Ruhi Saith

Ruhi Saith is a medical doctor from India, with a PhD in Medicine from Oxford University and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

She works in Public Health, including broader determinants of health like nutrition and WASH. She has more than 20 years experience in the development sector, having worked on a range of health projects in the South Asia region, especially in India with some experience in East Africa. She has expertise in overseeing health evaluations as well as participating in a number of programmes related to health systems strengthening. Sub-sectors in health that she has experience of include, maternal and child health, reproductive health and primary health care, and immunisation. In the context of COVID, she is currently involved in looking at the need to mainstream strategies for vaccine demand generation (including for vaccine hesitancy as in the case of COVID)

She has worked in the erstwhile Planning Commission of the Government of India and was also Head of Research Programmes at the Public Health Foundation of India. She has served as developing countries editorial consultant for the Cochrane Public Health Review Group and has co-authored two Cochrane systematic reviews.

Selected publications

Reproductive health

• Infection prevention preparedness and practices for female sterilization services within primary care facilities in Northern India
• Choice of contraceptive methods in public and private facilities in rural India

Cochrane systematic reviews

• Unconditional cash transfers for reducing poverty and vulnerabilities: effect on use of health services and health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (Review)
• Slum upgrading strategies involving physical environment and infrastructure interventions and their effects on health and socioeconomic outcomes (Protocol)