Shahnaz Habib

Bangladeshi social entrepreneur who created sustainable healthcare systems in rural Asia through community-based models

Shahnaz Habib (b. 1965) is a Bangladeshi innovator whose community health worker programs transformed primary care access in South Asia. As founder of 《Health for All Bangladesh》, she developed the first mobile health units using bicycles to reach remote villages, a model later adopted globally. Her 1992 book 《Rural Healthcare Revolution》 outlined strategies that increased maternal survival rates by 70% in target regions. Habib also pioneered the use of solar-powered medical devices in off-grid clinics, a practice now standard in WHO guidelines. Her work inspired the UNICEF Health Innovation Fellowship, which has trained 3,000+ health workers across 22 countries. The World Bank credits her systems with saving over 2 million lives by 2000.