Francesca Colombo
Head of Health Division, OECD (France)
FRANCESCA COLOMBO, M.Sc., is Head of the Health Division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. She is responsible for work on health, which aims at providing internationally comparable data on health systems and applying economic analysis to health policies, advising policy makers, stakeholders and citizens on how to respond to demands for more and better health care and make health systems more people centred. What are the impacts and consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on our lives and our societies Major activities under her responsibility cover the response to the COVID-19 crisis and solutions to make health systems more resilient; trends in health spending; measuring of health care outcomes, activities and inputs; health care quality policies; assessing health system efficiency and value for money; health workforce; long-term care systems and ageing; the economics of public health; pharmaceutical policies, new technologies, big data and Artificial Intelligence in health (http://www.oecd.org/health).
Major publications resulting from the work of the Division she manages include Health at a Glance, Health in the 21st Century: Putting Data to Work for Stronger Health Systems, Realising the Full Potential of Primary Health Care, Attracting and Retaining Care Workers for the Elderly, Tackling Wasteful Spending on Health, The Heavy Burden of Obesity, Making Mental Health Count. Mrs Colombo has over 20 years of experience leading international activities on health and health systems. She has led and participated in several large-scale projects covering a wide range of topics, including quality of health care policies, health financing and the impact of private health insurance on health systems, health workforce and the international migration of doctors and nurses. She is a leading international expert on health and care issues for elderly populations. She led the 2017 OECD Heath Ministerial and Forum, and had responsibilities for co-ordinating OECD involvement in other high-level meetings such as on diabetes and dementia. She has been responsible for the OECD Asian Social and Health activities with non-member countries, working with the OECD/Korea Policy Centre.
Mrs Colombo joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1999. Prior to that, she was seconded to the Ministry of Health and Labour of Guyana as acting head of the Planning Unit, where she was instrumental to the implementation of financing and governance reforms of the health system, and also worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Over her career, she has travelled extensively in Europe, South America and Asia, advising governments on health system policies and reforms. She holds a M.Sc. in development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science and B.Sc. in economics and management from Bocconi University.