Thahira Shireen

Thahira Shireen Mustafa is a public health nutritionist specialized in strategy development, political advocacy, and evidence-based policymaking, and brings with her a unique multistakeholder perspective based on her extensive experience working with various constituencies, including governments, United Nations agencies, parliamentarians, research institutes, civil society, donors, and businesses. Currently, Thahira coordinates country-level engagement and regional level advocacy as part of the COVID-19 Call to Action at the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health, the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health, that brings together over 1,000 partner organizations across 192 countries. Prior to this appointment, Thahira managed the infant and young child nutrition portfolio at the World Health Organization and supported governments in translating global guidance into national policies. Thahira also has a wealth of experience in partnerships and served as a Policy Advisor at the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, an initiative spearheaded by the United Nations Secretary-General, where she strengthened institutional capacities for stakeholder alignment and mutual accountability for public health nutrition in 60+ countries. Her decade-long multidisciplinary international career, includes her work with the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP). She started her journey in India working in patient-centered settings delivering medical nutrition therapy, and now has lived in 7 countries, visited 50+ countries, and worked across 3 continents.