Walter Flores is a social scientist and human rights advocate with over 25 years of professional experience. He holds a PhD in Health Systems and a Masters of Community Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK. His undergraduate studies in Psychology were carried-out at California State University-Chico, USA and Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala. Dr. Flores’ professional work has been carried-out in more than 30 countries from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. His areas of expertise are health systems strengthening, health equity, right to health, transparency and accountability, democratic governance of public policies and services. Currently, Dr Flores is an adjunct professor at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Washington DC. USA. He is also a research associate at the Accountability Research Center at SIS, American University.
Dr. Flores was founder and director of Centro de Estudios para la Equidad y Gobernanza en Sistemas de Salud (Center for the Study of Equity and Governance in Health Systems)-CEGSS. As an action-research organization, CEGSS aims to improve access to healthcare services for indigenous and other marginalized populations. Under Dr. Flores leadership, CEGSS became an interdisciplinary team that developed and field-tested innovative approaches, tools and methods in the fields of legal empowerment, social accountability and health system governance. CEGSS works is documented in over 16 academic publications in international peer-reviewed journals, books chapters and over 35 audio-visual documentaries. The work of CEGSS is recognized both at national and international level. In the year 2020, CEGSS elected a new senior leadership and Dr Flores became a principal advisor.
Dr Flores has been a consultant for the European Union and USAID in the area of health systems and programs evaluation. Dr. Flores has served as expert advisor for both the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization on different initiatives and task forces such as: Promoting Social Participation in Health Systems; A Framework to measuring and monitoring Global Child Obesity Goals; Roadmap to Universal Health Coverage; Ethical guidelines for Universal Health Coverage; Implementation Research for Access and Delivery of New and Improved Tools, Strategies and Interventions for the Control of Diseases of Poverty and Health Systems reform and Equity.
In the year 2010, Dr. Flores was recognized by the Royal Tropical Health Institute, Antwerp, Belgium, as “emerging voice” in international public health for his innovative research and advocacy work around citizens’ participation in health systems research and accountability. Also, on the year 2010, Dr. Flores was selected to participate in the “Berlin Roundtables on Politics of Health”, which is an event of international leaders discussing how politics and globalization affects equitable health systems and the right to health in the world. In addition to the academic and professional activities described above, Dr. Flores participates actively with citizens’ movements promoting the right to health and equity.
Contact
CEGSS related communication: wflores@cegss.org.gt
Accountability Research Center communication: wflores@american.edu
Other communications: waltergflores@gmail.com
Walter Flores 