We have an Africa-wide mandate with research applicable across the region that impacts on regional policies and programmes. We collaborate with a range of partners, both locally and internationally, through established research and policy networks. Our research reflects a dedicated and dynamic engagement with Africa’s health challenges, as well as driving an agenda for emerging opportunities in the field of global health, both in Africa and globally.
In many regions around the globe, networks of key populations – defined as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons, sex workers of all genders, and people who use drugs- have formed to establish programmes and provide cr...
Strengthening Legal and Policy Environments for reducing HIV Risk and Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) for Young Key Populations in Southern Africa Young key populations in Southern Africa face significant barrier...
Conducting Exploratory Research on Global Fund Processes in Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe Overview Across the East and Southern Africa regions, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is a lead financier of national resp...
Aims and objectives: We conducted two small scoping studies on challenges to ART adherence in men who have sex with men (MSM) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities living with HIV in East and...
Overview: As the burden of HIV and AIDS care requires more than mere provision of medical attention, priorities are being set to view more holistic models of support. The Valley Trust, an NGO operating in KwaZulu-Natal's Valley...
Aims and objectives: This was a multi-country scoping study of unsafe abortion and post abortion care in the East and Southern Africa region. The aim was to study perceptions by key stakeholders of the scale of unsafe abortio...
Overview: This is an evaluation of a new intervention that combines a proven gender transformative intervention, Stepping Stones, with a new livelihoods strengthening intervention, Creating Futures, working with young men and w...
Overview: A three year (2004-2007) longitudinal quantitative research project, looking at a cohort of school going children. The project began in 2003 as a collaborative initiative of the Center of International Health and Deve...
Overview: HEARD and its research partners are conducting a retrospective evaluation of a faith-based organisation’s HIV prevention programme. The objective of the programme, administered to adolescents in two schools in a poo...
Overview: The impacts on the business sector of HIV-related mortality and morbidity include decreased productivity, rising production costs and a higher employee turnover. At the same time, employers have been under growing pre...
Overview: HEARD, in collaboration with researchers from the University of East London (UK), have undertaken a study that assesses how the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment programmes affect health workers from the perspectiv...
Overview: The caregiver-child wellbeing project is part of the broader Young Carers South Africa study. This research is the world’s first large-scale quantitative study of the impacts of familial HIV and AIDS on children an...
Overview: The study investigates the local community’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Particular reference is given to the Vukuzakhe project, which focuses on mitigating the impact and spread of HIV and AIDS through e...
Overview: This project investigates the available evidence on the intersection of Disability, Health and Livelihood in Southern Africa. Literature suggests that disability and poverty are interlinked in a vicious cycle, where...
Overview: This project aims to examine legal and human rights dimensions of HIV and disability in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) through analysing the National Strategic Plans (NSP), HIV and policies in these countries. This...
Overview: This project is a joint venture between the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation (ICDR) in Canada, HEARD in South Africa and Disability, HIV and AIDS Trust (DHAT) a regional Disabled People’s Organ...
Overview: Disability and HIV are interrelated in southern Africa. People with disabilities are at an increased risk of exposure to HIV. In recent years, antiretroviral therapy (ART) has become widely accessible to people livi...
Overview: In South Africa, the rising co-morbidity of mental disorders with other non-communicable and communicable diseases, particularly in people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), has helped raise the public health priority ...
Overview: This study is commissioned as part of South Africa’s efforts to “accelerate the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)” under the leadership of the former South Afri...
Overview: This study investigates the experience of disability among People Living with HIV (PLHIV) who have been on ART for 6 months or longer. The study uses the ICF framework as a lens to understand the disability in the con...
Overview: This series of reviews focuses on empirical work on the intersection of disability and HIV in Africa. It includes systematic reviews of papers up until 2009. Firstly, the reviews suggest that people with disabilities ...
Overview: The UNAIDS agenda for accelerated country action on women, girls, gender equality and HIV is the flagship policy on strengthening the response to women, girls and gender equality in HIV, globally, regionally and natio...
Overview: A study conducted in collaboration with the HSRC to assess whether HIV and AIDS is affecting the process of land reform in South Africa Objectives: To improve the understanding of the impact of HIV and AIDS on la...
Overview: A review of South Africa’s human resources for health (HRH) is being undertaken to determine the current and future HRH capacities, needs, and gaps and the extent to which these will enable or hinder the achievement...
Overview: This research seeks to build more detailed knowledge and understanding of health vulnerabilities, specifically HIV, TB, and STIs within these spaces of vulnerability. Likewise, the current responses to those vulnerabi...
Overview: This project records African perspectives on global, regional and national responses to the AIDS pandemic through a small symposium with senior African scientists from across the continent. The result is a plan and st...
Overview: The EU is increasingly affected by the migration and mobility of health professionals (HPs), thus the development of policies to adequately address these issues is urgently needed. However, the existence of reliable a...
Overview: TB is globally the most common opportunistic infection associated with HIV and AIDS and is the leading cause of death amongst HIV-infected patients in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa is increasingly reporting high le...
Overview: The question being addressed is: 'How to keep people on treatment?' The answer lies in an understanding of why adherence is important; what levels of adherence are needed to ensure that treatment remains effective; ho...
Overview: A previous HEARD study showed that companies in Southern Africa that had made considerable investment in setting up workplace HIV and AIDS ‘health management’ programmes - including provision of ART - had yet to s...
Overview: A pilot study, conducted during 2005, provided some initial insights through co-ordinated research in South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. Its focus was on the system of management and administration of public health se...