Photo of Dr Francis Makiya
Dr
Francis
Makiya

Francis Makiya is a Malawian medical doctor currently studying for a Master of Philosophy in Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Africa (MPhil SRRA) at the University of Pretoria. Graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor Surgery (MBBS) at the University of Malawi, College of Medicine in 2017. He has interests in ethics, health rights, and policy.

Currently working in Malawi with the Ministry of Health as the District Medical Officer (DMO) for Mwanza District. Francis is responsible for the daily running of the district hospital and affiliated health centers. As DMO, he is working in the frontline treating COVID-19 patients and leading in the efforts to end the pandemic through the work in Mwanza district.

He served as chairperson for the Medical Rights Watch (MRW) organisation of the University of Malawi, College of Medicine from 2016 to 2017. MRW is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and preserving the rights of patients and health care practitioners. Through education, public awareness, and action, MRW is fighting to preserve the right to safe, honest, and professional healthcare for all Malawians. MRW aims to improve the relationship between health care practitioners and patients as well as the environment in which that relationship takes place, through a focus on health rights.

At the end of 2019, Francis started working with a group of ethicists in Malawi to establish a Clinical ethics committee at one of the referral teaching hospitals.