Dr. Pierre Pratley is a senior advisor in health systems strengthening. In his capacity at KIT, he leads and evaluates projects aimed at leveraging the breadth and depth of Health Systems Strengthening to reduce health inequities.

His portfolio has a strong emphasis on reducing systemic inequities in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition, including among vulnerable populations and persons with disabilities. He is the coordinator of the Health Systems and Policy Making course that is part of the ICHD’s core curriculum and teaches and provides trainings in Monitoring and Evaluation. He also co-chairs KIT’s works council, where he aims to promote and protect the interests of fellow colleagues at KIT.

Dr. Pratley holds a Doctorate of Public Health from the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health’s Global Health Department in Washington, DC. His dissertation research examined the measurement of women’s empowerment and its relationships with maternal and child health outcomes. He has led projects and conducted evaluations for a number of key clients including the Global Fund, the World Bank, UBS Optimus Foundation, WHO and UNICEF. He also co-authored the WHO Health Evidence Network (HEN) synthesis report on evidence regarding the quantitative and qualitative measurement of community empowerment at national level.

Prior to joining KIT Royal Tropical Institute Dr. Pratley served as Specialist, Sustainable Development and Health policies in the PAHO/WHO country office in Suriname. In 2020, the Ministry of Health of Suriname selected a KIT team led by Dr. Pratley to conduct the Mobile Migrant Study that looking into COVID-19 and Malaria-related health knowledge attitudes and behaviors as well as migratory patterns of small-scale gold miners and their social system in Suriname.

Other recent projects include a formative evaluation of the national multi-sectoral Early Child Development program in the Palestinian Territory for UNICEF, conducted with KIT colleague Dr. Irene de Vries and Palestinian NGO Juzoor for Health and Development, which was rated highly satisfactory by UNICEF’s Global Evaluation Report Oversight System. He also co-led two Results Based Financing projects for the World Bank with Dr. Jurrien Toonen, where KIT was the Technical Assistance agency providing technical support and key experts for the implementation of results based financing in pilot districts in Liberia and Mauretania.

Dr. Pratley’s current portfolio consists of a number of evaluations including an impact study for the UBS Optimus Foundation of a systems strengthening project on the prevention of disability and community rehabilitation of persons with disabilities in Nepal and a multi country evaluation for UNICEF’s Regional Office in West Africa of strategies to accelerate the reduction of childhood stunting. He also leads a feasibility and impact study of a novel digital mental health solution called Inuka in the Palestinian Territory which is funded by the Dutch Enterprise Agency’s Small Business Innovation Research grant program.