Dr Wahid Majrooh

Dr. Wahid Majrooh is a physician, global health professional, health diplomat, and politician with over 17 years of experience spanning leadership, clinical medicine, health diplomacy, health systems strengthening, policy, and international relations. His career has been shaped by deep engagement with fragile and conflict-affected settings, first through direct policy and operational leadership in Afghanistan, and subsequently through academic, research, policy engagement, and professional collaboration at Geneva’s leading global health and security institutions.
 

Dr. Majrooh served as the last Minister of Health of the republic regime in Afghanistan, steering the national health system through the concurrent pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, active conflict, and the August 2021 political regime collapse. During this period, he maintained functionality across 3,700+ health facilities, launched the national COVID-19 vaccination program, and mobilized over $300 million in emergency financing through engagement with WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. On the day the government collapsed, he was the only senior official who stayed in Afghanistan and engaged directly with Taliban leadership to secure the continuity of health operations nationwide - an experience he later reflected on in his TEDx talk at TEDxGeneva 2026, “Staying When Everyone Leaves - Leading through Kabul’s Fall.”  

Beyond operational leadership, Dr. Majrooh has consistently worked at the intersection of health, politics, and diplomacy. Earlier in his career, he directed international relations and served as Spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health. Dr. Majrooh represented Afghanistan at the WHO Executive Board (2021–2024) and served as an Alternate Board Member at Gavi. These roles deepened his understanding of multilateral governance, geopolitical dynamics, and the diplomatic dimensions of global health - competencies he now brings to his work in Geneva.

Based in Geneva since 2022, Dr. Majrooh is the Founder and Executive Director of the Afghanistan Center for Health and Peace Studies (ACHPS). He is a Member of Gavi’s Independent Review Committee, an Executive-in-Residence Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), and an Academic Fellow at the Geneva Humanitarian Studies Center. He collaborates with the University of Geneva’s Global Health Institute as Course Director for Global Health Diplomacy and Geopolitics; co-branded with Geneva Graduate Institute - he also engages in teaching and academic activities with the University of Geneva, Institute for Global Negotiations and GCSP, delivering sessions on global health diplomacy, health system resilience, health security, geopolitics, and humanitarian negotiation. He also serves as Associate Editor of the journal “Conflict and Health.”

Dr. Majrooh holds an MD from Herat University, an MSc in Global Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an MA in Political Science, a Master of Advanced Studies in International Security from the University of Geneva and GCSP, and a one-year Diploma in Leadership. He is fluent in Pashto, Dari, and English, and proficient in French. His cross-cultural communication skills, familiarity with diverse political and humanitarian contexts, and capacity for geopolitical analysis reflect a career spent building trust across boundaries - institutional, geographic, and community.