Zulfiqar Bhutta

Zulfiqar Bhutta

Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto

Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health

Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University


Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Global Health and Development and the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, at the Aga Khan University. He also holds the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health a unique joint appointments He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading Universities globally including the Schools of Public Health at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), Tufts University (Boston), Boston University School of Public Health, University of Alberta as well as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and was the Founding Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee of the Government of Pakistan from 2003-2014.

Dr. Bhutta was a member of the Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) appointed by the UN Secretary General for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health MDGs (2011-2015). He represented the global academic and research organizations on the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (Gavi) Board and serves on its Evaluation Advisory Committee. Dr. Bhutta was the co-Chair of the Global Countdown for 2015 and 2030 Initiatives from 2006-2017, the co-Chair of the Maternal and Child Health oversight committee of World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) and the Chairman of the Coalition of Centres in Global Child Health. He is the current Executive Director of the NCD Child Secretariat based at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. He is a technical member of the recently appointed high-level UN Health and Human Rights committee, an executive committee member of Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and a member of the Independent Expert Group producing the Global Nutrition Reports since its inception in 2014.


Zulfiqar spoke at 'Virtually Cochrane', a virtual event we co-hosted with Cochrane Ireland in April 2021. Watch the recording Health equity in systematic reviews