We shall be hosting our 6th edition of #SPARCchat. The topic of discussion will be “COVID-19 Response – A Global Perspective with Lessons from Africa on Strategic Health Purchasing. Our SPARCchat VI panelists are:

Nathaniel Otoo, Senior Fellow, Results for Development

Nathaniel Otoo is a Health Systems & Public Policy Consultant and a Senior Fellow at Results for Development Institute. He was the founding Executive Director of the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Centre (SPARC) hosted at Amref Health Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. He has over 11-years of work experience in health insurance implementation and served as CEO of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority from 2015 to 2017. Nathaniel has contributed to and supported numerous global, regional and local UHC activities and events. A founding member of the JLN, and later its first convener, Nathaniel is a member the Duke University Launch & Scale Speedometer Advisory Board. He also serves on several other boards.

Cheryl Cashin, Managing Director, Results for Development

Cheryl Cashin, PhD, is a managing director at Results for Development in the global health practice. In that role she co-leads a portfolio of more than 20 projects and initiatives in global health systems, and she serves on R4D’s executive team. Dr. Cashin has led several initiatives at R4D that aim to build new models of support for countries to address complex health system issues. She designed the Provider Payment Mechanisms technical initiative of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) and has led the initiative since it was launched in 2011, and she is currently leading R4D’s technical support to Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) in partnership with Amref Health Africa.

Dr Nkechi Olalere, Executive Director, SPARC

Dr. Nkechi Olalere is the Executive Director of the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) and steers the organization’s vision of empowering countries with knowledge and practical tools to make access to affordable and quality health care a reality for all. 

She joined SPARC from the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) where she served as the Regional Technical Advisor, supporting CHAI Sustainable Health Financing teams and their government partners in East and West Africa. Recently, she also led CHAI’s support to the Rwanda Social Security Board as the Technical Advisor to the Community Based Health Insurance Scheme where she spearheaded various reforms.

Nkechi has over sixteen years’ experience in health financing implementation and before joining the development sector, she served at different times, as both start-up and turn-around C-suite executive in various health insurance firms operating the National Health Insurance Scheme and private health insurance plans in Nigeria.