Mirja Sjöblom is a Senior Economist in the Latin America and Caribbean Region and leads the Health Private Sector Program in the World Bank’s public arm, advising governments on the governance of health markets. She has over 20 years of experience across Africa, Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America.
Most recently, she led the World Bank’s long-term care program in Poland and health programs in Tajikistan. She previously played a key role in establishing the Global Financing Facility (GFF), where she served first as Senior Economist and later as Strategic Advisor to the Head of the Secretariat.
Mirja holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy from the University of Edinburgh, where her research focused on the governance of health markets, and an M.Sc. in Economics and International Business from the Stockholm School of Economics. She has long been involved in developing the Managing Markets for Health (MM4H) agenda and course, which explores how governments can steer public and private actors toward public-interest goals in increasingly complex health systems.
She has published widely on health system performance, gender, and international migration, with a strong focus on translating economic insights into actionable policy.