Paulina Giusti

Paulina Giusti is a pediatrician with over 30 years of managerial and clinical experience in the public health sector in Peru. She has been Vice Minister of Health, Chief of Staff for the MoH, Head of a government public health project to improve maternal and child health, among other positions. She has deep experience in health systems strengthening, being part of the design and initial implementation of a health sector reform in Peru between 2012-14. She has worked with high and mid-level authorities, international cooperation and with local healthcare providers.

She is now the Chief of Party of LHSS Peru activity, which is providing technical assistance to the MOH to address the Health System additional demands due to the influx of Venezuelan migrants living with HIV. In the first months of the project, under her conduction and positive interaction with the MOH and key stakeholders, LHSS has successfully estimated the number of Venezuelan migrants living with HIV and evaluated the supply chain for ARV and other commodities for HIV services, and a Heath System Assessment focused on HIV services is ongoing.

As Vice Minister of Health, along with the Minister of Health, conducted the design and initial implementation of health reform measures defined in a group of legislative decrees approved in December 2013, aimed at achieving universal health coverage, facilitating access to public health insurance; improving the quality of health services, access to medicines, implementing a wage policy to encourage performance, among others. She successfully conducted the Health Sector Reform Program – PARSALUD II, a 160 million dollars Program financed by the WB, IADB and GOP and aimed at improving maternal and child health, focusing in the poorest areas of Peru.

Expertise:

• Health policy and management
• Health systems
• Project Management
• Child health

Key Projects:

• Health Reform Support Program (PARSALUD II), funded by the GOP, WB and IADB, with a budget of US$160 million.
• Supporting the preparedness and response plan against influenza pandemic in Peru, funded by the DHHS – CDC. The project was approved in September 2006, with a budget of US$ 825,000 for its first year.

Publications:

• Challenges in decentralized management of public health insurance. In: Boletín PRAES –USAID. Nº 16. January- February 2008
• Health care quality: a Challenge. In: 2004 Yearbook. Superintendence of Health Care Organizations. July 2005
• Prevalence and Annual Risk of Infection of Tuberculosis in school children in Lima, Callao and provinces, Peru 1997 -1998.  Published in:  Tuberculosis en el Perú. Informe 1998.  Ministry of Health

Countries Served In:

• Peru