Fouzia Shafique

Dr. Fouzia Shafique is the Associate Director for Health at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, where she oversees UNICEF’s global work on Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (MNCAH), Primary Health Care (PHC), Health Systems Strengthening (HSS), and Digital Health and Information Systems. She also serves as UNICEF’s global lead for Community Health Systems, guiding strategic initiatives to strengthen frontline service delivery and community-based care worldwide.

With over two decades of public health leadership experience, Dr. Shafique has served in both humanitarian and development contexts. At the country level, she led UNICEF’s Health Programmes in Afghanistan and Health and Nutrition Programmes Yemen, two of the most challenging and complex humanitarian settings in recent history. In these roles, she worked to prevent the collapse of essential health systems, ensured continuity of life-saving primary health care, and coordinated large-scale health and nutrition interventions amidst ongoing conflict and displacement.

At the global level, from 2019 to 2022, Dr. Shafique led UNICEF’s work on health in humanitarian settings and emergencies. She was instrumental in advocating for the health and wellbeing of children and mothers in fragile, conflict-affected, and disaster-prone contexts. Her work focused on supporting governments and partners in preparedness, response, and recovery efforts, while also ensuring timely, evidence-based guidance on emerging health threats.

Dr. Shafique began her public health career with the Ministry of Health in Pakistan, working with the Lady Health Workers Programme—a cornerstone of Pakistan’s community-based service delivery system. She holds an MBBS from Aga Khan University in Karachi and an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Over the years, she has contributed to maternal, newborn, and child health efforts in South Asia and supported multiple countries across Africa and Asia in advancing disease control initiatives, including Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination and the Polio Eradication Initiative.

Dr. Shafique brings to her leadership a deep commitment to equity, resilience, and the right to health for every child, everywhere.

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