Dr Rahab Mbau

Biography

Rahab Mbau is a health policy and systems researcher and health financing specialist with over 13 years’ experience in Kenya and other low- and middle-income countries. She generates rigorous, policy-relevant evidence to inform health financing reforms, with a focus on equity, strategic purchasing, and health system resilience. Her work spans multi-country research and embedded policy engagement, working closely with national and county governments and partners to shape reforms in universal health coverage (UHC), primary healthcare (PHC) financing, and priority setting – from evidence generation to policy design and implementation.

She has evaluated health financing reforms and purchasing arrangements, and supported the development of PHC performance management frameworks to improve accountability and resource use. Her current work advances research on health system resilience at the intersection with financing. Rahab is committed to strengthening equitable and resilient health systems and is keen to collaborate with other experts to generate impactful, policy-relevant research and build capacity for evidence-informed decision-making.

Research interests

Rahab’s research interests include, but are not limited to, health systems resilience, health financing, universal health coverage, and health technology assessment. She is particularly interested in how these areas intersect to shape health system performance, equity, and access to care in low- and middle-income countries.

Selected research publications

Why Was the Policy Idea on the Health Benefits Package Advisory Panel Gazetted in Kenya? A Retrospective Policy Analysis – Journal: International Journal of Health Policy and Management – Published: 8th July 2024

Analysing the Efficiency of Health Systems: A Systematic Review of the Literature – Journal: Applied Health Economics and Health Policy – Published: 28th December 2023

Factors influencing institutionalization of health technology assessment in Kenya – Journal: BMC Health Services Research – Published: 22nd December 2023

Factors Influencing the Institutionalization of Health Technology Assessment: A Scoping Literature Review – Journal: Health systems and reform – Published: 19th August 2023

International Partnerships to Develop Evidence-informed Priority Setting Institutions: Ten Years of Experience from the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) – Journal: Health systems and reform – Published: 14th August 2023

View more publications