Soumitra Ghosh

Soumitra Ghosh is an international development professional with 40 years’ experience in the for-profit and non-profit private sector, with more than two decades of experience in global health. Soumitra is a thought leader committed to delivering sustainable health outcomes at scale. He has created and led large scale, high-impact, and innovative public health programs in HIV/AIDS, family planning, RMNCAH, nutrition, tuberculosis, malaria, and water/sanitation/hygiene He also has worked in primary healthcare, using social marketing, social franchising, social behavior change, public-private partnerships, and market-based partnerships. Soumitra has worked in South Asia, South-East Asia, and Anglophone Africa.

Soumitra leads the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus project in Afghanistan and provides technical oversight to programs in Nepal and Tanzania. He mentored Afghanistan’s leading social marketing organization to improve its financial sustainability. Simultaneously, he helped Nepal CRS  Company and T-MARC in Tanzania transition to financially viable social enterprises. He deployed a strategic mix of market development approaches, product expansion, cross subsidization, efficient supply chain management, and digital health solutions The result was achievement of the twin goals of increasing the financial sustainability and private-sector contribution to national health outcomes.

As CEO, Soumitra led the WISH Foundation India in the transformation of 200+ low-performing government primary health centers into star performers. He also launched 1,000 neighborhood clinics in Delhi slums providing out-patient diagnostic and treatment services. While working for Marie Stopes International, as the global head of marketing, he scaled up its social marketing of long-acting reversible contraceptives and a global network of self-sustainable mini and franchised clinics. He also served as the technical services director of Population Services International in India and Zimbabwe, and later as country director of Botswana. In these roles, Soumitra delivered hi-impact social marketing and social behavior change programs at scale. They included USAID-funded Friends of pill (India), Studio 263 serial (Zimbabwe), Corridors of Hope and Coke-UNAIDS Africa collaboration in Southern Africa.

Expertise:

• Leadership and visioning
• Strategic planning
• Program management
• Public-private engagement
• Cooperative agreements and grants management

Key Projects:

• Futures Group International, USA - Provided technical leadership for USAID’s Health Policy Project to strengthen the technical capacity of the leading Afghanistan local social marketing organization and transition three priority health products from subsidy-dependent to full cost recovery.
• Concept Foundation, Switzerland - Developed a private-public-partnership-based strategy to increase access to and use of quality, affordable medical abortion drugs price to reduce maternal mortality ratio in 12 African and Latin American countries.
• Abt Global Inc. USA – Conducted a rapid assessment of reproductive health unmet needs, government priorities, commodity security, challenges, and the role of the private sector in Ghana and India. The goal was to identify and prioritize business strategies for USAID’s Market Based Partnership for Health project.
• Social Impact, USA – As the private sector specialist, conducted the end-of-project evaluation of USAID’s Innovations in Family Planning Services in India.
• National AIDS Control Organization, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India – Conducted assessment and developed National Social Marketing Strategy for condoms in India.

Publications:

• Promoting Maternal and Child Health through Beauty Parlors in Afghanistan - An approach to address malnutrition and other preventable diseases by SIGHT AND LIFE | VOL. 34 (1) | 2020; www.sightandlife.org

Countries Served In:

• India, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Sierra Leone.