Special advisors

Fran Baum

Fran Baum is Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Foundation Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. She was named in the Queen’s Birthday 2016 Honours List as an Officer of the Order of Australia, is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and of the Australian Health Promotion Association. She is a past National President and Life Member of the Public Health Association of Australia. She is also Co-Chair of the Global Steering Council of the People’s Health Movement. She also served as a Commissioner on the World Health Organisation’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health from 2005-08.

She is a passionate advocate for health equity and social justice and uses her research program on the social and economic determinants of health as a basis for this advocacy. Her book, The New Public Health, is widely cited and used in many public health courses. Her latest book Governing for Health examines how a society can be best organised to promote health and equity.

Fran Baum

Professor David Sanders

David Sanders was an Emeritus Professor and founding Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.  He was a passionate advocate for social justice and a leading figure in the global People’s Health Movement.

David sadly passed away in August 2019. We are deeply grateful to him for his contribution to the People’s Health Movement and his support of Health Poverty Action. We will miss him dearly.

You can learn more about his life and work in a tribute written by one of our trustees, Ruth Stern, here.

David Sanders, People's Health Movement, PHM, Global Health

Fifa Rahman

Fifa Rahman MHL (Health Law) is a Board Member for NGOs at Unitaid, a global health organisation hosted by the WHO that focuses on catalysing access to innovative health technologies and medicines in lower and middle-income countries. At Unitaid she works on ensuring NGO interests globally are protected, including ensuring equity towards neglected populations, preventing the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry in access to medicines decisions, and overseeing governance and risk management decisions. She is concurrently working on a PhD on international trade, negotiation theory, and intellectual property and the University of Leeds.

Fifa Rahman