Monika Arora

Representing World Heart Federation, Director and Professor, Health Promotion Division

Prof. Monika Arora is a public health scientist working in the area of health promotion and health advocacy with focus on NCD prevention and control. She is the Director of the Health Promotion Division and Professor at Public Health Foundation of India. She is also Executive Director of Delhi based NGO: HRIDAY (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) in India. HRIDAY serves as the secretariat of Healthy India Alliance (India NCD Alliance).  She is Board Member of NCD Alliance, Geneva for the period 2019-2021.

Her expertise is in designing, implementing, managing and evaluating intervention programmes in various health promotion settings, large scale group randomized trials as well as qualitative and policy research on NCD prevention and management. Dr. Arora’s approach of translating research to policy and programme action have informed National Health Programmes.

She has been a member of Ad Hoc Working Group on Implementation, Monitoring and Accountability on Ending Childhood Obesity, formed by WHO Director General during 2014-2016. She was a member of WHO Civil Society Working Group on the third High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on NCDs.  She is currently a Member of Second WHO Civil Society Working Group on NCDs formed by the WHO Director General for the term April 2019-April 2021.

Prof. Arora has been honoured with the Best Practices Award in Global Health in 2011 by the prestigious Global Health Council, for demonstrating best practice example in the area of health promotion among youth and community, especially focusing on preventing NCDs. She has been awarded with the WHO Director General’s World No Tobacco Day Award in 2012; Dr. Prem Menon outstanding service award in January 2018 by World-India Diabetes Foundation (WIDF) in recognition of her contributions to the education and prevention of diabetes among children in India and “Exceptional Women of Excellence 2018 Award” by Women Economic Forum (WEF) in April 2018.

Updated: May 2021