My research includes a range of studies focused on health policy and systems research to improve women's, children's and adolescent health in humanitarian crises settings. I spend my time between academic research and technical support to humanitarian health actors, including UN agencies and NGOs, at local, national and global levels.

I am the Principal Investigator of the RAISE study, which aims to assess governance (including decision-making and financing) and delivery of vaccines for children in humanitarian settings, to improve the equitable delivery of vaccines to zero-dose children in crises-affected settings. I co-lead the sexual and reproductive health-focused work package in the Afya Consortium, which conducts research on public health threats in populations affected by crises in Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. I am the health financing work package lead in the GOAL project, which aims to support government and partners in strengthening the ability of health systems to meet the mental health needs of Syrian refugee and host communities in Lebanon. 

My previous research has focused on health financing arrangements and service delivery for sexual and reproductive health interventions for South Sudanese refugee and host populations in Northern Uganda as part of the RECAP project; and on assessing the implementation of key health interventions for women and children in Syria as part of the BRANCH consortium. As part of this consortium, I also led a study on analysing the implementation of key interventions for women, children and adolescents in 10 conflict-affected countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America which was published in the first Lancet series on women's and children's health in conflict settings. I have conducted research on the impacts of COVID-19 on maternal, newborn and child health in humanitarian settings (report available here). In Afghanistan, I worked as part of an international team of academics to revise the country’s basic package of health services. I have also led a series of evidence reviews of sexual and reproductive health interventions, including for young people, in humanitarian settings.  

My research experience has made me keenly aware of inequities present in current research structures and health responses in humanitarian contexts. My vision is to develop and operationalise more respectful and gender-transformative ways of working in humanitarian settings and on sensitive issues (e.g. sexual and reproductive health). Working with humanitarian actors and academics, I led the first guidance document on conducting feminist and decolonial research in forced displacement settings, and am aiming to test and refine the checklist we proposed in my research. With a generous donation from the Reproductive Justice Initiative (formerly Decolonising Contraception), I have co-founded the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Equity Fund at LSHTM, which consists of a prize and scholarships aiming to encourage MSc students to conduct research on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of marginalised communities in the UK.

Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ij0s_0QAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate.