Health policy globally is changing, owing to ever greater interconnection and shared health concerns. The Covid-19 pandemic serves as an immediate illustration of the increasingly globalised threats to health security, the many commonalities of health system challenges, and the requirement for co-operation and healthcare planning that transcends national borders and governance.
Yet quite aside from this latest challenge – the 21st century has seen multiple outbreaks and pandemics, while numerous endemic diseases circulate globally, with particular costs to human life and development ambitions in lower-middle income countries. A worldwide effort to achieve a global state of universal healthcare coverage remains a core feature of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. And substantial health inequalities are still entrenched between and within countries.
Selected research expertise:
- · Expertise in financing healthcare in lower-middle income countries, including the best use of donor funding, and between disease-focused programmes and broader capacity and strengthening programmes
- · The influence of actors in the global health space: donors, international agencies, governments.
- · Social and cultural determinants and influences of child maltreatment in developing countries, including the intersections with HIV, education and religion (De Cao), and trends in child mortality in India.
- · Cost-effectiveness and evaluation of programmes targeting infectious diseases including malaria and Chagas disease.
Translating this research into tangible policy impact is crucial to our work: through our African Health Observatory we enable evidence exchange between academic institutions and policymakers in collaboration with WHO AFRO and five national centres on the continent. We work alongside major actors in the global health space, including the WHO and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Our current Global Health research projects:
African Health Observatory - Platform on Health Systems & Policies (AHOP)
Building the Case for Investment in Health Science Research in Africa
DIAGMAL: Evaluation of an innovative simple molecular test for the diagnosis of malaria in differentendemic and health settings in sub-Sahara Africa
Gender & COVID-19
ICCONIC: International Collaboration for Costs, Outcomes and Needs in Care (Phase Two)
Using System Dynamics Modelling for Collaborative, Evidence-Based Design of Interventions to Reduce Tuberculosis Transmission in South African Health Facilities