Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat
WHO
Director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems
Mission
The Division of Country Health Polices and Systems assists countries to design, establish and implement appropriate health policies and systems to strengthen universal health coverage in the WHO European Region.
Functions
The Division focuses on assisting Member States to:
- enrich the evidence base for policy design and interventions;
- advance universal health coverage by strengthening national, regional and local health policies, public health, and the health system pillars in line with WHO strategies and policies and the Sustainable Development Goals;
- strengthen health system investment to adopt and implement policies that promote health, prevent illness and facilitate access to quality health services by ensuring an inclusive approach across the life course;
- build capacity for health systems innovation;
- provide quality, integrated, people-centred health services based on primary health care strategies;
- promote health across the life course, with a particular focus on child and adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health, including safer pregnancy, and women’s health; healthy ageing, disability and long-term care; and mental health;
- ensure effective health governance and financing;
- strengthen the health workforce; and
- develop frameworks that increase access to affordable medicines and technologies and promote the uptake and implementation of digital technology.
Biography
Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat is a medical doctor, a specialist in public health, and the author of several publications in public health and European health policy.
Following her qualification as a medical doctor from the University of Malta in 1995, Dr Azzopardi-Muscat worked in various areas in the health sector in Malta, including maternal and child health, mental health, and primary care. Her transdisciplinary research bridging health policy, European studies and small states studies led to her PhD entitled “The Europeanisation of health systems: a small state perspective”.
Since 1999, Natasha has been a resident academic at the University of Malta, teaching in the department of health services management and public health. In 2003, she completed her specialization in public health medicine and obtained her membership in the Faculty of Public Health of the United Kingdom. Between 2001 and 2013, she occupied various senior positions in the Ministry of Health in Malta, including that of Chief Medical Officer.
Before joining WHO, Dr Azzopardi-Muscat served as President of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) from 2016 to 2020, where she was actively involved in health advocacy at the European level.
Dr Azzopardi-Muscat is married to Dr Conrad Azzopardi, a practicing physician, and has 3 children.
