Episode 84

Allyship in Gender Justice

We explore what allyship really means in the fight for gender justice. Co-hosted by Ishrat Jahan from the Countering Backlash, Reclaiming Gender Justice programme, the conversation unpacks how power, privilege, and positionality shape allyship, and how solidarity must move beyond tokenism to be truly transformative. Our guests reflect on allyship within health systems, across movements, and in the face of patriarchal and political backlash in Brazil and India. Part of our mini-series Backlash, Resistance and the Path to Gender Justice, this episode highlights lived experiences and fresh perspectives from long-standing gender justice advocates.

In this episode:

Ishrat Jahan - Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health at BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Ishrat’s research focuses on the intersection of gender, health, and environmental issues. Ishrat is involved in national and international projects exploring the impact of climate change on women’s health, adaptive practices in marginalised communities, and Global South-led curricula in higher education.

Dr. Abhijit Das - Consultant, SAHAYOG, India

Dr. Abhijit Das is a public health physician with over 35 years of work on gender equality and understanding harmful masculinities. He is a co-founder of the MenEngage Global Alliance and COPASAH, and has worked extensively on building bottom-up knowledge for health systems reform. He is currently an Independent Researcher and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Professor Cecilia Sardenberg - Professor of Anthropology and Feminist Studies, NEIM, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil

Professor Cecilia Sardenberg is a Brazilian feminist scholar and activist who has worked at the intersection of academia and grassroots organising for more than five decades. She is one of the founders of NEIM, the Women’s Studies Research Centre at the Federal University of Bahia, and currently co-coordinates the Countering Backlash, Reclaiming Justice programme in Brazil.

Useful links:

Want to hear more podcasts like this?

Follow Connecting Citizens to Science on your usual podcast platform or YouTube to hear more about current research and debates within global health and development.

The podcast cuts across disciplines, including health systems strengthening, gender and intersectionality, tropical diseases (NTDs, TB, Malaria), maternal and child healthcare (antenatal and postnatal care), mental health and wellbeing, vector-borne diseases, climate change and co-production approaches.

If you would like your project or programme to feature in an episode or miniseries, get in touch with the producers of Connecting Citizens to Science, the SCL Agency.

Transcript
Speaker:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Hello and welcome to Connecting Citizens to Science, a

Speaker:

global health and development podcast that brings together researchers,

Speaker:

practitioners, and community voices to share insights that drive positive change.

Speaker:

Today, you're listening to our miniseries entitled Backlash, Resistance

Speaker:

and the Path to Gender Justice.

Speaker:

We are exploring how civic spaces are shrinking for those working in the

Speaker:

gender justice field, and what resistance looks like in different contexts.

Speaker:

Today is the third episode, and the focus is allyship.

Speaker:

What does this mean?

Speaker:

Who does it serve?

Abhijit Das:

Allyship is being considerate about others while

Abhijit Das:

understanding that you have a role to play in bringing about greater justice,

Abhijit Das:

solidarity, and equality in the world.

Abhijit Das:

Dr. Kim Ozano: So across this six part mini-series, we're hearing from two

Abhijit Das:

long-term gender justice programmes who are sharing lessons as they learn them.

Abhijit Das:

The first is funded by SIDA and led by IDS.

Abhijit Das:

It's called Countering Backlash, Reclaiming Justice and it's a six-year

Abhijit Das:

research programme aiming to create much needed new knowledge around the complex

Abhijit Das:

phenomena of patriarchal backlash.

Abhijit Das:

The programme's main countries of focus are Bangladesh, Brazil,

Abhijit Das:

India, Kenya, Lebanon and Uganda.

Abhijit Das:

The second programme is called Our Voices, Our Futures, and it's a Global

Abhijit Das:

South led initiative working to amplify the voices of structurally silenced

Abhijit Das:

women across Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, and Uganda.

Abhijit Das:

And that's funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands and coordinated by CREA.

Abhijit Das:

All of these episodes within this gender mini-series are co-hosted by

Abhijit Das:

researchers from these programmes and each conversation shares

Abhijit Das:

reflections from people on the front lines of gender justice struggles.

Abhijit Das:

So, a word of caution just before we begin the episode does include

Abhijit Das:

discussions of gender-based violence, attacks on reproductive rights

Abhijit Das:

and racism within health systems.

Abhijit Das:

So, take care while listening and step away if you need to.

Abhijit Das:

I'm Dr. Kim Ozano, and I'm joined today by our co-host Ishrat Jahan,

Abhijit Das:

who is from the Countering Backlash, Reclaiming Justice programme, and she

Abhijit Das:

brings experience of gender health and climate justice across South Asia.

Abhijit Das:

In addition, we're joined by two experienced voices in today's

Abhijit Das:

discussion, and collectively, they have decades of experience working

Abhijit Das:

in the gender justice field.

Abhijit Das:

The first is Dr. Abhijit Das, who is a public health physician and is a

Abhijit Das:

long-term advocate for gender equality with over 35 years of work challenging

Abhijit Das:

harmful masculinities in India and beyond.

Abhijit Das:

We are also joined by Professor Cecilia Sardenberg, who is a Brazilian

Abhijit Das:

feminist anthropologist and the co-coordinator of the Countering

Abhijit Das:

Backlash programme in Brazil.

Abhijit Das:

She has decades of experience combining academic research

Abhijit Das:

with grassroots activism.

Abhijit Das:

So, let's get started.

Abhijit Das:

Ishrat,

Abhijit Das:

Perhaps you could set us up for this episode by talking to us a little

Abhijit Das:

bit about what your understanding of allyship is in gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

It's so great to be back and I'm really excited

Ishrat Jahan:

to be a part of today's episode.

Ishrat Jahan:

Allyship is a little tricky for me, and I say this fully aware that I'm someone

Ishrat Jahan:

who's worked in gender, who's worked in women's issues, in the intersections

Ishrat Jahan:

of health, climate, what have you.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, you will think that I would be someone who knows exactly what allyship is, but

Ishrat Jahan:

I'd like to start off this episode by saying that I don't, especially because

Ishrat Jahan:

we live in such times where you face multiple crises from every direction.

Ishrat Jahan:

And while I get the sense that allyship is more important than ever, we need to be

Ishrat Jahan:

really talking about it in a critical way.

Ishrat Jahan:

We need to understand what it means from a very personal space because

Ishrat Jahan:

allyship is first and foremost a personal commitment, but it's also

Ishrat Jahan:

a collective community effort.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, what does that mean?

Ishrat Jahan:

How does that happen?

Ishrat Jahan:

I'm hoping today's conversation would give me some answers as well.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, there's a very interesting statistics from a 2019 report which is that 77%

Ishrat Jahan:

of men think that they are really good allies to women, that they're

Ishrat Jahan:

doing everything they can to support gender equality at home or at work.

Ishrat Jahan:

But only 41% of women agree that men around them are good allies.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think that's, that gap in terms of what allyship means to different

Ishrat Jahan:

people and why we need to be having this conversation in the first place.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I think it's good to start the conversation from perhaps

Ishrat Jahan:

a more personal point of view.

Ishrat Jahan:

And I wanna ask Abhijit, what does the term allyship or

Ishrat Jahan:

being an ally mean to you?

Abhijit Das:

You know, allyship as you very correctly pointed out is

Abhijit Das:

all about a personal feeling or.

Abhijit Das:

Uh, I should say realisation because, and the listeners can't see me, I am

Abhijit Das:

an older male, very well educated.

Abhijit Das:

So, in my context in India, I am what you would call upper caste, upper class.

Abhijit Das:

So, I am all boxes ticked for what you would call privilege and, uh, to

Abhijit Das:

understand allyship, the other thing that you have, have to understand is

Abhijit Das:

the way power is distributed in society.

Abhijit Das:

Resources are distributed because of that power and how responsibilities,

Abhijit Das:

obligations, et cetera, get distributed because of various axis of power of class,

Abhijit Das:

caste, gender, sexual orientation, and in India, caste, ethnicity, et cetera.

Abhijit Das:

Now, if I have to be an ally to the overall journey of justice, which is in

Abhijit Das:

a way redistribution of power, where the opportunities and obligations get shared

Abhijit Das:

between different, uh, power groups, which are different social groups,

Abhijit Das:

different gender groups, different ethnic groups, one has to understand

Abhijit Das:

that as an individual who believes in allyship, I have to start sharing.

Abhijit Das:

I have to take commitment towards the equalisation, not only as a legal

Abhijit Das:

principle, not only as a principle which the state has to do, but something that

Abhijit Das:

I have to take individual commitment for.

Abhijit Das:

And for me, this is the beginning of the allyship journey.

Ishrat Jahan:

That's a fabulous take.

Ishrat Jahan:

Same question if I can throw to Cecilia?

Ishrat Jahan:

Cecilia Maria Bacellar Sardenberg: Okay, In Brazil, I am considered a privileged

Ishrat Jahan:

because I have a PhD and I had the opportunity to go abroad when I was 17

Ishrat Jahan:

years old, I, I won this scholarship, and I went to live in the United States,

Ishrat Jahan:

and then I lived there for many years, and I came back to Brazil as a professor.

Ishrat Jahan:

So I am in a privileged position, but my family's not that rich.

Ishrat Jahan:

Never been, just middle class.

Ishrat Jahan:

But I have been involved in several movements, in several struggles in Brazil.

Ishrat Jahan:

So allyship, you know, I'm not very familiar with this concept.

Ishrat Jahan:

We don't use it that much in Brazil, uh, with the term.

Ishrat Jahan:

But with the concept, yeah, that of solidarity, it's a fundamental

Ishrat Jahan:

principle in women's movements, you know, feminist movements in Brazil in

Ishrat Jahan:

particular, they express this solidarity in the maxim of sisterhood is powerful.

Ishrat Jahan:

The very notion of sisterhood implies solidarity, and that of extend your

Ishrat Jahan:

hand to bring your sister up to where you stand or even above, right?

Ishrat Jahan:

So I think the collective action perpetuates this, the emergence

Ishrat Jahan:

of networks of support among women and amplifying women's voices.

Ishrat Jahan:

And, and I think this is especially important, the context of gender

Ishrat Jahan:

justice , particularly in the case of confronting gender-based violence

Ishrat Jahan:

as well as, uh, in the health context when we consider obstetric violence.

Ishrat Jahan:

Brazil has legal abortion since 1940.

Ishrat Jahan:

Abortions are, are permitted in cases where the pregnancy is a result of rape,

Ishrat Jahan:

if the pregnancy, uh, brings a threat to women's life, and also in the case of

Ishrat Jahan:

where it is proved that the foetus has no possibility of life outside of the uterus.

Ishrat Jahan:

However, they've been moves to take these rights away from women So, uh, we've been

Ishrat Jahan:

working a lot in this area, and we've even wrote papers about the backlash.

Ishrat Jahan:

We have a very good health system in Brazil.

Ishrat Jahan:

However, racism is very strong within it.

Ishrat Jahan:

And, uh, we know that black women who go to deliver in these hospitals suffer

Ishrat Jahan:

discrimination and even violent treatment.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, uh, this is really important for us to exercise our solidarity

Ishrat Jahan:

in supporting women, supporting the black women's movements in

Ishrat Jahan:

Brazil to change the situation.

Ishrat Jahan:

What we have now started talking about is power, and something

Ishrat Jahan:

that when I think about all allyship or all the conversations that I've

Ishrat Jahan:

had in academia, just with friends in communities, a lot of the times when we

Ishrat Jahan:

talk about allyship, we don't take into account that we are also talking about

Ishrat Jahan:

power, privilege, and positionality.

Ishrat Jahan:

The three of us do tick some boxes of privilege.

Ishrat Jahan:

We are sitting here and speaking of allyship, but I think it's

Ishrat Jahan:

a good thing, Abhijit that you pointed out, your definition of

Ishrat Jahan:

allyship with positionality... and

Abhijit Das:

is no other way to talk about allyship.

Abhijit Das:

I'm very clear and to understand allyship further, what one has to understand is

Abhijit Das:

the way gender relationships are changing in the last 50 odd years because we

Abhijit Das:

cannot work with the same definition.

Abhijit Das:

I see the situation now, both in terms of health system aspirations, in terms

Abhijit Das:

of social relationships, and in terms of economic arrangements in the world, they

Abhijit Das:

have affected women and men differently.

Abhijit Das:

The changes that have taken place have affected poor men, excluded men,

Abhijit Das:

men from, uh, ethnic communities, which are marginalised, new groups

Abhijit Das:

of marginalised men where citizenship is being challenged every day.

Abhijit Das:

They are facing huge disadvantages as well, and this has a tremendous

Abhijit Das:

impact on their masculinities and their destructive potential.

Abhijit Das:

And when I talk of allyship and gender justice, it is impossible today sitting

Abhijit Das:

in 2025, to ignore the changes that have taken place in masculinity and how they're

Abhijit Das:

impacting gender justice, how they're impacting women's wellbeing, and not

Abhijit Das:

to consider relationships between men.

Abhijit Das:

Because gender is a relationship.

Abhijit Das:

It is a relationship between men and women.

Abhijit Das:

It is a relationship between sexual diversities.

Abhijit Das:

So, my earnest plea to feminists is to think about gender and think about

Abhijit Das:

how allyship can be built across sexual diversities, across gender

Abhijit Das:

diversities, across class diversities.

Abhijit Das:

And we have to be all aware of our positionality of power because whenever

Abhijit Das:

we have power, no matter what our gender sexual orientation is, if we do not

Abhijit Das:

share, if we do not try to understand who else is below us and how I can help

Abhijit Das:

them, allyship will become meaningless because what has happened today is that we

Abhijit Das:

have created new silos of identity-based politics who are fighting with each other.

Abhijit Das:

Ethnicity has created new silos which have created boundaries between groups

Abhijit Das:

that are not, uh, coming into solidarity.

Abhijit Das:

And each group with more and more rights is extremely conscious about their

Abhijit Das:

rights and start excluding others.

Abhijit Das:

So, we have new groups of people who are getting ignored, even by social groups.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think you bring up very, very important points.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think we're on the same wavelength.

Ishrat Jahan:

The question that comes to my mind is what is your take about how we

Ishrat Jahan:

can generate more transformative ways of establishing solidarity?

Ishrat Jahan:

Cecilia Maria Bacellar Sardenberg: I think first of all, that for, for me

Ishrat Jahan:

being an ally is being supportive and sensitive to other persons and group's

Ishrat Jahan:

needs, fragilities, which result from discrimination and marginalisation.

Ishrat Jahan:

We have a lot of men who are supportive and struggle with us, right.

Ishrat Jahan:

Machismo's still, very strong in Brazil.

Ishrat Jahan:

And it had incentive is from the extreme right in power.

Ishrat Jahan:

Uh, but I think one thing that we have to be aware is that in certain instance

Ishrat Jahan:

and spaces, allyship can be transformed into paternalism or maternalism.

Ishrat Jahan:

That is into a patronising attitude that does more harm than good, in

Ishrat Jahan:

other words, speaking or acting towards someone in a condescending manner

Ishrat Jahan:

that expresses, I think contempt.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, we have to be a little bit careful.

Ishrat Jahan:

Right.

Ishrat Jahan:

And, and I think then that in the current state of the world, solidarity

Ishrat Jahan:

is more important than ever because we're experiencing a sad moment in

Ishrat Jahan:

our world history, a moment in which microaggressions are common place, right?

Ishrat Jahan:

So, we need now to advance our allyship through all available means.

Ishrat Jahan:

Especially I think that by collective action, hand in hand with those

Ishrat Jahan:

experienced more closely the effects of new fascism, fighting with them, for

Ishrat Jahan:

them to put an end to their situation.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: Thank you, Cecilia.

Ishrat Jahan:

I would like to really focus on how we create motivation or, or identify

Ishrat Jahan:

potential allies to build on as well.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think you've talked about if that authentic motivation isn't there,

Ishrat Jahan:

you get this derogatory kind of tokenistic approach to allyship.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I guess my question to you is, we started this discussion around

Ishrat Jahan:

health and health systems, if we think about gender justice, and allyship

Ishrat Jahan:

within health systems, how can we envision allyship within that sphere?

Abhijit Das:

I think you have hit the nail on the head, allyship has to extend to

Abhijit Das:

understanding men and masculinity because, uh, gender justice includes all genders.

Abhijit Das:

Now, the next point is how do men get affected themselves?

Abhijit Das:

What also is happening at the same time today is the health

Abhijit Das:

system itself is crumbling.

Abhijit Das:

The health system is becoming increasingly privatised.

Abhijit Das:

The health system is taking away all worker benefits to the poor workers.

Abhijit Das:

Men have fewer health needs, I completely buy that, but if you want men at home

Abhijit Das:

to become allies, and that's what's been my work, for women to seek abortion for

Abhijit Das:

women, not to face violence, for women to be able to get good maternal health

Abhijit Das:

services, we have to be empathetic towards men's own concerns as well.

Abhijit Das:

Toxic masculinity is, in a way, the response of a world becoming completely

Abhijit Das:

ignorant of men's changing needs.

Abhijit Das:

The way masculinity is framed, is that men can only be

Abhijit Das:

successful in being aggressive.

Abhijit Das:

Those who are not aggressive are frightened of not

Abhijit Das:

showing their opposition.

Abhijit Das:

So, toxic masculinity becomes visible, and the silent masculinity

Abhijit Das:

of men who are not toxic, who are probably not aggressive, is invisible.

Abhijit Das:

So, part of the job of allyship is to find and surface the men who are

Abhijit Das:

silent, the men who are concerned, but are afraid as well, because

Abhijit Das:

frightened men, non-aggressive men, do not have a space in the world.

Abhijit Das:

We cannot consider men as the enemy.

Abhijit Das:

They're part of the problem.

Abhijit Das:

They're part of the huge part of the problem.

Abhijit Das:

So, they have to be addressed, but they're not the enemy.

Abhijit Das:

Cecilia Maria Bacellar Sardenberg: You know, there are good men struggling for

Abhijit Das:

us in Congress, although Congress mostly masculine, there's mostly men there.

Abhijit Das:

In Brazil, very few women get into politics, they don't get the support

Abhijit Das:

from their parties and all that, but because of gender-based political

Abhijit Das:

violence, you know, has driven women away from being in politics.

Abhijit Das:

I think we have to make men understand that machismo, that all this violence,

Abhijit Das:

it is not good for them either.

Abhijit Das:

Showing allyship with those men who are at the bottom so, they know that the

Abhijit Das:

fight for gender justice is a struggle that they have to be in as well.

Ishrat Jahan:

I think when we're talking now about power, we are, we

Ishrat Jahan:

are saying that gender justice is also now a struggle across all these

Ishrat Jahan:

countries, India, Bangladesh, Brazil.

Ishrat Jahan:

Across all these country context, we are talking about rising up to

Ishrat Jahan:

fascism and recognising that gender is being weaponised by fascist

Ishrat Jahan:

systems and how we can counter it.

Ishrat Jahan:

I have a final question for you, which is what would your advice be about

Ishrat Jahan:

building solidarity in these times and connecting across movements, so we are not

Ishrat Jahan:

stuck in the silos that you had referred to previously in this conversation?

Abhijit Das:

Since we are talking of health systems, I think low hanging

Abhijit Das:

fruit that is possible is to do training of health providers because

Abhijit Das:

power is also implicit in the provider client or provider user relationship.

Abhijit Das:

What my experience is in India, and especially for the rural and the poor

Abhijit Das:

communities, is that social relationships, implicit social assumptions of power

Abhijit Das:

and privilege are as much within health providers as within society.

Abhijit Das:

So it is extremely important to tailor what we could call soft training skills.

Abhijit Das:

This is something we could push for, for making health systems,

Abhijit Das:

per se, more sensitive to the, uh, sort of discrimination that

Abhijit Das:

happens and the health system itself becomes an ally for gender justice.

Abhijit Das:

Dr. Kim Ozano: So, really raising understanding of the gender

Abhijit Das:

injustices that are taking place within the health system itself, and

Abhijit Das:

challenging social assumptions of power within the training early on

Abhijit Das:

to start building that solidarity.

Abhijit Das:

Cecilia Maria Bacellar Sardenberg: I agree because that's

Abhijit Das:

happened, in Brazil as well.

Abhijit Das:

I think it's very important that uh, people in the health system

Abhijit Das:

be trained to think in terms of allyship right from the beginning.

Abhijit Das:

In Brazil medical schools they have the public schools, which are free.

Abhijit Das:

Right?

Abhijit Das:

But medical school, a, a private one, it is very expensive.

Abhijit Das:

Only the rich can afford it.

Abhijit Das:

So, you are having doctors that come out who have no understanding of what

Abhijit Das:

really goes on in the world and how people suffer, how different class

Abhijit Das:

situations bring suffering to people.

Abhijit Das:

All medical schools, all nurses, schools have to have a discussion of

Abhijit Das:

gender justice, social justice, and be introduced to the notion of, of allyship.

Abhijit Das:

I think that's the only way that you're gonna build a

Abhijit Das:

better health systems, right?

Abhijit Das:

Dr. Kim Ozano: So, what I'm hearing from both of you is we need to start

Abhijit Das:

systematising allyship and understanding of gender justice and how privilege

Abhijit Das:

enacts within not only the health system, but within society, the health

Abhijit Das:

system mirrors society, so we have to start building that understanding

Abhijit Das:

from the bottom up again, because we have this changing global landscape

Abhijit Das:

that we all live in at the moment.

Abhijit Das:

Ishrat, at the beginning of this discussion, you said understanding

Abhijit Das:

allyship is difficult.

Abhijit Das:

Do you have any take homes for us after this conversation?

Ishrat Jahan:

I think this conversation has been very good for

Ishrat Jahan:

me because I've learned a lot from both of your collective experiences.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, thank you, uh, for giving those perspectives.

Ishrat Jahan:

One thing I am taking away from this conversation is the first thing that

Ishrat Jahan:

we discussed, it's that it starts from a place of personal commitment.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, from the answers that I'm hearing from both of you on what your advice is,

Ishrat Jahan:

it's going to have to start with people changing how they feel about others, how

Ishrat Jahan:

they feel about building communities.

Ishrat Jahan:

It has to start with people having empathy and having a sense of vulnerability.

Ishrat Jahan:

To reach out to each other, and have the ability to care for each other because

Ishrat Jahan:

the systems around us are falling apart.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I think that's a fundamental takeaway that I think we should keep in mind.

Ishrat Jahan:

Dr. Kim Ozano: I think that's a great summary of what we've heard today.

Ishrat Jahan:

And you know, the key point there is, is to care and have

Ishrat Jahan:

empathy for each other as well.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, I think moving forward I will think about taking an active role in

Ishrat Jahan:

learning about experiences, amplifying them and supporting the movements

Ishrat Jahan:

and rights of others moving forward.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, for now, thank you to my guests for your amazing contribution, and thank you

Ishrat Jahan:

to Ishrat as well for being a co-host with me today Today's conversation

Ishrat Jahan:

has really explored the complexity of allyship in the fight for gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

We've talked about what it means to share power, to challenge harmful norms, and

Ishrat Jahan:

to build solidarity across different forms of privilege and marginalisation.

Ishrat Jahan:

We have heard how allyship can be both deeply personal and

Ishrat Jahan:

structurally transformative.

Ishrat Jahan:

In our next episode, we turn to the structural barriers faced by women

Ishrat Jahan:

with disabilities, and we talk about how disability rights activism is

Ishrat Jahan:

intersecting with gender justice.

Ishrat Jahan:

So, before you leave, please do subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you'll

Ishrat Jahan:

know when the next episode is available.

Ishrat Jahan:

And if you found this conversation valuable, do take

Ishrat Jahan:

a moment to rate or review us.

Ishrat Jahan:

It really helps others find these important stories.

Ishrat Jahan:

Until next time, stay connected.

All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Connecting Citizens to Science
Connecting Citizens to Science
Researchers and scientists join with communities and people to address global challenges

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for Kim Ozano

Kim Ozano

Research and Development Director at SCL and co-founder and host of the ‘Connecting Citizens to Science’ (CCS) podcast. Kim is a health policy and systems researcher with over 15 years’ experience of designing, delivering and evaluating health and development projects in the Global South and UK. She is an implementation health research specialist, as can be seen from her publications and work at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where she remains an Honorary lecturer.
Kim creates space in Connecting Citizens to Science for researchers and communities to share their experience of co-production to shape policy and lasting positive change.