Sohel Saikat is a well acknowledged expert in health systems resilience employing a public health approach. He has 20 years of experiences in health protection, health policy and planning including for service continuity, and health systems strengthening by fostering an integrated approach to achieve UHC and health security as interdependent goals. 

Within WHO HQ, he provides a responsibility for health systems resilience and essential public health functions (EPHFs) portfolio. He participated as a health systems expert in multiple Joint External Evaluations (Pakistan, Liberia, Eritrea, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Thailand); national planning for health security (Tanzania, Eritrea, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal); Vaccine Delivery Partnership mission to Ethiopia; and UH&PR to Thailand. He served at the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee mission to Pakistan. He has been WHO HQ’s health system lead in support to humanitarian response, restoration, recovery for countries with protracted setting. He moved to WHO in 2014 from the Public Health England, UK where he served in various capacities including Principal Public Health Scientist and Global Health Strategist. 

He succeeded in managing major multi-year grants and donor policies, having successfully mobilised resources for operational research and country support. He has been currently co-editing a Special collection of articles on Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict.