Dr Sunday Isiyaku

Sunday’s background is Entomology and Parasitology and holds a PhD in Zoology from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. He is the Executive Director of Reaching the Last Mile for Onchocerciasis & Lymphatic Filariasis in Africa for Sightsavers. Prior to that appointment in February 2024, he was Country Director for Sightsavers Nigeria for over a decade and half. He worked as a Senior Research Officer at the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis and Onchocerciasis Research, Kaduna Nigeria before joining Sightsavers in 1997. He participated in many World Health Organisation/Tropical Disease Research projects on community directed interventions and strengthening health systems at community level. He led in the scale up of Sightsavers support for control and elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases in northern Nigeria most of it funded by the FCDO. He has served as temporary consultant to the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control for evaluations of community directed treatment with ivermectin programmes in a number of African countries. He has extensive knowledge and experience on community-based mass administration of medicines for the control of NTDs working in partnership with government and served as the Principal Investigator for the COUUNTDOWN research project in Nigeria working in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is also a fellow of the Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria and loves reading, music and football.