TIAN JOHNSON
From Development to Liberation: Building African Power on Our Terms
Pan-African Health and Development Strategist | Global Health Governance | Programme Management and Accountability
Tian Johnson is a Pan-African health and development strategist with more than two decades of experience advancing locally led development, health systems strengthening, and evidence-based policy implementation across the African continent. Tian is the Founder and Head of the African Alliance, a Pan-African development organisation that works in partnership with governments, civil society, and regional institutions to strengthen governance, programme effectiveness, and accountability across the health and development sectors.
Global Governance and Financing Leadership
Tian serves as a Board Member of the Robert Carr Fund, the world’s largest funding mechanism supporting development networks and community-based organisations working with inadequately served populations. In this governance role, Tian contributes to oversight of investments across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe through the Fund’s participatory model, which has been recognised by UNAIDS as a global best practice in inclusive governance and accountability.
As a former Advisor to the World Bank’s Pandemic Fund, Tian played a key role in reviewing and shaping proposals under the Fund’s Second Call for Proposals, which allocated USD 547 million to 50 countries across six global regions, including USD 128.89 million in expedited support to ten countries responding to mpox outbreaks. This work involved aligning donor investments with national development strategies, integrating performance and monitoring frameworks, advocating for meaningful community engagement, and strengthening coordination between governments, technical partners, and financing institutions.
Science, Technology, and Research Governance
Tian serves on the Lancet Global Health Commission on Artificial Intelligence and HIV, contributing to governance and ethical frameworks that promote responsible and inclusive use of digital technologies in public health. The Commission’s work includes mapping innovation landscapes, identifying implementation and equity gaps, and issuing practical recommendations for governments and development partners to ensure that digital systems strengthen accountability and service delivery rather than deepen inequality.
As Co-Principal Investigator for Community Engagement in the BRILLIANT HIV Vaccine Discovery Consortium, an eight-country collaboration led by the South African Medical Research Council, Tian strengthened governance, coordination, and community inclusion within complex scientific and development programmes. The Consortium’s Scientific Advisory Group commended this work as “exceeding expectations,” demonstrating that technical excellence and inclusive participation can coexist in high-level research environments.
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Continental and National Advisory Roles
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tian was appointed to the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Vaccines, where they contributed to equitable vaccine allocation frameworks, supply chain strengthening, and public trust in national immunisation programmes.
At the continental level, Tian was invited by Dr John Nkengasong, then Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and former U.S. Global AIDS Ambassador, to co-lead the Community Engagement and Accountability Workstream of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance (AVDA). In this role, Tian ensured that community realities informed strategies to improve accountability, transparency, coordination, and public engagement in vaccine delivery across African Union Member States.
Institutional Governance and Advisory Roles
Tian is a member of the Advisory Council of the Global LGBTI+ Rights Commission, an international initiative established to analyse global threats to rights, understand their root causes, and inform coordinated responses.
Tian also serves as the Civil Society representative on the Management Board of the National Institute for Health Innovation and Systems, a global health institute hosted by the University of Cape Town. The Institute supports National Immunisation Technical Advisory Groups and health systems strengthening efforts across more than 47 countries. In this role, Tian provides strategic governance oversight focused on evidence-informed decision-making, immunisation policy, institutional sustainability, and alignment between global, regional, and national health priorities.
Development Practice, Climate Justice, and Partnerships
Through the African Alliance, Tian has led or advised development initiatives supported by major international partners, including UNAIDS, USAID, WHO, the World Bank, the Global Fund, AIDS Fonds, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This work builds on Tian’s long-standing engagement with donor and philanthropic institutions to support the decolonisation of development strategies and the genuine integration of community realities to improve impact and accountability.
Increasingly, this work integrates climate justice perspectives, recognising the links between climate disruption, health system strain, displacement, and the disproportionate burden of emergencies borne by marginalised communities. Tian’s approach positions climate, health, and pandemic preparedness as interdependent challenges that require integrated governance and community-centred solutions.
Current and Forward Work
Today, Tian’s work is driven by the conviction that development without liberation is merely another form of control, and that health justice, climate justice, and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response are inseparable in a continent facing escalating climate shocks, displacement, and inequality.
This commitment is reflected in ongoing work to centre community actors across eight African countries within national pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response processes and governance structures. The focus is on strengthening community ownership, accountability, and sustained participation in PPPR planning, implementation, and monitoring, ensuring that preparedness systems are grounded in lived realities rather than crisis-only consultation.
Building on longstanding efforts to advance African leadership in research and development, Tian directs an intervention expanding Africa-led, decolonial approaches to knowledge production and governance through the African Alliance’s Shango Fellowship. This work supports a new generation of African leaders to challenge extractive research models, rebalance power in global development systems, and embed African agency, ethics, and accountability at the centre of research and policy practice.
Thought Leadership and Recognition
Tian is a Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship, a global leadership programme amplifying African expertise in international development. They have contributed to publications in The Lancet, Mail and Guardian, Project Syndicate, Health-e News, Daily Maverick, and News24, with a focus on governance, accountability, and African-led development.
Tian’s forward work is committed to building African-led institutions that are resilient to political backlash, capable of challenging global inequities, and accountable to the communities they exist to serve. Their practice insists that African communities must not merely survive development agendas, but own them, shaping futures rooted in dignity, justice, health, and shared prosperity.