Dr Ben Tsofa examines the effects of political decentralisation in Kenya, on sub-national level health sector governance and accountability.

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I am a health systems and policy researcher at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. I initially trained and worked as a clinical dentist, before moving into public primary health management and later health policy systems research.

My research interests are in health systems governance, health financing and health policy analysis - with a special interest in health sector resource allocation, priority setting, planning and budgeting. My DrPH, from LSHTM focused on the effects of political decentralization in Kenya on county level health sector planning and budgeting.

Currently I hold a position as a Principal Research Officer with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and I co-lead the health systems governance research group at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, as well as serving as the Centre Director of the KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research - Coast, in Kilifi. In addition, I also sit in several Technical Advisory Committees at the National Ministry of Health in Kenya, where I provides technical assistance in several health systems strengthening initiatives and general health policy formulation and implementation at both the county and national level