Dr. Sali Hafez is a health justice sociologist, researcher and humanitarian specialist with fifteen years of experience spanning academia, the United Nations, humanitarian organisations and international research and evaluation. Her work examines how power, institutions, inequality and social identity shape health, protection and access to public services, particularly in conflict-affected, displacement-affected and politically complex settings. She has worked extensively across Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Palestine, alongside broader research and humanitarian engagements across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Her expertise spans political economy, health systems, gender and gender-based violence, forced displacement, social and structural determinants of health, decolonial approaches to research and evaluation, and the sociology of humanitarian and public institutions. She has led and contributed to multi-country research, humanitarian needs assessments, evaluations, policy studies and community-engaged research for universities, UN agencies and international organisations. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh and an Archbishop Tutu Fellow, and holds a Doctorate in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Child Protection/Child Abuse, Coercive Population Control, Sexual Abuse/Assault, Forced Marriage, FGM/FGC, Gender-Based Violence/Domestic Violence /GBV, LGBTQ, Healthcare Access/Health Systems Capacity, Gang-Related Violence/Non-State Actors
Selected publications
Hafez, S., Pacho, A., Soremekun, S., Ranganathan, M., Gafos, M., Platt, L., & Ponsford, R. (2026). Decolonising global health evaluations: A scoping review of methodological frameworks. PLOS Global Public Health, 6(9), e0007362. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0007362
Hafez, S. (2026). Community Engagement in Epidemic Response: A Decolonial and Indigenous Approach. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health. Ed. . New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Hafez, S., Pacho, A., Ponsford, R., Ranganathan, M., Gafos, M., & Soremekun, S. (2026). Decolonising implementation science: a call for methodological pluralism. The Lancet Global Health, 14(2), e281–e285. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00477-2
Truppa, C., Saulnier, D. D., Bertone, M. P., Yamonn, N., Hafez, S., Witter, S., & Marchal, B. (2026). Getting unstuck: reframing health systems strengthening and resilience in fragile and conflict-affected settings. BMJ Global Health, 11(2), e020061. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2025-020061
Sy, H., Keita, Z., Aljadeeah, S., Hafez, S., Michielsen, J., Doumbia, S., & Marchal, B. (2026). Internally displaced people in Mali: another humanitarian and health crisis in the making. The Lancet Regional Health Africa, 100019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanafr.2025.100019
Aljadeeah, S., Satheesh, G., Hafez, S., Naguib, S., Neilson, A., Alaloul, A., Ooms, G., Shellah, D., Abu Shammala, B., & Ravinetto, R. (2025). Availability of essential medicines in 14 remaining health facilities in Gaza. The Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01819-7
Aljadeeah, S., Hafez, S., Abbara, A., & Chatty, D. (2025). Refugees and asylum seekers in Europe need a rights-based approach to the issue of return: insights from the case of the Syrian displacement. BMJ Global Health, 10(8), e019809. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2025-019809 (Letter)
Hafez, S., Clarke, A., Richter, K., Lokot, M., Rivas, A.-M., & Singh, N. S. (2025). Dismantling colonial legacies: decolonising research and teaching at the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. PLOS Global Public Health, 5(7), e0004833. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0004833
Smith, J., El-Solh, S., Hanbali, L., Abdulrahim, S., Hafez, S., Abuzerr, S., Wispelwey, B., Gilbert, M., Seyam, M., Hamad, B. A., Gucciardo, D., Haddad, F., Khoury, R., Nimerawi, A., Mills, D., & Abu-Sittah, G. (2025). Realising health justice in Palestine: beyond humanitarian voices. Conflict and Health, 19(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-024-00634-0 (Letter)
Clarke, A., Richter, K., Lokot, M., Rivas, A. M., Hafez, S., & Singh, N. S. (2024). Decolonising humanitarian health: A scoping review of practical guidance. PLOS Global Public Health, 4(10), e0003566. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0003566
Hanbali, L., Kwong, E. J. L., Neilson, A., Smith, J., Hafez, S., & Khoury, R. (2024). Israeli necropolitics and the pursuit of health justice in Palestine. BMJ Global Health, 9(2), e014942. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-014942
Hafez, S., Samson, S. S., Tanner, L., & Pendle, N. (2024). Self-care for maternal and reproductive health in conflict settings: qualitative case study in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, 5, 1367559. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2024.1367559
Hafez, S., Ismail, S. A., Zibwowa, Z., Alhamshary, N., Elsayed, R., Dhaliwal, M., Samuels, F., & Fakoya, A. (2024). Community interventions for pandemic preparedness: a scoping review of lessons from HIV, COVID-19, and other public health emergencies of international concern. PLOS Global Public Health, 4(5), e0002758. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002758
Smith, J., Kwong, E. J. L., Hanbali, L., Hafez, S., Neilson, A., & Khoury, R. (2023). Violence in Palestine demands immediate resolution of its settler colonial root causes. BMJ Global Health, 8(10), e014269. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-014269
Meagher, K., Khaity, M., Hafez, S., Rodo, M., El Achi, N., & Patel, P. (2023). Strengthening health systems and peacebuilding through women’s leadership: a qualitative study. Globalization and Health, 19(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-023-00920-1
Hafez, S., Munyati, B. M., Zeno, K., Gbozee, C. K. Z., Jusu, M., Reeves, M. Wesseh, C. S., Wiah, S. O., AlKhaldi, M., Johnson, K., & Subah, M. (2023). Examining the gender imbalance in the National Community Health Assistant Programme in Liberia: a qualitative analysis of policy and programme implementation. Health Policy and Planning, 38(2), 181–191. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czac075
Najjar S, Hafez S, Al Basuoni A, Obaid HA, Mughnnamin I, Falana H, Sultan H, Aljeesh Y, Alkhaldi M. (2022). Stakeholders' Perception of the Palestinian Health Workforce Accreditation and Regulation System: A Focus on Conceptualization, Influencing Factors and Barriers, and the Way Forward. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 2;19(13):8131. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19138131. PMID: 35805791; PMCID: PMC9265623.
Elnakib, S., Hussein, S. A., Hafez, S., Elsallab, M., Hunersen, K., Metzler, J., & Robinson, W. C. (2021). Drivers and consequences of child marriage in a context of protracted displacement: a qualitative study among Syrian refugees in Egypt. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 674. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10718-8
Book chapters
Hafez, S. (2026). Localising health system rebuilding in crisis settings. In W. Plowright & N. Dube (Eds.), Companion to humanitarian assistance. Routledge, forthcoming.
Hafez, S. (2026). Geographies of identities: a reflexive analysis of perceived Arab researcher positionality in Kurdistan Iraq. In Abasli, Hafez, & El-Assal (Eds.), Global South researchers in development studies: positionality, power, and vulnerability. Routledge, forthcoming.
Hafez, S., & Abdelwahid, I. (2026). Examining the foreign gaze in sexual and reproductive health research in Egypt. In N. Naples & A. Ryan (Eds.), Genders and sexualities in transnational perspective. Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming.
Hafez, S. (2026). Redefining safeguarding. In M. Capri & A. Mourad (Eds.), The Everyday Politics of Language in the Humanitarian Experience: An Arabic-English Glossary. Brill, forthcoming.
Hafez, S., & El Assal, A. (2025). Local humanitarianism and organisational complexities. In I. Natil (Ed.), Civil society and local ownership in the Global South. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003565048-2
Reports and policy briefs
AbuSammour, L., Al-Ameer, K., Hafez, S., Abu Shandi, H., & Al-Amir, K. (2025). Differences among users of modern and traditional family planning methods and those with unmet need in Jordan: a multivariable quantitative analysis enhanced by a qualitative approach. Higher Population Council and UNFPA Jordan. (In press)
Hafez, S. (2025). Gender-responsive health policies: a white paper. Women in Global Health (Egypt).
Hafez, S. (2025). Women of the South Speak Out: a learning paper. Mannion Daniels (funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)).
Tanner L, Nelson K, Greenway L, Hafez S, Periera E. (2025). Evaluation of Innovation in UNICEF (2019-2024). UNICEF Innovation Office.
Hafez, S., Abdelwahid, I. (2024). Study of strategic positioning of Love Matters Arabic: A decade of change. Love Matters Arabic (Internal document).
Tanner, L., Mwenda, F., Hafez, S. and Greenway, L.(2023). Evaluation of innovation in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (2018-2023).
Meagher, K., Rodo, M., Khaity, M., & Hafez, S. (2022). An untapped potential: women’s leadership in health in conflict and peacebuilding (policy brief). King’s College London.
Hafez, S., & MacDiarmid, C. (2022). Displacement financing for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon: using health as a thematic analysis. Durable Solutions Platform and Development Initiatives.
Tanner L, Hafez S, Ahimbisibwe L, Thomas J. (2022). The digital worlds of displacement-affected communities: A research in Lebanon, South Sudan and Papua New Guinea. GSMA and United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Hafez, S., MacDiarmid C. (2022). Displacement financing for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon: using health as a thematic analysis. Durable Solutions Platform and Development Initiatives.
Technical guidancese
Hafez, S., Pacho, A., Soremekun, S., Ranganathan, M., & Ponsford, R. (2026). Reflexive planning guide: practices for decolonising and indigenising evaluation methodologies. Centre for Evaluation, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Lokot, M., Pichon, M., Venner, G., Hafez, S., Ward, C., Ombidi, W., Bangirana, C., & Zimmerman, C. (2025). Power hierarchies during “field” visits: recommendations for researchers. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.04675452
Hafez S, Knight J. (2022). Resource pack on sharing tacit knowledge for humanitarians. ALNAP.
Ahlenback, V., Hafez, S. M. M., Aoun, R., Vlahakis, M., & Fraser, E. (2022). Resource pack and training toolkit on remote service delivery for survivors of violence (SGBV) in the Arab States. UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States.
Kashkoush, A., El-Khouly, M., Hafez, S., Hammouda, A. (2020) Using Sports for the Elimination of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Humanitarian Settings Toolkit. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Egypt Country Office.
In Iraq and the wider Syrian displacement context, I have worked with and conducted research involving Kurdish, Arab, Yezidi and Shabak communities, alongside other displaced and host populations whose experiences are shaped by intersecting ethnic, linguistic, religious and political identities. My doctoral and subsequent research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has further examined identity, power, displacement and institutional decision-making, including the ways communities negotiate access to services and representation within humanitarian and state systems.
In Egypt, my professional experience has included engagement with Bedouin communities in North Sinai and Nubian communities in Aswan, as well as refugee and migrant populations from Syria and several African countries. This work has strengthened my ability to analyse the interaction between ethnic identity, geography, socioeconomic marginalisation, citizenship, mobility and access to public services.
This work has involved analysing formal and informal power structures, government and local authority interests, relationships between humanitarian actors and public institutions, conflict-related governance arrangements, and the implications of political change for service delivery and protection. I have also undertaken stakeholder and risk analyses identifying potential political sensitivities, operational constraints, competing interests and mitigation measures. My approach is grounded in political economy and sociological analysis and focuses on how power, institutions and political context shape health, protection and humanitarian outcomes, rather than on partisan political assessment.
In Iraq and the Syrian displacement context, I have worked directly with communities including Yezidis, Arabs, Kurds and Shabak, as well as displaced and host populations whose social position is shaped by tribal affiliation, ethnicity, religion, displacement history and relationships with state and non-state institutions. My work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has given me particular experience of analysing how ethnic identity, political authority, displacement status and local social structures interact in shaping access to healthcare, humanitarian assistance, representation and decision-making. My research has also required sensitivity to intra-community differences and to the risks associated with treating ethnic, tribal or religious communities as internally homogeneous.
In Egypt, I have worked with Bedouin communities in North Sinai and Nubian communities in Aswan, developing an understanding of how geography, historical marginalisation, local identity and relationships with state institutions influence access to services and humanitarian or development interventions.
My work has also involved engagement with faith communities, including Christian and Bahá’í communities, alongside Muslim communities of different social and geographic backgrounds. This experience has strengthened my understanding of the relationship between religious identity, minority status, family and community structures, social norms, discrimination and access to services. Across all of these contexts, I approach tribal, ethnic and religious identity as dynamic and intersectional, shaped by history, political economy, displacement, class, gender and relationships with state and humanitarian institutions.
In Egypt, I worked on health and protection programmes for children at risk, including street-connected children and children affected by harmful practices such as FGM and child marriage. Through humanitarian and sexual and reproductive health programming, I have also worked on questions affecting queer communities and populations facing barriers to safe and non-discriminatory health services. Across my research and evaluation work, I have examined how gender, disability, sexuality, legal status, displacement, age and socioeconomic position intersect to produce unequal access to services, protection and decision-making.
My expertise is therefore not limited to particular population categories. A central feature of my work is analysing intersectionality: how multiple forms of social identity and structural disadvantage combine to shape vulnerability, agency, access to institutions and exposure to discrimination.
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