Dr Makanga is the Executive Director of the EDCTP Association Secretariat and is stationed in the Hague Netherlands. He is a clinician-scientist born and raised in Uganda with 25 years of professional experience working on health and poverty-related infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. This includes 21 years of work experience on medical product development and clinical regulatory activities. He holds a Medical Degree from Makerere University, Uganda, and has been in various clinical and research positions before and after undertaking a Master’s Degree at the University of Liverpool, and then a PhD at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Scotland. He has served in various scientific and policy advisory boards for international product development, philanthropic organisations, World Bank and pharmaceutical companies involved in developing medicinal products for poverty-related infectious diseases.