The Centre for Social and Economic Progress hosted a seminar titled “Taking Stock of Development Assistance for Health (DAH) in the 21st Century” on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.

The seminar featured a presentation by Cristian C. Baeza, Executive Director, International Center for Health Systems Strengthening and Executive Director, Center for Healthy Development (CHD); Carolina Velasco, Research Head, Instituto de Políticas Públicas en Salud, Universidad San Sebastián, Chile; and Amrita Agarwal, Visiting Fellow, CSEP.

The presentation was followed by a conversation with Girija Vaidyanathan, Former Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu and Somil Nagpal, Lead Health Specialist, World Bank. The discussion was moderated by Sandhya Venkateswaran, Senior Fellow, CSEP.

About the event

Over the past three decades, the world has seen major improvements in population health, with infant mortality and disease burden among children under five declining significantly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Better health has long been recognised as a driver of reduced inequality, productivity, and economic growth. What are the drivers of these gains – what is the role played by Development Assistance for Health in declines in morbidity and mortality? Prepared by the Center for Healthy Development (CHD), this report assesses the global and country-level impact of DAH over the past 25 years, examining its achievements, effects on health outcomes, lessons learned, and future prospects amid changing donor priorities.

Presenters

Cristian C. Baeza

Cristian C. Baeza is the Executive Director of the International Center for Health Systems Strengthening and the Executive Director of the Center for Healthy Development (CHD). He previously served as the Director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Practice of the World Bank worldwide, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance of Chile, and a Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA.

With thirty years of expertise and passion for improving health systems policy and performance, his work focuses on health system financing and health insurance design, and their impact on achieving universal coverage, improving health outcomes, ensuring financial protection, and enhancing the fiscal performance and competitiveness of countries and organizations. He brings extensive global experience with a particular focus on emerging markets in Latin America, South Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa.

Carolina Velasco

Carolina Velasco is currently the head of research at Instituto de Políticas Públicas en Salud, Universidad San Sebastián, Chile. She has a career in public policy, in the public and private sector. She is the former presidential senior advisor in Chile under Presidente Piñera, a former senior advisor and researcher at Centro de Estudios Públicos and Libertad y Desarollo, both think tanks in Chile, researching health care and education topics. She has participated in and led several government and congress commissions as an expert in different administrations. She is also a lecturer professor at Universidad de los Andes. She holds a master’s in economics and public policy from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and MSc Social Policy (research) from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. In 2024 she was awarded within the 100 most prominent alumni over the last 100 years of her faculty at Universidad Católica de Chile.

Amrita Agarwal

Amrita Agarwal has had a diverse experience across the private sector and policy space. She was with Bain India working across health, tech services, financial services, infrastructure and private equity. Post Bain, Amrita led the health system design at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, helping establish and scale up a portfolio of investments on structural reforms in the healthcare sector of India working closely with national, state governments, international institutions and the private sector. Currently, she is working in a diversified Indian conglomerate.

Discussants

Girija Vaidyanathan

Girija Vaidyanathan is a retired IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, and the fourth and longest-serving woman Chief Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, having held the post from December 2016 to June 2019.

Belonging to the 1981 batch, Dr Vaidyanathan previously served as the Commissioner of Land Administration in the rank of Additional Chief Secretary. She is known for her work in streamlining the public health system in Tamil Nadu as the Health Secretary in two stints, from 2001–02 and 2011–12, particularly through implementation of innovative schemes for maternal and child health. She was also Mission Director of the National Rural Health Mission, as well as Mission Director of the State Health Society when Tamil Nadu won the award for best performance among the non-empowered action group states.

In a long career spanning 38 years, Dr Vaidyanathan has worked in various capacities in the Finance department and headed key departments such as Health and Family Welfare, Nutrition, Environment, Pollution Control, School Education, Civil Supplies and Land Administration. She holds a Master’s in Physics and a Doctorate in Health Policy from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Somil Nagpal

Somil Nagpal is currently the Lead Health Specialist with the World Bank’s Global Practice on Health, Nutrition, and Population in the East Asia and Pacific Region. He has also been representing the World Bank team in the Joint Learning Network (JLN) for Universal Health Coverage since its inception. Before his current role, Dr. Nagpal served as a cluster lead for the World Bank’s health sector programs in Cambodia and Lao PDR. He also worked with India’s Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, where he was instrumental in establishing the country’s first specialized health insurance regulation unit. In his role, Mr. Somil Nagpal has highlighted the importance of effective primary health care as a foundation for achieving universal health provision.

Moderator

Sandhya Venkateswaran

Sandhya Venkateswaran is a Senior Fellow at CSEP and leads the Human Development work at CSEP, with a specific focus on Health Policy.  Spanning a career over three decades, she has worked on a wide range of issues in the social sector spanning health, nutrition, gender, natural resources, urban development and others, and has authored books, multiple articles and other publications on varied social sector issues.  Over the last 15 years her focus has been on policy issues, developing and leading the policy and advocacy portfolio in organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and CARE. She has worked with grassroots campaigns and civil society organisations, as well as with government and international organisations. She is currently a member of the Lancet Citizens Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.