Desmond Maada Kangbai

Dr. Desmond Maada Kangbai is a medical doctor and a field epidemiologist working for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), Government of Sierra Leone. He works as the Program Manager of the Child Health and Expanded Program on Immunization and is also the Vaccine Pillar Lead of the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre in the country.

As the head of immunization services, he is responsible for overseeing the country’s vaccination programs and ensuring that they are accessible to all Sierra Leoneans. As part of this effort, he was the point person for the development of the One Team One Plan One Budget initiative in Sierra Leone through a collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF, Africa CDC, World Bank, GAVI and other Humanitarian Agencies/NGOs for their COVID-19 vaccination programme.

He also is leading out on efforts to pilot and evaluate an integrated life-course approach to vaccination that seeks to assess the entire household’s vaccination needs and come prepared to support them all at one time. In addition to his role for the MoHS, he is an associate lecturer at Njala University College. His works aims to guide policymaking the would improve vaccine uptake within Sierra Leone and other Low and Middle Income Countries.