Working to Advance
Health Equity in Africa

PRESENTATION OUTLINE: Over the past decades, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes have improved in most low and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). However, improvements have been uneven and for a group of poor countries reaching SDG 3.8 of universal health coverage (UHC) will be unattainable without further improvements. Achieving those will require substantial investments, including in strengthening health systems to ensure access to relevant services. While LLMICs will need to adjust priorities to increase domestic resources for SRH, much of the ...

HEARD Researcher Attends WHO Meeting in Geneva

Technical Advisory Group members with WHO representatives Director Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminatha. Professor Gavin George of the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at UKZN participated in the first in-person meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Technical Advisory Group (the TAG) which focused on Behavioural Insights (BI) and Sciences for Health since the COVID-19 pandemic. George has been a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on BI and Sciences for Health since 2020...

DATE: Wednesday, 21 September 2022 TIME: 10h00 – 11h00 (CET)   Zoom Link: https://ukzn.zoom.us/j/96036180951?pwd=REhVa2prZjhtb3pmMmZCRVFISDlkdz09 Meeting ID: 960 3618 0951 Passcode: 838116   ABOUT THE WEBINAR: Vaccination programmes have, in recent years, come to be understood to be one of the most effective public health interventions against the spread of a wide range of diseases. Vaccines play a vital role in immunising populations but need to be scaled up to high levels of coverage to have the desired public health effects of ...

Factors that are associated with unintended pregnancies among 1.5 and second-generation young refugee women in South Africa

PRESENTER: Dr Marcia Mutambara   DATE: Wednesday, 24 August 2022 TIME: 10h00 – 11h00 (CET)   Zoom link: https://ukzn.zoom.us/j/94209674360?pwd=NVFBbWJ2U3FHalIxUUdUYUpJRWRHQT09 Meeting ID: 942 0967 4360 Passcode: 266838   ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr Marcia Mutambara is a Research Fellow at HEARD working in the gender-based violence (GBV) research cluster focusing on issues on migration and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). She holds a PhD in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal...

In the Spotlight

Phiwe Nota, a postdoctoral fellow at the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Division (HEARD), has been awarded the Implementation Science Research Grant by the International Paediatric Symposium in Africa (IPHASA). IPHASA has awarded Dr Nota, under the supervision of Professor Gavin George, a 18-month implementation science grant. The IPHASA grant process is a competitive initiative and sought to award three early-career researchers in Africa, the other grant recipients are from Uganda and Kenya. The grant awards were announced at the 24th International AIDS Confer...

Out & About in Malawi

HEARD, together with colleagues at the Centre for Reproductive Health & Department of Public Health, University of Malawi and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Kenya are jointly collaborating on a study assessing the delivery of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and broader sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to adolescents in Malawi. Key informant interviews with stakeholders representing various government ministries, non-governmental organisations, development partners and community, religious and traditional leaders...

Effective HIV Prevention: The indispensable role of socio-behavioural science in adolescent sexual and reproductive health

PRESENTER: Dr Hilton Humphries   DATE: Wednesday, 20 July 2022 TIME: 10h00 – 11h00 (CET)   ZOOM LINK: https://ukzn.zoom.us/j/98392328975?pwd=N042NDZsUWl1b3dtMmtYQkZ4cElyQT09 MEETING ID: 983 9232 8975 PASSCODE: 164790   ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr Hilton Humphries is a registered Research Psychologist and holds a PhD in Public health. He has worked in HIV Prevention research for 13 years, and is a Senior Research Specialist at the Human Science Research Council. His research focuses on the role biological, psychological, rel...

Sex Work and the Law

Criminal laws on sex work introduced by colonial powers have profoundly shaped contemporary societal attitudes towards sex work and women who sell sex in Southern Africa. In a paper published in a special issue of the International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law, HEARD researchers analyse the relationship between sex work and the law to show the barriers to ensuring the rights and security of sex workers. The paper is based on a multi-country study amongst young women who sell sex in Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Linking Policy to Programming ...

Impacts of COVID-19 on Young Key Populations

In the first year of the pandemic, HEARD conducted country studies on the impact of the COVID-19 containment strategies on sex workers of all genders in Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The COVID-19 studies were embedded within HEARD’s longitudinal research on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young key populations in Southern Africa (Linking Policy to Programming Project). HEARD is delighted to announce the first of a series of publications emerging from the COVID-19 country studies. Please click here for research in Mozambique whi...

The recent US Supreme Court decision on abortion

Last week, the United States Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade—the ruling that had ensured constitutional allowance for abortion for fifty years. Almost immediately, several states enacted remarkably severe laws outlawing abortion—even in cases where the foetus is  not viable and the mother’s life in danger. Few outside the advocacy circles for these sweeping, draconian measures doubt the highly sectarian and political forces that culminated in last week’s ruling; and there is every indication that these groups intend press for further restrictions...