Aparnaa Somanathan is the Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population for East Asia and the Pacific at the World Bank. She has worked on health systems strengthening issues for over fifteen years in a range of countries including Bangladesh, China, Estonia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. She has also worked extensively on the implications of population ageing on health financing and service delivery. Aparnaa read economics at Cambridge University and holds a doctoral degree in International Health Economics and Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Aparnaa is the lead author of the 21014 World Bank publication titled, “Moving Towards Universal Coverage of Social Health Insurance in Vietnam: Assessment and Options”. She is also the co-author of: “Financing Health Care in the East Asia and Pacific: Best Practices and Remaining Challenges” with Jack Langenbrunner; and the publication, “Live Long and Prosper: Ageing in the East Asia and Pacific region” with Philip O’Keefe and others.