William Wells: International Public Health Consulting


My primary interests include health sector strengthening in low income countries, in particular via improved strategies for TB, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health programming. I have experience in guiding programmatic strategies, providing technical guidance to Ministries of Health, and in preparing technical guidance documents (for WHO), proposals (for Global Fund and others), and evaluations.

I am currently Senior TB Technical Advisor at USAID. I provide technical guidance globally and to individual countries on TB implementation issues, with a special focus on private provider engagement, health system strengthening, and operational research.

I oversee a portfolio of ~$45m annually, and provide programmatic guidance to USAID missions in Bangladesh, Burma, Ethiopia, India, and Indonesia. Specific technical guidance topics include private provider strategies for Burma, Cambodia, Nigeria and the Philippines, community TB and health financing activities in Indonesia, TB investment strategies for Bangladesh and Cambodia USAID missions, and GeneXpert scale-up planning, eTB manager implementation, and short regimen operational research protocol in Bangladesh. Contributed to international guidance on the End TB strategy, impact measurement, social protection, measurement of catastrophic costs for patients, and integration of TB activities into national health insurance. Topic and/or team leader on national TB program reviews in Burma, Philippines, South Africa, and Bangladesh. I act as vice-chair of the Stop TB Partnership's working group on Public-Private Mix (PPM).

I was previously Director, Market Access, at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. In this work I analyzed the readiness of health systems for regimen change and engaged stakeholders with the aim of ensuring successful adoption, availability, and affordability of new TB drugs. The TB Alliance works with a wide range of partners to accelerate the development of new, shorter and more effective drug regimens for tuberculosis.

Key projects at the TB Alliance included demand forecasting for new drugs, defining options for product presentation, and directing multi-country studies on the private sector TB drug market, public sector regimen change, and the adoption pathways for new TB drugs in the 22 countries with the highest TB burdens. I have reviewed drug management of National TB Programs in Kenya and Nigeria as part of WHO/KNCV/GLRA program reviews. After co-convening the first large-scale meeting on access between product development partnerships (PDPs), I subsequently became co-chair of the PDP access steering committee.

See recent publications on engaging private providers, alignment of testing and treatment strategies, TB patient costs, past and future regimen change, country decision making, access strategies, the total and private sector TB drug market, and stakeholder preferences for new TB drug regimens.


Freelance Evaluation, Research, and Writing in International Public Health

Click to read further details about assignments with the following clients:

World Health Organization, South Pacific Office

World Health Organization, Philippines Country Office

World Health Organization, Lao PDR Country Office

World Health Organization, Papua New Guinea Country Office

World Health Organization, Cambodia Country Office

World Health Organization, Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO/WPRO)

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Cambodia

The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sudan

Family Health International (FHI) Cambodia

CARE Cambodia

International Center for Equal Healthcare Access (ICEHA)


World Health Organization, South Pacific Office

  • Jun 2013; Consultancy, Suva, Fiji; and Port Vila, Vanuatu

    Assessed the response to STIs in Fiji and Vanuatu - two Pacific Island Countries with >25% chlamydia prevalence among ante-natal clinic clients. Provided recommendations on management and monitoring.


World Health Organization, Philippines Country Office

  • Mar and Jul 2012; Consultancy, Manila, Philippines

    Assessed models for connecting MSM to HIV testing in the Philippines, as a response to a dramatic expansion of the local HIV epidemic. Report endorsed to Minister of Health.


World Health Organization, Lao PDR Country Office

  • Dec 2011; Consultancy, Vientiane, Lao PDR

    After Global Fund Round 11 cancellation, assessed funding and program options for national HIV response.

  • Mar-Apr 2011; Consultancy, Vientiane and Luang Prabang, Lao PDR

    Reviewed linkage opportunities between HIV, malaria, TB, MNCH and EPI programs in Lao PDR, with a focus on district-level activities.


World Health Organization, Papua New Guinea Country Office

  • Aug 2011; Consultancy, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

    Outlined options for continued involvement of National Department of Health in Global Fund grant implementation after transfer of Principle Recipient role to other organizations.

  • Jun-Jul 2010; Consultancy, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

    Lead writer and coordinator of successful $46 million Round 10 HIV application to the Global Fund, in cooperation with Papua New Guinea's CCM and national HIV/AIDS program and 10 NGO subrecipients.

  • Jan-Feb 2010; Consultancy, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

    Coordinated development of a Continuity of Services (CoS) application to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, in cooperation Papua New Guinea's CCM and national HIV/AIDS program. After the conclusion of Round 4 funding, CoS will provide funding for continued treatment of 7,000 individuals already on antiretroviral drugs.


World Health Organization, Cambodia Country Office

  • Aug 2012; Consultancy, Phnom Penh and provincial sites, Cambodia

    Evaluated Cambodia's achievement of Universal Access to antiretroviral treatment, and recommended approaches to future strategies, including Treatment as Prevention.

  • Sept 2011; Consultancy, Phnom Penh and provincial sites, Cambodia

    Evaluated the Continuous Quality Improvement initiative being rolled out by Cambodia's HIV/AIDS program.

  • Oct 2010; Consultancy, Phnom Penh and provincial sites, Cambodia

    Evaluated and documented Cambodia's progress in implementing joint TB/HIV activities.

  • Nov 2005-Feb 2006; Consultancy, New York, USA, and Phnom Penh and provincial sites, Cambodia

    Assessment of the positive and negative spillover effects of HIV programs (specifically, the Continuum of Care (CoC)) on the rest of the healthcare system in Cambodia. The CoC links together multiple aspects and providers of HIV care.


World Health Organization, Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO/WPRO)


United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Cambodia

  • Mar-May 2007; Consultancy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

    Coordinated development of the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) subcomponent of Cambodia's successful application for Round 7 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. This included overseeing the procedure for selection of subrecipients, working with subrecipients to ensure a unified programmatic focus and budgeting and M&E process, writing the proposal text, and collaborating with the Ministry of Social Affairs to identify their priorities and develop their proposal.


The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)


United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sudan


Family Health International (FHI) Cambodia

  • Dec 2005-Jan 2006; Consultancy, New York, USA and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

    Analyzed data and edited text for FHI's evaluation of its HIV/AIDS prevention program among military personnel.


CARE Cambodia

  • June-Aug 2005; Internship, Phnom Penh and provincial sites, Cambodia

    Evaluated two of CARE's projects in maternal healthcare and health systems capacity building. One was an alliance between midwives and traditional birth attendants; the second was a rural motherhouse program.

    Helped facilitate the planning process, including the use of log frames, for a multi-million dollar USAID application.


International Center for Equal Healthcare Access (ICEHA)

  • Jan-Apr 2005; Volunteer, New York, USA

    Wrote policy paper on harm reduction in Vietnam for organization interested in entering this field.





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