Dr Mekdes Daba

Dr Mekdes Daba, Minister of Health, Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s first family planning subspecialist, she specialises in obstetrics and gynaecology and previously served as President of the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Since her appointment as Minister in February 2024, she has led the digitisation of Ethiopia’s community health information system, shifting health extension workers nationwide from paper records to a mobile data platform. By March 2026, Africa CDC had cited this progress in its Primary Health Care Digitalisation Framework as a regional model.