The Alliance Lift

The Alliance Lift: Dr Shalom Ndoula in conversation with Dr Daniela Rodríguez

The Alliance Lift is a series that spotlights the journeys of policy-makers, researchers and practitioners shaping health systems around the globe. In this Q&A, Daniela Rodriguez of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research speaks with Dr Shalom Ndoula, Country Director of the Expanded Programme on Immunization at Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health. With more than 20 years of experience spanning clinical medicine, district health management and national immunization leadership, Dr Ndoula has played a leading role in some of Cameroon’s major immunization milestones, including the rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine and the efforts that led to the country being declared free of wild poliovirus in 2020.Reflecting on his transition from clinical medicine into public health leadership, Dr Ndoula discusses the importance of adapting evidence-based policy to local realities and the tensions that can emerge between global recommendations, resource constraints and community expectations.Drawing on Cameroon’s experience with embedded implementation research through initiatives such as MAINSTREAM and the Big Catch-up case studies, they also talk about how policy-makers, frontline health workers and researchers can work together to build more responsive immunization systems. The interview explores the growing pressures facing immunization programmes globally, the long-term implications of declining health financing and why reaching zero-dose children ultimately means strengthening the relationship between communities and the health system itself.

The Alliance Lift: Dr Keith Cloete in conversation with Dr Kumanan Rasanathan

The Alliance Lift is a series that spotlights the journeys of Alliance alumni shaping health systems around the globe. In this episode, Dr Kumanan Rasanathan, Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, speaks with Dr Keith Cloete, Head of Health for the Western Cape Government in South Africa.Recorded following the recent Alliance Policy-maker Forum in Cape Town, the conversation reflects on lessons from the Western Cape health system, where policy-makers from around the world explored how leadership, research partnerships and systems thinking shape performance.A physician with more than three decades in public service, Dr Cloete shares how his experiences – from frontline clinical care to system leadership – have shaped his approach to building a learning health system.Together, they discuss relational leadership, system-wide and system-deep approaches and what it takes to lead health systems through crisis and change.

The Alliance Lift: Dr Katherine Ann Reyes in conversation with Mr Jeffrey Knezovich

In this episode, Mr Jeffrey Knezovich, host of The Alliance Lift, speaks with Dr Katherine Ann Reyes, based at the University of the Philippines Manila. A physician by training, Dr Reyes works at the intersection of public health, policy and health systems, with a focus on practical policy choices that affect everyday life – from tobacco control and healthy consumption to immunization and stronger promotive and preventive care. Jeffrey spoke with Katherine about the experiences that drew her from hospital-based care into prevention and public health, what she learned through the Alliance’s mentorship community and what makes the health policy and systems research ecosystem in the Philippines distinctive – including the role of government investment. Dr Reyes also reflects on her Alliance-supported work to improve uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the Philippines. She discusses what it means to approach vaccine uptake as a complex systems issue, why co-creation must be embedded throughout the research process and how careful framing and listening can create space for informed decision-making when vaccination intersects with sensitive issues.

The Alliance Lift: Professor Asha George in conversation with Ms Idil Shekh Mohamed

The Alliance Lift is a series that spotlights the journeys of Alliance alumni shaping health systems around the globe. In this episode, Ms Idil Shekh Mohamed, host of the Alliance Lift, speaks with Professor Asha George, the South African Research Chair in Health Systems, Complexity and Social Change at the University of the Western Cape. A globally recognized qualitative researcher, Professor George examines the interface between communities, health workers and health systems through lenses of governance, gender and human rights. She also serves as the Alliance’s 2025 Thinker in Residence, supporting reflection on how the field of health policy and systems research can engage more intentionally with gender equality. Idil spoke with Asha about how early work shaped by global commitments on women’s rights influenced her approach to health systems, what she learned from working within her own health system in India and why she believes health workers’ lived realities must be more central to health systems research and practice today. Professor George also reflects on the importance of listening to voices that are often marginalized, addressing silences that have become normalized within health systems and building alliances that connect evidence to action.

The Alliance Lift: Ms Racha Fadlallah in conversation with Mr Jeffrey Knezovich

The Alliance Lift is a series that spotlights the journeys of Alliance alumni shaping health systems around the globe. In this Q&A, Mr Jeffrey Knezovich, a Technical Officer at the Alliance, talks with Ms Racha Fadlallah, a Senior Scientific Officer at the Knowledge to Policy (K2P) Center at the American University of Beirut and co-founder of the SPARK Center for systematic reviews in health policy and systems research. Beyond Lebanon, she also serves on the Board of Health Systems Global and contributes to the strategic direction of WHO’s Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet). Jeffrey spoke with Racha about her path into health policyand systems research, her work strengthening evidence-informed decision-making in Lebanon and globally, how crises and change shape the way evidence is used today, and her hopes and expectations for next year’s Ninth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research [https://hsr2026.healthsystemsresearch.org/]. She shares how her early experiences shaped her commitment to making evidence accessible, what it means to work in a context of political and economic instability, and how to make the case for evidence-informed policy-making.