Syarifah Liza Munira, Applying Her Knowledge to Strengthen Health Financing Policy in Indonesia

In December 2022, Syarifah Liza Munira was appointed as Deputy Minister and Head of the Health Policy Agency for the Ministry of Health. She returned from her Research Fellowship at the Department of Health Services Research and Policy, Australian National University, to take up the position.

Liza’s background had combined academia with some experience in the private sector and work for multinational institutions. While working in multinational institutions, Liza’s mentors advised her to do a PhD to ensure that her policy focus was underpinned by academic research.

“One piece of advice was that a PhD would give me currency that would translate across different networks and circumstances”, Liza commented.

Initially, Australia was not on the list of Liza’s preferred destinations. She received offers from the United States and looked at opportunities in the United Kingdom. Thinking carefully through the opportunities, Liza finally decided on ANU for two reasons. She was informed that she received the Allison Sudrajat Prize and that this would help her fund additional research for her dissertation. Her choice of supervisor was also key.

“My supervisor has the same background in economics with a health focus, so we speak the same language”, explained Liza.

After returning to Indonesia and spending some time in the private sector with a multinational pharmaceutical company, Liza took up a research fellowship back in ANU focusing on applied health economic research with a focus on economic evaluation of health interventions.

“Going back to Australia wasn’t intentional. The opportunity that was offered to me was exactly the type of research I wanted to do, to build up my research skills for public policy purposes.”

Although her studies in Australia weren’t smooth sailing, with restructuring occurring in her research school over the course of her PhD, Liza still recommends the experience.

“I handle health policy in Indonesia. This includes benchmarking and I keep on looking at Australia as an example. There are diverse communities and geographic challenges. Australia has also implemented lots of useful health reform policy that we can learn from.”