Dr Salma joined the Federal Ministry of Health in 1999 as a Consultant Public Health Physician and deployed to the HIV/AIDS programme as Assistant Director, Department of Public Health. She established the pioneer program for HIV treatment and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) as well as coordinated the first round of proposals to the Global Fund for HIV, TB, and Malaria, where Nigeria first benefitted in 2001. Similarly, she later served as a Global Fund Manager for HIV, TB, and Malaria under the National Aids Control Agency.  She has vast experience and expertise in Health Systems strengthening with specific focus on Primary Health Care (PHC) and delivery of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent and Elderly Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N), including Gender Based Violence.

 

Dr Salma has also worked with the United Nations both at national and international levels. She worked with UNFPA as HIV Country Adviser and later as Assistant Country Representative in Nigeria and as WHO HIV/STI Country officer in the Republic of Yemen as well as PMTCT WHO/EMRO Cairo, Egypt. She was the National Team lead for the Nigerian Maternal Newborn and Child Health Programme (MNCH2), a flagship project funded by UKAID (now FCDO), and later served as the Country Director of FHI360 in Nigeria, where she provided leadership for the implementation of diverse high impact health, education and humanitarian intervention projects in Nigeria.

 

Her experience includes health sector management during Humanitarian Crisis. She played a key role in initiating, establishing and coordinating the health sector response in the North East,  where she served twice as Commissioner of Health in Borno State during the peak of the Humanitarian Crisis from 2011-2015. Back to the Federal Ministry of Health in 2016, Dr Salma facilitated the establishment of the Health Sector Response to the Humanitarian Crisis in the Federal Ministry of Health, which contributed to the creation of the North East Development Commission and subsequently the Federal Ministry of Disaster Management and Humanitarian Crisis in Nigeria.

 

Dr Salma coordinated and led several Government Reproductive Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescents, and Elderly Health Plus Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N), Gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS projects supported by the UN Agencies (UNFPA, WHO, UNHCR, USAID, The World Bank and FCDO). She is a strong advocate for equity in access to quality Healthcare towards improvement of the Health of Women, Children, and Adolescents, the elderly and other vulnerable and marginalized groups.

 

She has served as the Director/Head, Family Health Department, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria, where she facilitated the establishment of RMNCAEH+N Multistakeholder Coordination Platform for effective harmonization and harnessing of resources for maximum impact. She promoted the cause for the provision of sustainable health care services to the elderly and retirees, which led to the inclusion of the Elderly (age 65 and above) in the Universal Health Insurance Scheme. She was a board member of Global FP2030 Commitment based in WHO HQ, and Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation Technical Advisory Group on High Impact projects.

 

She was the Director/Head of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, where she was saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the affairs of all Tertiary and Speciality Hospitals, Trauma, Emergency and Disaster Response, and overall coordination of the Cancer Programme in the country. This was in recognition of her enormous wealth of experience and astute leadership qualities. She is a member of the Governing Board of various professional bodies including the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Medical and Dental Council, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), amongst others.

 

In recognition of her tremendous contributions to the health sector development and commitment and passion towards delivery of quality Health Care to the Citizens, she has received several awards from various bodies and institution, which include the Rotary International award as the best performing Commissioner of Health in immunization, Best Commissioner of the Year in the North East by the National Union of Journalist, Nigeria, WHO recognition for efforts on Malaria control programme, best performing State Commissioner in efforts towards improving Maternal and Child Health, amongst which include are as woman that contributes significantly to the lives of women and children in Nigeria by the National Council for Women Society (NCWS) Nigeria, Best Commissioner of the Year in the North East by the National Union of Journalist, Nigeria, WHO recognition for efforts on Malaria control programme Recognized as woman of the day on the International Women Day by The Palladium.

 

Dr. Salma Ibrahim Anas is currently the Special Adviser on Health to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chair of the Presidential Advisory Sub-Committee on Health. This is for no other reason than her technical capacity, passion, dedication, and unwavering commitment to the delivery of effective as well as better healthcare services for the wellbeing of the citizenry, particularly to mention, women, children, youth, and the elderly which constitute a large percentage of the population.

 

Twitter: @DrSalmaAnas

LinkedIn: SalmaIbrahimanas