Leila Hussein Abdullahi is the Director of Research and Programme Delivery at ESSA. She leads the organisation’s work to generate, strengthen, and translate evidence that informs policies and practices aimed at improving education systems across sub-Saharan Africa. 

Leila provides strategic leadership across research design, programme delivery, evidence synthesis, implementation research, and policy engagement. Her work supports ESSA’s mission to ensure that high-quality African education research is visible, accessible, and used to inform decision-making. 

She brings more than 25 years of experience in research, policy analysis, and evidence-informed decision-making, with a career spanning academia, international development, and humanitarian emergency responses. At ESSA, she plays a key role in strengthening the link between research, policy, and practice, helping to shape interventions that improve education and human development outcomes across the region. 

Before joining ESSA, Leila worked at the African Institute for Policy Development as the evidence-informed decision-making theme lead and as a Senior Research and Policy Analyst. She also served as a Research Manager at Save the Children International, where she developed and implemented research strategies to improve human development outcomes. Earlier in her career, she spent more than 10 years as a Senior Research Scientist with Vaccines for Africa Initiative at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. 

Leila holds a PhD in Public Health Epidemiology and has extensive experience in implementation research, impact evaluation, and evidence synthesis. She has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, focusing on the intersection of research, policy, and practice.