Awa Marie Coll-Seck (born 1951 in Dakar, Senegal) is a Senegaleseinfectious diseases specialist and politician who served as Minister of Health of Senegal from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2012 to 2017. She also served as former Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and is on the board of directors of several notable global health organizations. She is an agenda contributor of the World Economic Forum.[1]
After earning a degree in medicine in 1978 from the University of Dakar, Coll-Seck served for nearly twenty years as a specialist in infectious diseases in leading hospitals in Dakar, Senegal and Lyon, France. In 1989, she was appointed Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Dakar and Chief of Service for Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital in Dakar.[2]
From 1996 to 2001, Coll-Seck served as a Director at the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She led the Department of Policy, Strategy and Research, the largest department within UNAIDS consisting of a diverse group of physicians, nurses, researchers, and other international policy and technical experts "best practice" guidance to assist governments and civil society in mounting their national and community responses to the global AIDS epidemic.[citation needed] Awa Marie Coll-Seck was subsequently named Director of the UNAIDS Department of Country and Regional Support, where she coordinated and mobilized the UN system response to the epidemic while supervising UNAIDS staff serving at four regional offices and at country-level offices throughout Africa, Asia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. She also served as a Commissioner in United Nations Secretary GeneralKofi Annan's Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa.[3]
From 2001-2003, Coll Seck served as the Minister of Health and Prevention of the Republic of Senegal.[4] From 2004 to 2011, she was Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.[5] She was elected as chairperson of Committee B of the World Health Assembly and also as president of the Assembly of the Ministries of Health of the West African Health Organization in 2002.[6] She was the Chair of the Medicines for Malaria Venture's Access and Delivery Advisory Committee (ADAC) from 2007 to 2010. She went on to be a proactive member of MMV's Board of Directors from 2011 to 2012.[7] She participated as a speaker at a 2012 Falling Walls event.[8]
She then returned as the Minister of Health and Social Action from 2012-2017 of the Republic of Senegal. She was appointed as the Minister of State in 2017, serving until 2019.[9]
In January 2014, Coll-Seck co-authored an article alongside fellow GAVI board member Dagfinn Høybråten titled “How businesses can boost global health.”[10] In the article, the pair called on the business leaders at Davos to turn their focus to global health, arguing that vaccines provide a tremendous return on investment. Later in the year, she founded the Afrivac Foundation, described as the “Public-Private Partnership for Immunization in Africa”.[11] She was also a speaker at the Women Deliver 4th Global Conference.[6]
Coll-Seck has been awarded the following professional and academic honours: the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite de la République Francaise, Chevalier des Palmes Académiques Francaises, Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite Sénégalais and Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite du Burkina Faso. She was elected as chairperson of Commission B of the 2002 World Health Assembly and as President of the Assembly of the Ministries of Health of the West African Health Organization (WAHO, 2002–2003) and is currently[when?] a member of the Academy of Sciences and Technologies of Senegal.[36]
^ ab"Awa Marie Coll Seck". Women Deliver 2016. May 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-07-17. Retrieved 2022-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"History". Afrivac. 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ abc"Ms Awa Marie COLL-SECK". EITI. Archived from the original on 2022-07-17. Retrieved 2022-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Prof. Awa Marie Coll-Seck". Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC). 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"FP2020 Progress". FP2020 Progress Report. 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Advisory Board". Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. 2015-09-23. Archived from the original on 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)