Aman Abdelgader Yousuf Alawad, WHO fellow in Health System in Emergencies Lab, 20 October 2019–20 July 2020

It was a very interesting and educational experience. It added many new technical skills in addition to the knowledge on how WHO operates especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am a medical doctor and a public health professional with 14 years of experience; specializing in health system resilience in conflict and emergency settings.

What inspired you to come to work everyday?

Meeting my colleagues and learn from them in addition to the fact that I am contributing to the betterment of public health by developing policies, guidelines and briefs all inspired me to come to work everyday.

What are your future goals?

I will move to Sudan to work as a consultant for the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), in the USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, supporting the transitional government of Sudan through innovative programming. In Parallel I will start a PhD on Global Health Policy. I am also looking forward to working for WHO again in the near future.

What were your major contributions during the fellowship?

The Humanitarian Development Peace nexus for health in Sudan Country profile was the main document I developed. Moreover, I developed a brief on the role of health systems in COVID-19 response, draft terms of reference for the COVID-19 partners in fragile, conflict and vulnerable areas. In addition, I contributed to the concept note on modelling COVID-19 in refugee and camp settings, and assisted in organising the first humanitarian development peace nexus for health experts meeting.

What is your takeaway from this fellowship?

A better understanding of the humanitarian development peace nexus in fragile states. Also I developed an advanced knowledge of the systems approach to health, and an in-depth view of the work done by WHO technical departments and units. Finally, now I have a better grasp on the challenges and dynamics of health systems in fragile and conflict-affected states.

What were your fun experiences outside the office in Cairo?

Meeting with other fellows was a fun experience and I arranged different hangouts to get the fellows to explore Cairo and Egypt and visited some of Cairo famous touristic places that helped me to know each other outside the office.

Any tips and suggestions for future fellows?

Be confident and don't be hesitant to approach people, ask questions, and suggesting new ideas. Try to engage and learn from other units and departments.

Working in WHO especially during the COVID-19 pandemic was a golden opportunity. What I liked the most was working with public health professionals and experts, who made every discussion a new source of knowledge.