Itai Rusike is a public health activist with almost 20 years of experience organizing involvement of communities in health actions in Zimbabwe. He is the Executive Director of the Community Working Group on Health – Zimbabwe. He joined the organization at its inception in early 1998 and rose through the ranks from a Field Officer to Health Education Officer to Programme Manager and senior leadership.

Itai is the past Deputy-Chairperson of the Public Health Advisory Board in Zimbabwe, a member of the National Steering Committee on Results Based Financing (RBF), a National Maternal Deaths Surveillance and Response (MDSR) Committee Member, and National Steering Committee Member for the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH-A). Itai also serves as an Editorial Committee Member of the Health Matters Magazine in Zimbabwe. He represents NGOs in the National Steering Committee Member of the Health Development Fund (HDF) and is a member of the National Validation Committee for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis (EMTCT) in Zimbabwe.

He is a Steering Committee member of the Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET), coordinating the Social Empowerment Cluster for primary health care-oriented health systems. In addition to being a member of the WACI Health board, Itai is the chairperson for the People’s Health Movement Zimbabwe, a member of the Advisory Group for the UHC2030 Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM), and coordinator of the African Civil Society Network for Universal Health Coverage (AP-UHC). Itai is a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) for the Economic Social and Cultural Rights Thematic Working Group. He was in the first Zimbabwe National AIDS Council Board.

Itai holds tertiary level qualifications in mechanical engineering, community journalism, research methods, health financing and universal health coverage.