and has been widely used in public health education and training. His scholarship focuses on health equity, programme effectiveness, maternal and child health, and evaluation methods, with a particular emphasis on translating evidence into policy and practice.
Dr. Kurup holds a PhD in Public Health, an MPhil in Community Health, and a Master of Social Work. He has also completed executive education in leadership, management, evaluation, and health systems through institutions including the Indian Institute of Management, the Kellogg School of Management, and the University of California, Berkeley. As a Senior Health Administration Fellow at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, he brings extensive international experience in health policy, organizational performance, leadership, and evaluation to support the education and development of future healthcare leaders.