Dr Constance ‘Connie’ Sibongile Shumba is Lead, Health Projects and Planning for the Mastercard Foundation. She is the technical and programmatic lead for the Saving Lives and Livelihoods Initiative in partnership with the Africa CDC, supporting COVID-19 vaccination and strengthening health systems across the 55 AU member states. She has worked with several global health agencies in decentralized systems in Africa and Asia over the last 19 years leading the design and delivery of complex gender-responsive cross-sectoral programs and broad-based public health and nutrition programmes. Connie has made distinctive contributions to health systems strengthening, public health higher education and implementation science and has over 50 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. She is an Affiliate Member of the African Academy of Sciences (2021-2025), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK and the Royal Society for Public Health, UK. Connie holds a PhD in Global Health from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland.