Introducing Dr Lucy Kanya
LSE’s Global School of Sustainability’s Food Insecurity Lab is delighted to welcome Dr. Lucy Kanya to its team. Lucy is an interdisciplinary researcher in health economics, health policy, and implementation science, with over 17 years of experience generating and applying evidence to strengthen health and nutrition systems across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Lucy works at the intersection of nutrition, food security, climate, and sustainable financing, advancing research and partnerships that build resilient and equitable food systems. She conducts research in resource poor settings, majority of which grapple with the triple burden of malnutrition characterised by chronic undernutrition (stunting and wasting), micronutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition (overweight and obesity).
Lucy adopts an implementation science framework to support countries in the adoption of nutrition-focused interventions to address nutrition-related maternal anaemia and related deficiencies. Her work is clustered around:
- Evidence synthesis: Collating evidence on effective nutrition interventions to aid policy and programmatic decision making. This also includes landscape analyses to explore the policy and implementation space for the adoption of proven interventions.
- Knowledge brokering and advocacy: Engaging policy makers, beneficiary communities and implementing partners in the effective use of evidence. Advocacy for the inclusion of proven nutrition interventions in relevant in-country policies, including in the essential medicines list.
- Implementation research: Using implementation science approaches, generating contextually relevant evidence to guide the successful introduction and scale up of proven nutrition interventions.
Further details on Lucy’s current implementation research projects and focus countries can be found here.