Sapna Desai
Associate, Population Council, New Delhi (India)
Sapna Desai is based at the Population Council, New Delhi, where her work focuses on women’s health and well-being, particularly community-based interventions, health systems, and sexual and reproductive health. Sapna has a longstanding interest in improving the health system response to gynaecological morbidity and interventions to address women’s health through the life cycle. Dr Desai co-leads the global Evidence Consortium on Women’s Groups, where she focuses on the role of women’s groups in improving health outcomes, including in the response to COVID-19.
She previously spent several years working with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), where she led a national health worker team that implemented community health and health insurance programs in several states. She has been affiliated with the global journal Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters for ten years, currently as a Trustee and co-editor of a special issue on South Asia. She is a Commissioner on the Lancet Citizen’s Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. Dr Desai holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and MS in Population and International Health from Harvard University.