Charles Festo is Head of the Data Systems Unit at Ifakara Health Institute.  His professional background is statistics and computer science. Festo’s areas of research interests include: maternal, child health, and nutrition. He has a passion for high-level quantitative problem-solving. Over the last ten years, he has been engaged in jobs that integrate data management and advanced statistical analysis in health care.

Festo obtained his MSc in Medical Statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in 2014. Before that, he graduated with another MSc degree in Health Informatics from the University of Dar es Salaam in 2012.

Festo joined IHI in 2010 as a Data Manager for the “Monitoring Interventions to Improve Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy Access and Targeting in Tanzania” IMPACT2 project. Since then, he has been a focal person in software development and data analysis for a number of projects in the Institute, including the evaluation of integrated nutrition interventions aiming to reduce stunting in Tanzania.

Other projects that Festo was involved in are evaluation of school net distribution program funded by the USAID through Tulane University and evaluation of the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) survey funded by the global fund through the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children.

Prior to joining IHI, Festo acquired substantial practical experience of managing large-scale research projects data while working with the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania and MUCHS Harvard Project-currently know as Management and Development for Health (MDH). He joined MDH in September 2007 as a computer programmer with the role of developing applications for data collection, performing data management for Trial of Vitamins in HIV Progression and Transmission, and supporting the Ministry of Health and social welfare CTC2 database.

Later on, in August 2009, Festo joined the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tanzania as a Data Manager. In this role, he supported the implementation of the sickle cell study database and management systems including re-designing and development, identifying and correcting database errors, supervising data collection activities, monitoring data quality, and performing system documentation of all data management activities.#