Senior Advisor, Social & Behavior Change and Health Markets
Dr. Xaher Gul is a Public Health Physician specializing in Health Systems and Policy, applied through the lens of Health Promotion and empowerment education for social and behavior change. Dr. Gul graduated in 1999 from the Quaid I Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan with a degree in medicine, obtained his Master of Public Health (MPH) degree concentrating in Health Policy from the George Washington University (GWU), Washington DC, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar and is currently a doctoral candidate concentrating in Health Behavior at the GWU Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Dr. Gul started his career as a medical officer in Pakistan Army, functioning as a service provider in rural areas of Pakistan, a role he continued until 2005, before transitioning to developing and managing health education, health service delivery and integrated health and social development interventions projects in some of the most remote and challenging operating environments of Pakistan. Since 2011 Dr. Gul has served as faculty in the Health Policy and Management Program at The Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi where he is also supporting the operationalization of the WHO Human Reproduction Program (HRP) Alliance Regional Hub for SRHR Research Capacity Strengthening in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Dr. Gul has had a long association with Marie Stopes International’s (MSI) Pakistan program, where he served as Director Business Strategy until 2019. He is currently a member of the Executive Council of the Population Association of Pakistan and volunteers as technical advisor to local community-based organizations involved in movement building for HIV prevention among gender and sexual minorities.
The thematic focus of Dr. Gul’s work over the last 15 years has been promotion of participatory, rights-based, and people-centered SRHR services, prevention of unsafe abortion, access to contraception and safe motherhood, and prevention and treatment of HIV in key populations, particularly youth. Over the last decade he has worked as a technical advisor and consultant with organizations across academia, private non-profit, and private-for profit sectors, that are working on strengthening SRHR research, advocacy, and service delivery in Pakistan.
The technical focus of his work in recent years has been cross cultural application of behavior theory and psychometric research for predictive behavior modeling of SRHR behaviors. His research has informed the technical design of an ongoing National family planning SBC campaign in Pakistan. He is based in Karachi.