Rahaf Abu Koura

I'm a research fellow in Humanitarian Health Practice at the LSHTM. I'm a pharmacist and public health researcher from Syria with over 9 years of experience in public health programming and research in humanitarian settings. I have filled various roles supporting the design and delivery of health and health-related programs and research in crisis-affected settings across the Middle East and Eastern Africa, including Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, and the UK. My expertise and research interests centre on addressing the health disparities of crisis-affected populations, with a particular focus on epidemic surveillance, population mortality, malnutrition, antimicrobial resistance, and sexual and reproductive health.

In my current role at the LHSTM, I'm the coordinator of CAM-SUDAN, a research project aimed at estimating conflict-attributable mortality in Sudan to inform humanitarian interventions, governmental stakeholders, and civil society groups' response to the ongoing crisis. By presenting evidence on the trends in mortality rates and shedding light on the conflict dynamics, the research aims to push towards evidence-based responses to the crisis. The research project is in collaboration with key national civil society organisations and community initiatives.

I am a member of the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre and a member of the Afya Consortium, a multi-disciplinary, collaborative research program on public health threats in populations affected by crises. She is also an active member of the Sudan Research Group, a community-led, youth-powered movement dedicated to generating actionable evidence to tackle public health challenges in Sudan.

I hold a Master of Public Health from the University of Leeds, and I am a Chevening Award alumna. Currently, I'm a PhD candidate at LSHTM, focusing on co-production and the use of co-production principles in research in Humanitarian settings.