Khadija Jamaloodien is the Chief Director: Sector Wide Procurement since February 2023. In her new role, she will provide the strategic leadership, oversight, and management of the functions to support the establishment of the Office of Health Products Procurement, in preparation for National Health Insurance (NHI). She was the Director: Affordable Medicines in the National Department of Health since August 2014 and was responsible for developing the governance frameworks for improved and sustained availability of, and equitable access to, medicines. Khadija is a pharmacist by training and holds a Master’s degree in clinical epidemiology. She has 23 years of experience in the National Department of Health. For more than a decade she managed the Essential Drugs Programme of South Africa where she was responsible for establishing a platform for evidence based reviews for the selection of medicines included in the Standard Treatment Guidelines and Essential Medicines List.

In her tenure as Director, she was responsible for the procurement and availability of essential medicines. The Affordable Medicines Directorate also coordinates a number of projects that are designed to strengthen the Medicine Supply Chain, and results have already been evident with improvements in medicine availability.