Biography

Talha Jalal is a public policy specialist with more than a decade in the global health and humanitarian sectors. He currently has a consulting practice advising organisations on policy-advocacy for health access in EU. He previously served as Senior Manager for Public Policy at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. During the pandemic, he led the design and implementation of the world’s largest humanitarian scheme for COVID-19 vaccines as part of the COVAX Facility. Prior to that he worked in the humanitarian sector in the MENA region with a particular focus on displaced populations. As Humanitarian Affairs Officer with Doctors Without Borders, he designed a rehabilitation program for victims of torture from Syria. He was also the Middle East regional manager with Danish Refugee Council and was a civil society representative at the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Migration.

His research interests are at the intersection of health security, humanitarian access and fragility. He is particularly interested in anticipatory policy development and foresight in the governance of transnational health issues. During his visiting fellowship, he will study the transnational governance of and policy approaches to address conflict-driven anti-microbial resistance (AMR).

Talha is also a writer and filmmaker. He is the author of Memoirs of the Badshahi Mosque (Oxford University Press, 2013). His documentary film Rite of Passage (2023) premiered at DOC NYC and was recipient of a National Boad of Review of Motion Pictures grant.

Talha holds graduate degrees from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and the School of Public Engagement at The New School. He was born in Pakistan, has worked in the United States, Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, Jordan and, most recently, Portugal.

Fields of expertise