Chitalu Chilufya

Chitalu Chilufya
Chitalu Chilufya in March 2020.
Minister of Health
In office August 2016 – January 2021
President	President Edgar C. Lungu
Preceded by	Joseph Kasonde
Succeeded by	Jonas Chanda
Deputy Minister of Health
In office 2013–2016
President	President Michael C. Sata 2013 - October 2014, Guy Scott 2014 - January 2015 (Acting), Edgar C. Lungu January 2015 - August 2016
Preceded by	Chiponde Mulenga
Succeeded by	Position Abolished
Member of the Member of the National Assembly for Mansa Central
Incumbent
Assumed office 2013
Preceded by	Kennedy Sakeni
Personal details
Born	(1972-07-15) 15 July 1972 Lusaka, Zambia
Citizenship	Zambia
Political party	Patriotic Front
Children	Five children
Residence(s)	Lusaka, Zambia
Alma mater	University of Zambia
Occupation	Physician, Politician

Chitalu Chilufya (born 15 July 1972) is a Zambian physician and politician. He is currently a Member of the National Assembly for Mansa Central. He was Minister of Health from August 2016 to January 2021.

Biography

Chilufya grew up in Avondale area of Lusaka. He attended Munali Boys’ Secondary School and went on to study medicine at the University of Zambia.

Prior to his work as a politician, Dr. Chilufya worked as a Clinical Care Specialist for Luapula Province for six years under the USAID funded Health Systems Strengthening Project, and later as the Head of Clinical Care and Quality Assurance, at Zambia Health Systems Integrated Program. He earlier served at different levels of the public health system, including being District Director of Health in a rural district, called Namwala.

In 2011, Chilufya was chosen as the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy candidate to contest the Mansa Central Constituency in the 2011 general elections. However, he was defeated by Kennedy Sakeni of the Patriotic Front.

Sakeni died in 2013 and Chilufya was adopted as the Patriotic Front candidate for the subsequent by-election, and was elected to the National Assembly with an 8,392-vote majority.Chilufya was appointed Deputy Minister of Health immediately after his election to the National Assembly in 2013.

Chitalu retained his seat in the 2016 general elections and increased his majority to over 22,000 votes.

Dr. Chitalu Chilufya went on to serve as Minister of Health from 2016 to 2021. He remains Zambia's most transformational and visionary Minister of Health behind the national health strategic plan that reengineered the health sector, realigning it to the global agenda of Universal Health Coverage. He pioneered the multisectoral approach to health systems, introducing the Health in All Policy, to address social determinants of health.

He is credited with the establishment of the country’s national health insurance program, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIMA), as part of his health care financing policy.

He is further credited with the establishment of the Levy Mwanawasa Medical University, the first ever medical university, and the Zambia College of Medicine and Surgery, which irreversibly changed the landscape for human resources for health.

He pioneered the set up of the Zambia National Public Health institute to improve disease surveillance and intelligence, to protect the population from public health hazards. Springing from this, he pioneered the establishment of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, Regional collaborating center of the Africa Center for Disease Control, CDC, in Lusaka, Zambia.

He led the country’s fight against cholera and COVID-19 outbreaks in 2018 and 2019 respectively. He was an inaugural board member of the Africa Centre for Disease Control, serving for three years, and sat on the Africa Union’s COVID-19 response committee.

During his tenure, as part of the universal health coverage agenda, the country embarked on a massive infrastructure expansion program building six specialist hospitals, over 40 district hospitals and way beyond 500 primary health care facilities. Further, he modernized existing health facilities and is credited for the ingenious split of the University Teaching Hospital, UTH, into 5 distinct but highly efficient teaching hospitals. Under his watch, key disease and service delivery improved exponentially.

He led the establishment of the Levy Mwanawasa Medical University, the first ever public medical university in Zambia, with an initial enrollment of 5,000 students. He further set up the Zambia College of Medicine and Surgery, that churned out more than 300 multidisciplinary specialists in the first five years.

Whilst serving in the Legislature, Chilufya is invited to speak at various platforms worldwide on the transformation of health systems for universal health coverage while adapting to climate change.

Chilufya is married with five children.