Dr. Désiré Néboua is a physician and senior public health specialist with expertise in international public health, community health and health diplomacy. He has over 15 years of experience working across West Africa with international organizations (Solthis, ALIMA, Africa Frontline First) on programs addressing HIV, tuberculosis, Ebola, child health and community health.
From 2019 to 2023, he served as medical coordinator of a multi-country health initiative focused on accelerating the reduction of under-five mortality through the strengthening of integrated primary healthcare delivery systems and community-level health service platforms in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Niger through primary healthcare strengthening. After graduating from the Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Programme in 2023, he joined the same year Africa Frontline First, an Africa-led partnership (from Financing Alliance for Health, Last Mile Health and the Community Health Impact Coalition) that partners with governments, donors and regional institutions including Africa CDC, to drive smarter, more effective financing for community health workers. As Country Engagement & Health Financing Specialist, Dr. Désiré Néboua leads technical assistance and policy dialogue processes aimed at mobilizing and optimizing sustainable financing architectures for community health worker (CHW) programs across six francophone countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, and Senegal.
Dr. Néboua is also the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Groupe de Recherche et d’Action en Diplomatie et Santé (GRADES), a francophone African health diplomacy think tank dedicated to advancing the strategic use of diplomatic instruments (bilateral negotiation, multilateral engagement and soft power) as levers for building health sovereignty and to achieve public health outcomes.
Since 2025, Dr. Néboua has supported the integration of health diplomacy into academic curricula as a faculty contributor to the Health Diplomacy module at Gamal Abdel Nasser University of Conakry, Guinea, contributing to the institutionalization of health diplomacy as a core competency in francophone African public health education.
