Marja Esveld

Biography

Marja Esveld currently holds the position of Senior Policy Advisor, Department for Social Development, Ministry of Foreign Affiairs, Netherlands. Marja has been seconded for four years by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, to support the health team of the MoFA. Her main areas of work are global TB and malaria control, and biomedical research for poverty related diseases. She is health advisor to the Embassy in Vietnam. As part of her work, she manages grants with Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) in the areas of Aids, TB and other neglected diseases. She is Vicechair of the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials’ Partnership (EDCTP), and represents NL and Sweden on the Board of the UN Special Programme for Tropical Diseases Research (TDR). She also represents the Netherlands and UK on the StopTB Partnership Board. For the past two years, Marja has been involved in the organisation of meeting on ‘Strengthening pharmaceutical innovation in Africa’, led by COHRED and NEPAD, under the auspices of the African Union. She is also liaison officer for COHRED’s work on strengthening health research capacity in Africa. Recently, she became involved in inter-ministerial working groups on Life Science, policy coherence and Global Public Goods. Marja is an infectious diseases epidemiologist by training. She has worked with the National Institute of Public Health (RIVM), the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (Geneva) and the Inspectorate for Health Care, before she joined the MoFA.

Research Interest

To develop effective, accessible, and affordable vaccines against diseases of poverty.