Michael Kent Ranson
Michael Kent Ranson is a Canadian health economist. He is notable in the COVID-19 pandemic due to his role as a board member for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Background
Education
Ranson holds an MD from McMaster University, an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a DPhil in health economics and financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.1)
Career
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Ranson researched, wrote and taught on health financing and system issues, first as a lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where he led a cluster randomised trial aimed at improving the equity impact of a community-based insurance program in Gujarat, India.
World Health Organization
Later, at the World Health Organization, he supported health policy and systems research and led the secretariat for the First and Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research under Health Systems Global.2)
World Bank
Ranson has been a Senior Health Economist based in the World Bank office in Geneva since 2014. He is the World Bank’s focal point for engagement with Gavi and COVAX, and has served as Gavi Board Alternate and on the Gavi Programme and Policy Committee since 2018.
He is part of the team that developed a new mechanism that allows countries to use World Bank financing to purchase COVID-19 vaccines, beyond the fully donor-subsidized doses they are already receiving, through COVAX. He is co-chair of the Immunization Agenda 2030 Financial Sustainability working group.
He also participated on the UHC2030 Working Group on Sustainability, Transition from Aid and Health System Strengthening in 2017.3)
Other affiliations
- Harvard University, Department of Health and Policy Management
1)
Michael Kent Ranson. (2021, October 22). Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. http://archive.today/2022.07.25-215508/https://www.gavi.org/governance/gavi-board/members/michael-kent-ranson
2)
Milko, E., Wu, D., Neves, J., Neubecker, A. W., Lavis, J., & Ranson, M. K. (2014). Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research: a conference impact evaluation. Health Policy and Planning, 30(5), 612–623. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czu040
3)
First face to face meeting of the UHC2030 Working Group on Sustainability, Transition from Aid and Health System Strengthening. (2017, March). UHC2030. https://web.archive.org/web/20210623044309/https://www.uhc2030.org/fileadmin/uploads/uhc2030/Documents/About_UHC2030/UHC2030_Working_Groups/2017_Transition_working_group_docs/Provisional_lst_of_participants_30-31_March_2017__1_.pdf