Health diplomat who helped guide UK health and development funding strategy. Born on March 10, 1973 in Woking, UK, he died on May 29, 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland, aged 52 years.
As a civil servant and health diplomat, Daniel Graymore often had to navigate fraught situations. Colleagues said he was skilled at such diplomacy, whether it was leading the UNAIDS Board through its response to allegations of sexual harassment within the agency or guiding the replenishment of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Danny had a positivity that surmounted any obstacle”, said Carole Presern, Professor of the Practice of Global Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. “He had a sense of social justice. He was a tough negotiator, but he did it in a way that was palatable.”
Graymore studied geography at University College London, UK, graduating in 1992. 4 years later he pursued a master’s degree in development studies at London South Bank University, UK. By that time, he was already working in the non-profit sector. It was in his role as the Private Sector and Trade Policy and Advocacy Officer for Christian Aid that he first came to the attention of the former Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK Government. Graymore joined DFID’s Policy Division in 2003, initially as part of the Global AIDS Policy Team. Robin Gorna, who is now Vice-Chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s Technical Review Panel, led the team at that time and remembers that they were “under massive pressure from the government” in the lead-up to the UK’s presidencies of both the Council of the European Union and what was then the G8 in 2005. Improving the global HIV response was a priority under both presidencies and “we had to deliver things that were politically exciting and would have a real impact”, Gorna recalled. She said Graymore “leveraged the political opportunity to improve the issues that mattered”.
Graymore rose through DFID, eventually becoming Deputy Head and Acting Country Director of DFID Ghana in 2010 and Country Director of DFID Uganda in 2012. There he encountered a challenging diplomatic situation with allegations of embezzlement by local government officials. Even as the UK temporarily paused direct funding to the Ugandan Government, “he worked extremely hard to make sure that we managed to try and maintain good relationships”, said Ali Forder, who was Deputy Head of Office for DFID Uganda at the time. “Most importantly, he made sure that it didn’t impact on what we were trying to do with the programmes that were going on there”, said Forder, who is now Director of Programme Quality and Impact at Save the Children UK. “He helped people to do their best in all the situations he was in”, said his wife, Louise Graymore, who is Head of Operations and Strategy in the Private Sector Division at UNICEF in Geneva, Switzerland. “He imbued passion into whatever he was doing. Everyone wanted to be on the team.”
In 2016, Graymore became the Geneva-based DFID Senior Representative and Head of DFID’s Global Funds Department, where he helped coordinate and guide UK global health priorities across a range of agencies, including WHO and the Global Fund. In that position he took over as Chair of UNAIDS’s Programme Coordinating Board in 2018. That year the agency was rocked by allegations of sexual harassment, precipitating an investigation that revealed an environment of bullying and abuse of power. “He played a critical role during that very difficult time keeping that organisation moving forward”, said Jane Ellison, WHO Executive Director for External Relations and Governance. Ellison adds: “He went through a robust process” of responding to the crisis.
A Gavi Board member from 2016 to 2020, Graymore was one of the main forces behind organising the alliance’s 2020 replenishment, hosted by the UK Government. The replenishment effort coincided with a change in British Prime Minister and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Graymore “was unflappable”, said Seth Berkley, Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “Nobody had ever done a replenishment at this level virtually before. He made an enormous amount of difference. You can quantify it in the financing and work that was done in the Gavi effort.”
The next year Graymore was seconded to WHO as Director of Strategic Engagement. “He was bursting with ideas, including a new investment case for the WHO”, said Ellison, who became his boss. For his contributions to improving health and wellbeing, Graymore received an OBE in 2021. He is survived by his wife Louise, their daughter, Rose, and sons, Jem and Elijah.
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Published: 24 September 2022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01785-8
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© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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