The CSEM Advisory Group

Itai Rusike

Itai Rusike

Executive Director, Community Working Group on Health –Zimbabwe

Itai Rusike is a public health activist with almost 20 years’ experience organizing involvement of communities in health actions in Zimbabwe. He joined the Community Working Group on Health – Zimbabwe at its inception in early 1998 and rose through the ranks from a Field Officer to Health Education Officer to Programme Manager and now Executive Director.

He is the immediate past Deputy-Chairperson of the Public Health Advisory Board in Zimbabwe, a member of the National Steering Committee on Results Based Financing (RBF), a National Maternal Deaths Surveillance and Response (MDSR) Committee Member, National Steering Committee Member for the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH-A) and an Editorial Committee Member of the Health Matters Magazine in Zimbabwe. National Steering Committee Member of the Health Development Fund (HDF) representing national NGOs, he is also a member of the National Validation Committee for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis (EMTCT) n Zimbabwe.

He is a Steering Committee Member of the Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET), co-ordinating the Social Empowerment Cluster for Primary Health Care oriented health systems. Itai is the Chairperson for the Peoples Health Movement Zimbabwe, Member of the Advisory Group for the UHC2030 Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM), Coordinator of the African Civil Society Network for Universal Health Coverage (AP-UHC) and Board Member for the World AIDS Campaign (WACI Health). Itai is a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) for the Economic Social and Cultural Rights Thematic Working Group. He was in the first Zimbabwe National AIDS Council Board (Disbursement Committee)

He holds tertiary level qualifications in Mechanical Engineering, Community Journalism, Research Methods, Health Financing and Universal Health Coverage.