David Nabarro

Dr. David Nabarro (born in 1949), works as the Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza at United Nations Headquarters in New York. He has been seconded to this position from the World Health Organization until the end of September 2007.

Son of Sir John David Nunes Nabarro, he attended Oundle School leaving in the summer of 1966. In a gap year between school and university, Nabarro was a Community Service Volunteer. He spent a year as the Organiser of Youth Action, York. A BBC television documentary was made about his volunteer work.

Nabarro became a qualified physician in the UK in 1973. After that, he worked in the UK's National Health Service. From 1976 to 1978, Nabarro worked as District Child Health Officer in Dhankuta District, Nepal. Later, he moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and in 1982, he became Regional Manager for the Save the Children Fund in South Asia, based in the region. In 1985 he joined the Liverpool School of Medicine as Senior Lecturer in International Community Health. He moved to the British Overseas Development Organization (ODA?) as a Strategic Adviser for Health and Population in East Africa, based in Nairobi in 1989.

Having had a good experience with helping third world countries in the field of medical care,he then took up the post of Chief Health and Population Adviser, at the ODA London Office in 1990, and moved on to become Director of Human Development (as well as Chief Health Adviser) as ODA was transformed to the Department for International Development in 1997.

Nabarro joined WHO in January 1999, as Project Manager, Roll Back Malaria, then moved to the Office of the Director-General, as Executive Director, from March 2000. He transferred to the Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments cluster in 2003.

He was appointed Representative of the Director General for Health Action in Crises in July 2003. Since then he has been responsible for taking forward efforts to improve WHO's performance in crisis settings, with an emphasis on preparedness, response and recovery.

Nabarro was stationed in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, when it was bombed on the afternoon of August 19, 2003. The blast targeted the United Nations, which had used the hotel as its headquarters in Iraq since 1991. 

He coordinated support for health aspects of crises response operations in Darfur, Sudan, and in countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and Tsunami. In September 2005 was seconded from WHO and appointed Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to ensure that the United Nations system makes an effective and coordinated contribution to the global effort to control the epidemic of avian influenza (or “bird flu”).

Nabarro has three older children, as a result of his partnership with Oxfordshire GP, Susanna Belle Graham-Jones: Thomas (Tom) Adam Nabarro (1984), Oliver Mark Nabarro (1986) and Polly Frances Graham-Jones Nabarro (1988). He married Gillian Holmes in 2002, in Coppet, Near Geneva, and they have two children: Josephine Mari Holmes Nabarro (1998) and Lucas John Nabarro (2001).

On April 3rd 2007 David's eldset son, Tom, had a serious accident while snowboarding in Bulgaria. He received immediate medical care on the slopes, was transferred to the Military Medical Centre in Sofia, had emergency surgery for damage to his neck.

He has now been transferred by air ambulance to the Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury, England. A web site has been set up for family and friends to be kept informed of Tom's progress at http://tomnabarro.com/