Agnes Binagwaho

Agnes Binagwaho is the retired Vice Chancellor and Co-Founder of the University of Global Health Equity and the former Minister of Health of Rwanda. Binagwaho through UGHE, an initiative developed with support from Partners In Health, and then as a member of the Rwandan government helped rebuild the country's health care infrastructure following the Rwandan Civil War and the Tutsi Genocide, building programs to address HIV/AIDS, HPV, and other conditions. During her tenure, health insurance coverage expanded from 43% in 2005 to over 90% of the population. This was achieved through a community-based insurance model where contributions were scaled to ability to pay, with the government subsidizing care for the poorest citizens. She also led Rwanda’s effort to roll out a national vaccination campaign.

She is a member of multiple editorial, advisory and directors’ boards, including the Think20 (T20), the Rockefeller Foundation, the African Europe Foundation and the African Union Commission on African COVID-19 Response. Binagwaho is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the World Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She is an Emerson Elder and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and was named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020 and 2021 and received L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science in 2022.

Binagwaho received an M.D. from the Université libre de Bruxelles and an M.A. in Pediatrics from Université de Bretagne Occidentale.