Mona Ibrahim

Dr Mona Ibrahim is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Social Policy and Intervention and an Associate Fellow of Nuffield College, serving as Strategic Policy Lead for high-impact collaborations with UN agencies, governments, and civil society in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Her work focuses on evidence-based policy to strengthen social protection and public health systems across sub-Saharan Africa, with recent leadership in re-imagining humanitarian-development-peace nexus programming.

Her educational foundation includes a medical degree from Sudan, providing frontline clinical experience in conflict zones that directly informs her research approach. This background enables unique integration of clinical insights with policy design for vulnerable populations.

Dr Ibrahim's research centers on building age-sensitive, gender-transformative social protection systems in crises, with six core pillars:

• Community-led mutual aid models for social assistance
• Adolescent-friendly health services integration
• Cash 'plus' interventions for HIV and food security
• Violence prevention in welfare systems
• Gender-responsive programming in conflict settings
• Health system resilience during political transitions

Her Sudan-focused portfolio navigates fragmented governance to develop ground-up protection mechanisms.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals consistent emphasis on social protection as a cross-cutting enabler for health and development goals in conflict zones, particularly highlighting how food security interventions reduce HIV vulnerability among adolescents and how community-based surveillance systems function amid health system collapse. Key geographic focus remains Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa with strong methodological diversity including capture-recapture mortality studies and systematic reviews of HIV responses.

Recognition for her contributions includes:

• Two departmental awards for excellence (2024)
• Highly commended for the 2025 Social Science Impact Awards

She leads a major funded portfolio on Sudanese social protection systems through the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention, convening high-level dialogues with the African Union and WHO to reframe social assistance in conflict zones. Her partnerships with WFP, WHO, and UNDP translate research into regional frameworks for adolescent health and cash programming.

Based at Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention, Dr Ibrahim co-leads the CEBI research groups on Child and Family Welfare, Public Health, Social Inequality, and Violence Prevention. She actively shapes global policy through advisory roles in the WHO Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Inter-agency Task Team on HIV in Emergencies, and African Union’s Calestous Juma Executive Dialogues.