Robert Makombe

Acting Director, Tuberculosis

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Robert Ranganai Makombe is Acting Director of the Tuberculosis (TB) division in the Infectious Diseases and Health Systems department at FHI 360. In this role, he provides technical leadership and oversight of FHI 360’s TB programs. A public health physician, Makombe has experience in clinical and programmatic management of TB, TB/HIV and drug resistant-TB, as well as technical support in responding to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Prior to joining FHI 360, Makombe was Chief of Party for the USAID Tuberculosis South Africa Project implemented by University Research Co., LLC (URC) and oversaw the annual project planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. He also served as a Regional TB Technical Advisor under the USAID TB CARE II project, again under URC, to support countries in southern and eastern Africa and led technical support teams to design, implement, monitor and evaluate activities to address TB in the mining sector in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Prior to that, Makombe worked as a TB/HIV Scientist assigned to CDC Botswana, providing technical support in the development and implementation of PEPFAR TB/HIV activities. Additionally, he served as an intercountry professional in the World Health Organization’s Africa Regional Office (WHO/AFRO), providing technical support to implement and monitor the DOTS strategy, TB/HIV collaborative activities and community‐based TB interventions in the organization’s southern and eastern African epidemiological bloc.

Born in Zimbabwe, Makombe obtained his medical degree at the University of Zimbabwe and a master’s degree in community health from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a member of several professional associations and recently completed a term as a TB expert in the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.