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Dr Asaad Nafees is an Associate Professor and Head of the Section of Environmental and Occupational Health and Climate Change, Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University (AKU), Karachi, Pakistan. He is a public health physician with a PhD from Imperial College London.
He has over 20 years of experience spanning research, academia, policy development, and the implementation of occupational health interventions. His work has focused particularly on improving occupational health and working conditions in the export-oriented textile manufacturing sector, alongside research and interventions addressing workers’ health across diverse occupational settings, including agriculture, construction, and the informal economy. A significant recent contribution has been his commissioning by the Government of Pakistan (Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to develop Pakistan’s first National Occupational Safety and Health Policy.
Dr Nafees has authored or co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications in national and international journals and has led and managed research grants supported by several national and international organizations, including the Wellcome Trust, WHO, and GIZ. He led a large cluster randomized controlled trial (MultiTex RCT) in Pakistan, which demonstrated the effectiveness of relatively simple workplace interventions, including educational workshops, in improving the respiratory health of textile workers.
In addition to his research and policy work, he is actively involved in teaching and professional capacity development. He teaches Occupational Health and Safety to postgraduate students and has designed and delivered numerous short courses and training programmes for professionals from diverse industrial and occupational settings over the past decade.