Media Contact: Manal Khan, mkhan@pathfinder.org
June 3, 2022—Pathfinder International has named Dr. Tabinda Sarosh as President, South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. As President, Dr. Sarosh will be accountable for the impact, revenue, and operating performance of Pathfinder’s programs in Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and Myanmar and expansion strategies in the regions.
“Today, we are seeing more leaders from the Global South making the decisions that affect the lives of their communities,” said Dr. Sarosh. ”As Pathfinder’s President, South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa, I look forward to contributing to new models for country-led global health organizations. In this role, I will be able to leverage opportunities to advocate for human rights, form meaningful partnerships across the regions, and make critical services accessible for the people we serve.”
Dr. Sarosh has served as Country Director for Pathfinder in Pakistan since 2016, and currently serves on the organization’s Global Leadership Council. She is a clinically trained, seasoned public health practitioner in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SHRH), with multi-faceted experience leading SRHR programs and research in the development and humanitarian sectors. She has been a leader of Pathfinder’s work on gender and gender-based violence and efforts to support women and girls in the face of climate change.
Dr. Sarosh earned a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and a post-graduate degree in nutrition from Dow Medical College in Pakistan, allowing her to apply her clinical knowledge of reproductive health to develop numerous public health and advocacy programs. She has worked to advance sexual and reproductive health care for women and girls in Pakistan, including policies and guidelines related to the age of marriage, task-sharing of family planning services, postpartum family planning and postabortion care, and support to lady health workers.
Dr. Sarosh will be joined in leadership by a President, Africa, part of a larger organizational strategy that grants greater local control of operations and seeks country-led solutions towards achieving universal sexual and reproductive health and rights.
“Dr. Sarosh, a global leader in our field, will ensure that we meet the goals and needs of the communities we serve in South Asia and the Middle East,” said Lois Quam, CEO, Pathfinder. “In this role, she will work with a talented group of country directors and teams across a region where Pathfinder has led programs for decades.”
In addition to the new President positions, Pathfinder has recently made several organizational shifts to become an organization that is truly global. This has included transferring decision-making powers and resources to offices around the world; creating a Global Leadership Council that joins country directors outside of the US with US-based executives; diversifying the Board of Directors; applying a strategic framework that is more completely driven by the needs and priorities of the communities served; and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Sexual and reproductive health programs and advocacy work are more important than ever,” said Dr. Sarosh. “Recent incursions on women’s rights and choices, fast-changing global dynamics, and increasingly complex local challenges make it imperative for organizations like Pathfinder to intensify our work. Bringing decision-making closer to the countries where we work will allow us to deliver greater mission impact.”
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Pathfinder International is driven by the conviction that all people, regardless of where they live, have the right to decide whether and when to have children, to exist free from fear and stigma, and to lead the lives they choose. As a global health organization with locally led, community-driven programs, Pathfinder supports women to make their own reproductive health decisions. Pathfinder works with local partners to advance contraceptive services, comprehensive abortion care, and young people’s sexual and reproductive rights in communities around the world—including those affected by poverty, conflict, climate change, and natural disasters. Taken together, Pathfinder’s programs enable millions of people to choose their own paths forward.
