Sir David Nabarro obituary

Special envoy for the UN and the World Health Organization who was critical of the global response to Covid-19

Many young people start out wanting to make a difference. Sir David Nabarro, who has died aged 75, was unusual in recognising early on the power of synergy. Aged 17, he was the subject of a 1967 BBC documentary on volunteering when he spent a year as organiser of Youth Action, leading a group of 400 volunteers in York, between leaving Oundle public school and going to Oxford University to study medicine. That experience – coordinating efforts for maximum impact – presaged a life in public service spent urging, cajoling and commanding others to work together.

After stints as a medical officer in Iraq and Nepal, and as a health and population adviser in Kenya, he joined the World Health Organization, and subsequently the UN, leading the responses to the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami, the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the 2016 cholera outbreak in Haiti.