Ismail Hussein Ismail
2026 Fellow
They Did Not Wait for Permission: Refugee-Built Economic Systems at the Uganda-Kenya Border and the Regional Policy Gap They Expose
Ismail Hussein Ismail Known Us (Ismail Saxafi) is a refugee-led researcher, humanitarian professional, and evidence-driven advocate based in Kampala, Uganda, whose work sits at the intersection of applied research, refugee protection, livelihoods, labour rights, and cross-border migration in East Africa. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Aider Refugee Initiative, a refugee-led organisation that has supported tens of thousands of refugees and host-community members through legal-information services, vocational training, community advocacy, and access-to-rights initiatives. With more than eight years of field experience, Ismail brings together community knowledge, rigorous inquiry, and practical humanitarian action to understand not only what policies promise, but how they affect people’s lives in practice.
As a researcher, Ismail is committed to evidence that leads to action. His work is grounded in direct engagement with communities and strengthened through structured qualitative research, stakeholder interviews, community assessments, and policy analysis. As a Refugees International Fellow, he conducted field research examining the implementation of Article 29 of Uganda’s Refugees Act, focusing on the gap between refugees’ legal right to work and their ability to exercise that right in practice. The research engaged refugees, employers, government officials, and other relevant actors to identify barriers, document lived realities, and generate evidence capable of informing policy and programming. His research philosophy is deliberately community-led: refugees are not treated merely as respondents, but as holders of knowledge and partners in producing evidence. He works alongside community members and local co-investigators and prioritises returning findings to the communities from which the evidence emerges.
Ismail’s work extends beyond research into evidence-based advocacy and policy leadership. He has engaged Uganda’s Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, IGAD, the East African Community, and global refugee-policy platforms, including the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva. His approach is rooted in a simple principle: evidence should not remain on paper; it should influence decisions, strengthen accountability, and improve people’s lives. He translates community evidence into policy messages, advocacy positions, and practical recommendations that decision-makers can use. Through this work, he contributes to a growing movement of refugee-led researchers and advocates challenging traditional approaches to displacement and ensuring that refugee perspectives are recognised not as an addition to policy discussions, but as an essential source of knowledge for shaping them.
At the heart of Ismail’s work is a commitment to turning lived experience into credible evidence, evidence into advocacy, and advocacy into meaningful change.