India – a rich resource for a healthy world

India is a public health resource for the world. Its traditional medicine systems, digital and scientific innovations, and hi-tech manufacturing capacity to produce affordable high-quality vaccines, medicines and medical products, enables India to provide scalable platforms and adaptable tools to support other countries meet global health goals.

Dr Roderico H. Ofrin joined WHO India as WHO Representative in July 2020. He comes with a rich experience of over two decades in public health, mostly in the WHO South-East Asia Region. His extensive experience and expertise cover critical areas of public health in the Region’s member countries, including India. 

Dr Ofrin spent a major part of his career in strengthening the public health emergencies programme. Before taking up his current position, he was the Regional Emergencies Director for WHO South-East Asia Region, providing strategic technical guidance and operational leadership for response and recovery from myriad emergencies. From being involved in the response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami that severely impacted several countries in South-East Asia, Dr Ofrin led WHO’s on-ground response to Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, the earthquake in the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia in 2009, the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, the Ebola outbreak in Liberia in 2014, and the Rohingya crisis in 2017.

Working in a WHO Region at risk of emergencies, Dr Ofrin made significant contributions to strengthening emergency preparedness and response that were replicated globally. He led the establishment of the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund, the drafting of the second edition of the global WHO Emergency Response Framework, and the Ministerial Declaration on Emergency Preparedness in the South-East Asia Region (2019), to name a few.

As WHO Representative to India, he led a workforce of 3 000 personnel to support the Government of India’s COVID response. During the pandemic, WHO India supported the development of dashboards that monitor disease transmission, health system capacity and public health measures; monitoring and surveillance field support; logistics support for providing personal protection equipment (PPE) and 4 000 oxygen concentrators, building auxiliary health facilities, and vaccination in all 36 states and union territories.

As WHO personnel provided frontline support during the pandemic, Dr Ofrin ensured a safe work environment to promote safety and mental well-being of his colleagues and their families through ensuring the provision of medical treatment and support, counselling; PPEs, and regular check-ins through townhalls and more.

During his tenure as WHO Representative to India, WHO provided technical and operational support that led to:

• Administration of 2 billion doses of COVID vaccination, prioritizing vulnerable populations
• Intensification of routine immunization post pandemic – coverage is at an all-time high
• Support of actions to eliminate diseases, including TB, measles rubella, and NTDs like kala azar, malaria and recently, trachoma
• Models of continuum of care for noncommunicable diseases at primary health care level
• Support to the digital health mission, including the development and implementation of Integrated Health Information Platform for near realtime geo-referenced disease surveillance
• Engagement with partners, including Government of India for G20
• Enabling of a cross programme approach to support the health goals in India’s least developed ‘aspirational blocks’

Born in the Philippines, Dr Ofrin holds a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Public Health degree. He has authored and co-authored several publications in various areas of public health. Dr Ofrin was conferred the WHO Director General’s Reward on several occasions, including: Individual Excellence for Leading the WHO Country Office for India Response to COVID-19 (2021); Leading the Team in Nepal Earthquake Response and Recovery (2017); and as a team member for India’s Integrated Health Information Platform (2022).