Fortune Effiong

Fortune Effiong is a Medical Laboratory Scientist, global health researcher, and social impact strategist. His research interests focus on health financing and evaluating the cost-effectiveness of health interventions.

His social impact work bridges two critical gaps — the evidence production gap between high- and low-income countries, and the research-to-practice gap — with the goal of improving evidence use and supporting evidence-informed decision-making. He has led several initiatives to bridge this gap as Executive Director of the Systematic Reviews Network (SRN).

Effiong is the Executive Director of the Systematic Reviews Network (SRN), formerly known as the African Community for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (ACSRM). He secured the AuthorAID (now Rising Scholars) community seed grant to launch the organization at the University of Rwanda and the University of Lagos, Nigeria. SRN’s mission is to promote the production and use of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Under his leadership, SRN has organized numerous webinars and workshops in Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda, and Ghana, reaching thousands of participants globally.

In recognition of his growing contributions to evidence translation, Effiong won the WHO TDR grant to road test knowledge translation tools in West Africa, further advancing his work on bridging the research-to-practice divide.

He has delivered oral presentations at prestigious international conferences, including the 2nd ECOWAS Lassa Fever Conference (2025, Côte d’Ivoire), the 13th International AIDS Society Conference (2025, Kigali, Rwanda), the 7th Global Forum on TB Vaccines (2024, Rio de Janeiro), and the Third International Conference on Public Health in Africa (2023, Lusaka).

He is the Founder of #GetCoveredNaija, a social impact initiative focused on improving awareness, access, and enrollment in Nigeria’s health insurance schemes, empowering citizens to achieve better financial protection and universal health coverage.

Effiong also serves as the National Secretary of Rising Scholars Nigeria, where he supports various research capacity-building programs and workshops, including the flagship Rising Scholars Nigeria Research Writing and Publication Course, mentorship programs, and research writing workshops.

He is an active member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH) Meetings and Events Committee, contributing to the organization’s regional and international conferences, research-in-progress meetings, and webinars. In 2022, he received the RSTMH Small Grant Award to conduct a multicenter evaluation of state health insurance schemes in Nigeria.

Effiong’s overarching goal is to strengthen research capacity in LMICs through mentorship, training, and advocacy, empowering a new generation of researchers to produce and apply evidence that informs policy and practice.