2013 Skoll Awards: World Health Partners and BasicNeeds
Speakers
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Gopi Gopalakrishnan has long experience in implementing large-scale service-delivery programs. WHP initially delivered primary health care to rural communities in India and Kenya and is now expanding its scope to primary education and livelihoods. The approach is to enhance with technology and management systems the utility of whatever available resources in the community.
Gopi has been a member of India’s Population Commission and has advised numerous national and international organizations on cost-effective service delivery. He has served as a global technical advisor of the International Finance Corporation and is currently an advisor of the National Health Mission.
Gopi has worked as the Director of International Programs of DKT International based in Washington DC overseeing 14 programs and as Country Director in Vietnam. Besides Skoll, he has been awarded by Schwab and Ashoka Foundations and the Government of Vietnam. He holds a masters degree and has been trained at Harvard.
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Chris Underhill MBE is a professional mentor and an expert in the field of community mental health. In founding BasicNeeds he developed the Model for Mental Health and Development to serve communities in Low Income Countries. Now called the BasicNeeds Model it is managed and championed by CBM UK. He created the wellbeing and resilience organisation www.thrive.org.uk (gardening to change lives) and went on to found www.add.org.uk (global disability rights in development). He runs www.mentorservices.org.uk and is co-founder of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs www.elderscouncil.net, and is Chair of the Catalyst-2030 Mental Health Collaboration. He is a Skoll Foundation awardee in Social Entrepreneurship, an awardee in Social Entrepreneurship of the Schwab Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of Ashoka and was honoured with an MBE by the Queen.
