Subnavigation

• Global Health Workforce Alliance
• About the Alliance
• Members & partners
• Country responses
• Knowledge centre
• Media centre
• Global Forums

Alliance Champion Lord Nigel Crisp

"We do need global frameworks, legislations and health reforms from the top, but unless it also happens from the bottom, it won't work. I continue to think that the biggest group of people who needs to be influenced are the health workers, and they need to be influenced through their own experiences, so that they will influence the top."

Lord Nigel Crisp

Lord Nigel Crisp is a prominent public health leader and advocate, who was the Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) and the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health of the United Kingdom in 2000-2006. A Cambridge philosophy graduate, Lord Crisp worked in community development before joining the NHS in 1986 to work in mental health and acute care. In 1993-1997, he served as the Chief Executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust.

Since 2006, Lord Crisp has been a vocal and tireless advocate on global health and international development issues, publishing a number of articles and documents on health systems and global health priorities.

In 2007/08, he co-chaired the Alliance Taskforce on Education and Training and coauthored the report Scaling up, Saving lives. He followed this up by co-founding the Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance to implement the recommendations of the Taskforce.

In January 2010, Lord Crisp has published a book on what rich and poor countries can learn from each other in today's inter-connected world, entitled "Turning the World Upside Down: the search for global health in the 21st Century". It argues for co-development and mutual learning rather than more top-down ideas of international development and knowledge transfer.

Action on the health workforce

• Alliance Champion Lord Crisp at the 2010 Commonwealth Health Ministers annual meeting
• Lord Nigel Crisp - Champion for Global Health Workforce Alliance. Alliance interview, October 2009
  The Alliance met Lord Nigel Crisp in Accra, Ghana, where he presented his current initiative "Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance" at the first meeting with countries and partners on "Good Practices for Country Cooperation and Facilitation".

Related links

• Lord Nigel Crisp's new book: Turning the world upside down - the search for global health in the 21st Century
  Turning the world upside down is a search for understanding that helps us to see how Western Scientific Medicine, which has served us so well for us in the 20th Century, needs to adapt and evolve to cope with the demands of the 21st Century. It sets out a new vision and concludes by describing the actions we need to take to accelerate the change.
• Lunchtime roundtable discussion and launch of Lord Nigel Crisp new book at the Aspen Institute, Washington, DC
  The discussions were moderated by Professor Elliot Gerson, Aspen Institute. Lord Nigel Crisp and Senator Tom Daschle took part in an hour long discussion on challenges of global health and healthcare reform.
• More on the Alliance Taskforce on Scaling Up Education and Training
• Global Health Partnerships: the UK contribution to health in developing countries
  This new report sets out many stories of individual and NHS partnerships working to improve health and share learning.
• Visit Lord Nigel Crisp official web site