The Pandemic Fund

DR. Frode Forland is a Policy Director at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was previously Scientific Director of Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). The last two years he was based in Addis Ababa as a seconded Senior Advisor to Africa CDC in the areas of Evidence, Health Security and NCDs. He is a MD with a specialty in Public Health and General Practice. Previous Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Tromsø, the Arctic University of Norway. He has more than 25 years of experience in Evidence Synthesis and application of Evidence Based Methods for Public Health. He has working and leadership experience in the field of PH and Infectious diseases for more than 30 years. He has led several organizations on National and International level in Public Health and Primary Health Care. He worked two years at ECDC on a program for Evidence Based Public Health in Europe, and led a project with partners from 11 different countries from Africa and Europe when working at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, establishing the Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa. At the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, he has led a Program about Global Health Preparedness involving several partners nationally and internationally. He was Cluster Head of five Departments in the Area of Infectious Diseases Control. He has been a lead for three WHO Joint External Evaluations. He is a Scientific Board Member of the Global Health Unit of RKI, a Board Member of HISP/DHIS-2, an Alternate Board Member of Gavi, and he was the Norwegian Advisory Forum Member to ECDC for six years. During the Covid-19 pandemic he was part of the leadership group of the NIPH, and he was frequently used as a spokesperson in the media. His role in Africa CDC has been to lay the foundation for a long term, action-oriented and respectful partnership between the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Africa CDC. The program is supported by Norad.

Niall is Team Leader for Global Health Security at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Responsible for the range of current GHS & PPPR policy areas; including the negotiations on the Pandemic Accord. 

Niall has spent eight years working with the global health initiatives, including leading on WHO reform and the UK’s core voluntary contribution to WHO. He has been Deputy Head and then Head of FCDO’s Health Institutions and Health Security Department, which leads on the UK’s funding and engagement with the GHIs. 

Previous roles have included: advisor to the UK’s Chief Medical Officer during the H1N1 pandemic; roles in public health R&D; UK domestic policy lead on mental health; and a secondment to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.