Dr Connie Osborne, a seasoned Pediatrician and Public Health Specialist of over 20 years of experience in both public and private health sectors, has been appointed as National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Council (NAC) Director General designate.

She took up office on January 6, 2020 after she was formally introduced to staff at the national secretariat in Lusaka by National Institute of Public Health Director Dr Victor Mukonka who until then was the interim head of NAC.

The appointment of Dr Osborne closes the two year gap of NAC existing without a substantive Chief Executive Officer after the departure of Dr Reuben Kamoto Mbewe who has snice been reintegrated back into mainstream health sector.

Minister of Health Dr Chitalu Chilufya had appointed Dr Mukonka together with National Antiretroviral Therapy Coordinator Professor Lloyd Mulenga and Assistant Director of Public Health and Research at MoH Dr Tina Chisenga to help facilitate the process of repealing and replacing the NAC Act and to restructure the organization into a body that is capable of responding to current epidemic challenges.

The third task assigned to the three health experts was to initiate the process of developing a comprehensive National HIV and AIDS Policy.

Introducing Dr Osborne to staff, Dr Mukonka described the new Chief Executive Officer whose appointment is yet to be ratified by the NAC Board as a health practitioner with a wealth of experience who will command respect from a wide spectrum of stakeholders in the HIV response.        

“Dr Osborne has vast experience in the health sector and she was the best choice for this position to help NAC regain goodwill from all actors in the response. Give her the support that she requires to make this happen,” Dr Mukonka said.

During his tenure as interim CEO at NAC, Dr Mukonka set in motion the process of re-assuring partners on the continued relevance of the organization. He also played an active role towards reconstituting the NAC Board which he said would be announced before the end of January.

 He thanked members of staff for their cooperation and appealed to them to extend similar level of support to Dr Osborne as she takes up the mantle of providing leadership to the National HIV and AIDS Coordinating Body.

In her brief inaugural address to staff, Dr Osborne said she looked forward to managing NAC as a financially sustainable organ supported by a business plan.

Dr Osborne started climbing her health professional ladder as a Staff Development Fellow at the University of Zambia, School of medicine rising to the position of Senior Lecturer before catapulting herself into the global community with varied stints of periods under the United Nations Agencies i.e., UNAIDS in Ethiopia and Switzerland, UNICEF in Botswana and the World Health Organization in China as the African Medical and Research Foundation Health Africa Southern Regional Director covering South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi.

As a Zambian national, Dr Osborne has not only experienced the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Zambia first hand but has been in the forefront of the response against HIV both at national, regional and global levels. She is passionate about all aspects of HIV and AIDS and how they might play a significant role towards Zambia’s transformative health agenda and the quest for a prosperous and productive middle income country by 2030. 

Prepared by the NAC Communications Unit