I am an Associate Professor in Population Health and Development and the Research Excellence Framework Coordinator for Area Studies (UoA 25).  My research falls within the disciplines of public health, gender, demography and international development, but my strong footing lies in population health and gender-related research focusing on maternal health and child health in the Global South. My interdisciplinary research is informed my wide educational background and work experience.

Education Qualifications:

• PhD in Social Statistics (University of Southampton)
• MSc in Demography (University of Southampton)
• MA in Economic Development and Policy analysis (University of Nottingham)
• Bachelor of Social Science, majoring in Economics (University of Malawi)

Previous Roles:

• Course Leader MSc International Development: University of Portsmouth.
• Teaching Fellow: University of Southampton, Department of Demography and Social Statistics)
• Employability Coordinator: University of Southampton, Department of Demography and Social Statistics.
• Teaching Assistant: University of Southampton, Department of Demography and Social Statistics.
• Principal Economist: Malawi Ministry of Finance.
• Economist: Malawi National Economic Council.
• Labour Officer: Malawi Ministry of Labour.

My current research programme is focused on sexual violence faced by women and girls born during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when I organised and hosted an International Online Symposium on the theme “A Silent Pandemic at Home: Heightened Violence against Women and Children during the Covid-19 Pandemic”. My research on sexual violence towards women and girls has been published at several international conferences: 64^th ISI World Statistics Congress, the 50^th BSPS Annual Conference and the 9^th African Population Conference.

Over the years I have successfully undertaken research projects leading to peer reviewed outputs in high impact journals as summarised below:

Research projects completed:

Violence Against Women and Girls (2019 to Date)

Outputs

• Violence Against Women and Girls in Zimbabwe: A Review of a Decade of the Empirical Literature (Trauma, Violence, & Abuse).
• The Incidence of Wife Beating in Malawi: Do Male Attitudes Matter? (Violence and Gender),
• Culture and domestic violence amongst ever-married women in Malawi: An analysis of emotional, sexual, less-severe physical and severe physical violence. (Journal of Biosocial Science)
• Married Women's Experience of Domestic Violence in Malawi: New Evidence from a Cluster and Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis. (Journal of Interpersonal Violence).

Girls dropping out of School and Child Marriage in Malawi(2017-2018)

Output

• Tackling girls dropping out of school in Malawi: Is improving household socio-economic status the solution? (International Journal of Education Research)

HIV‐free Survival by Maternal Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) regimen (2014 to 2016).

Outputs 

• Postnatal HIV transmission in breastfed infants of HIV-infected women on ART: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Journal of the International AIDs Society).
• HIV-free survival at 12-24 months in breastfed infants of HIV-infected women on ART: a systematic review (Tropical Medicine and International Health).

Modelling Child Undernutrition in Malawi (2009 to 2014).

Outputs:

• Trends and patterns of stunted-only and stunted-underweight children in Malawi: A suggestion for childnutrition practitioners to focus on stunting (Malawi Medical Journal).
• Seasonal variation of child undernutrition in Malawi: is seasonal food availability an important factor? Findings from a national-level cross-sectional study (BMC Public Health).
• How important are community characteristics in influencing children’s nutritional status? Evidence from Malawi population-based household and community surveys (Health and Place).

Female Genital Mutilation(FGM) in Burkina Faso and Mali (2014).

Output

• Trends and protective factors of female genital mutilation in Burkina Faso: 1999 to 2010 (International Journal for Equity in Health).

I have successfully supervised PhD students in the following topics:

• Bride Price in Zimbabwe and the UK Diaspora.
• The Attribution, Consequences, and Pervasiveness of Baby Factory in Nigeria
• Intra- and Inter-Regional Variation of Childhood Stunting Using Cross-Sectional Repeated Surveys in Low-Income and Middle-Income Eastern African Countries.

Currently I am supervising PhD Students on the following topics:

• A Critical Realists Study of Violence Against Women and Girls in Nigerian IDP Camps before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: From Empirical Traces to Causal Mechanisms and Response Effectiveness".
• Assessing the Impact of Illegal Mining on Teenage Pregnancy and Women’s Maltreatment: A Socio-Economic and Policy Analysis in Ghana’s mining communities

And a Professional Doctorate student on the topic of:

• Perceptions and Experiences of intervention programmes among Zimbabwe domestic violence perpetrators in the UK

I am an  Associate Editor for the International Journal for Equity in Health and the Political Studies Review.

MSc in International Development : https://www.port.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-taught/msc-international-development-distance-learning

BA International Development:

https://www.port.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-international-development