In this episode of the Alliance Lift, Ms Idil Shekh Mohamed of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research speaks with Dr Hodan Duale, a medical doctor who leads the Somali Institute for Health Research (SIHR).

Dr Duale’s career spans clinical care, humanitarian programmes and research, from maternal and child health to health equity, and has been built alongside ministries, international partners and communities in Somalia.

Reflecting on the move from the outpatient clinic to public health, she discusses what it means to do research in a health system rebuilding after state collapse, where responsibilities are split between federal and state authorities and services still lean heavily on humanitarian aid.

As principal investigator on KNOSA – Partnerships for Stronger Knowledge Systems in Africa – in Somalia, Dr Duale describes what changes when researchers and policy-makers spend days in the same room, and why a knowledge system has to be connected to decision-making if it is going to last.