From Outbreak Response to System Resilience: Tropical Medicine in Somalia
Why specialists in tropical medicine and infectious diseases are central to Somalia’s health security, and how to build the workforce the country needs.
Global Health Leader & Health Systems Expert
Dr Abdulrazaq Yusuf AhmedDr Jalaaludiin
Physician, health economist and demographer. As Founding Director General of Somalia’s Social Health Insurance Authority, he is building the institutions that make care affordable, safe and accountable.
MBChB · MD · MPH · MSc(HM) · PhD (Healthcare Economics) · PhD (Demography & Social Sciences) · FRSPH · FRSTMH · FeSMA
Evidence-informed reform with operational discipline.
- Founding Director GeneralSocial Health Insurance Authority (SHIA), Somalia
- Programme CoordinatorPostgraduate Tropical Medicine, Benadir University
- Associate ProfessorCity University of Mogadishu
- Founder & ChairmanRIYAADA Institute for Leadership and Governance
- Founder & ChairmanRUGSAN Consultancies and Research
- Country Ambassador, SomaliaRoyal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Leadership signatureCalaamadda hoggaaminta
Evidence-informed reform with operational discipline.
His leadership translates policy commitments into governance instruments, resourced implementation arrangements, competent teams, measurable quality standards and public accountability.
The emphasis is on implementation: ownership, role clarity, training, supervision, data use, practical tools, review cycles and measurable adherence.
The Jalaaludiin philosophy- Governance instruments
- Resourced implementation
- Competent teams
- Measurable quality standards
- Public accountability
Impact at a glanceSaameynta oo kooban
More than two decades of public and voluntary service, measured in people reached and institutions built
2020–2022
National COVID-19 leadership
De Martino National Public Hospital response, directed as Director General
20+
Years of public and voluntary service
Humanitarian and community-health service since 2004
Selected
Research outputs
Journal articles, reports, preprints and policy commentary
3
Health Sector Strategic Plans
Contributed to Somalia’s HSSP I, II and III
Scope of practiceBaaxadda xirfadda
Expertise that spans the whole health system
From financing and regulation to the hospital ward, with particular strength in fragile, federal and resource-constrained settings.
Universal health coverage
Health-financing reform, social health insurance, strategic purchasing and financial protection.
Policy and governance
Policy design, regulatory instruments, stewardship, federal–state coordination and accountability.
Hospital transformation
Clinical governance, patient safety, quality improvement, service-delivery standards and management systems.
Emergency leadership
Incident management, emergency operations, service continuity and public-health preparedness.
Health workforce
HRH policy, competency development, postgraduate education, supervision and organisational capability.
Research and evaluation
Health economics, mixed methods, policy analysis, implementation research and evidence synthesis.
Population and equity
Demography, displacement, gender, access, catastrophic expenditure and social determinants.
Knowledge systems
Curriculum development, technical writing, research mentoring and locally led scholarly platforms.
Leadership impactSaameynta hoggaaminta
Leadership tested in a fragile health system
Three appointments that define the record: a new national insurance authority, a national referral hospital and a pandemic response.
2026 – present
Founding Director General, Social Health Insurance Authority
Leading the establishment of Somalia’s social health insurance architecture: governance, enrolment strategy, purchaser–provider arrangements, provider readiness, quality assurance, claims and data systems, and phased implementation toward Universal Health Coverage.
Read the case study
May 2020 – Sep 2025
Director General, De Martino National Public Hospital
Led a national referral-hospital transformation through clinical governance, quality systems and protocol discipline, and directed the hospital response that managed COVID-19 cases during the national response.
Mar 2020 – Jul 2022National Incident Manager, COVID-19
Directed national Emergency Operations Centre coordination, multi-agency response arrangements, surveillance and continuity planning during the pandemic.
PhilosophyFalsafadda
In his own words
Convictions drawn from his teaching, writing and practice.
Accountability is not a slogan; it is an architecture.
No health-financing reform can succeed without understanding the people it is designed to protect.
Make the “first safe step” easy. In scarcity, perfect is the enemy of started.
Research impactSaameynta cilmi-baarista
Evidence from fragile settings, built for decisions
His research examines how health systems in fragile and conflict-affected settings move from policy aspiration to equitable and accountable implementation.
Selected recent work
- 2026
Operationalising Health Service Delivery in Somalia: A Health Systems Policy Analysis Toward Universal Health Coverage
BMC Health Services Research, 2026
- 2026
- 2025
Health Systems Governance in Somalia: An Examination of Validity, Digital Accountability, and Community Health Workforce through Mixed Methods Research
Advances in Social Sciences and Management, 3(04)
- 2022
Survival analysis of all critically ill patients with COVID-19 admitted to the main hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia
International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 114
InsightsMaqaallada
Latest perspectives
Short essays and research digests on financing, governance, quality and health security.
Tropical medicine & infectious disease
Health security & One Health
One Health in the Eastern Mediterranean
Health security & One Health
From Resolution to Resilience: Making One Health Work in the Conflict-Affected Eastern Mediterranean
A six-function framework for turning One Health commitments into practical action where conflict, displacement and fragmented financing stand in the way.
Notes from the MSc classroom
Teaching notes
Accountability Is an Architecture: Notes from the Health Systems Management Course
Key ideas from the MSc handbook on leadership, governance, stewardship and the three directions of accountability in a fragile, federal health system.
Published and profiled by
ReutersHealth Systems GlobalSomali MagazineJames Lind InstituteParis American International UniversityRSTMH
In the media