Elias Asfaw Zegeye

Dr Elias Asfaw Zegeye is a Research Officer on the African Health, Economics and Diagnostics (AHEaD) project at LSE Health, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Economics, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is a health economist with more than 17 years of experience in economic evaluation, health technology assessment and health financing across Africa.

In 2020 he led the founding of the Health Economics Unit at Africa CDC. There, he led research on health economics and financing, health technology assessment, and evidence-informed priority setting across public health emergency management, laboratory diagnostics, disease surveillance, local manufacturing of health commodities, and health systems. He also prepared policy briefs for senior decision-makers and led capacity building in health economics and financing across the 55 African Union Member States. He has worked with a wide range of international partners, including UNICEF (Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office), UNAIDS, UNFPA, the World Bank, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Nutrition International, GAIN, IDS/Irish Aid and PATH. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers and holds a PhD in Health Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.