This is our team

Consortium

The consortium comprises nine major institutions, which focus on intervention testing, designs, and implementation science within the health sector of low and middle income countries. Together they bring a wealth of experience and expertise about the health sectors of the African region. Within the consortium are four partners (UKHD, CHAI, UneSwa, and AIGHD) who successfully worked together on health systems research in eSwatini, namely the Lubombo feasibility pilot of WHO-PEN (CHAI, UKHD, UneSwa), the ASSIST mixed-methods CHW evaluation (UKHD, UneSwa), and the MaxART Early Access to Antiretroviral Therapy pragmatic randomised trial (UKHD, CHAI, AIGHD, UneSwa). Five new partners have been brought into this consortium (Swiss TPH, UGOE, NIPH, DiaSwa, and EBH). Swiss TPH was added to this consortium for its wide-ranging expertise in applied health economics research in sub-Saharan Africa, including economic evaluations of complex health system interventions at scale (e.g., as part of the Perform2Scale project). UGOE has one of the world’s leading academic research teams on ICT, which has paired up with UGOE’s chair of development economics to jointly add their subject and geographic expertise to develop and test approaches to improve diabetes and hypertension-related counselling by health workers.

NIPH is a key addition to the consortium because it both has a strong programme of work in the area of global health and is the base for the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group’s satellite focusing on health systems reviews for low- and middle-income settings. NIPH staff are considered world leaders in the area of methods for systematic reviews on health systems questions, including reviews of the effectiveness of health systems interventions in addition to qualitative evidence syntheses on how these interventions work. NIPH has also led work to develop tools to support the use of research evidence in health systems decisions in low-income and other settings, including through evidence-to-decision frameworks and evidence-informed policy briefs. NIPH was thus a natural fit to ensure both that the consortium’s research activities are at the cutting edge of global health systems implementation research and that the WHO-PEN@Scale project’s findings are not disseminated in isolation, but as part of the whole body of evidence on primary health system strengthening for diabetes and hypertension in low-resource settings.

DiaSwa and EBH are two further key additions to the consortium who ensure that not only the implementation of WHO-PEN (led by the Swazi Ministry of Health) but also the accompanying science (i.e., the WHO-PEN@Scale project) has strong local ownership. As eSwatini’s official branch of the International Diabetes Federation and diabetes patient advocacy group, DiaSwa has the ability to consult diabetes and hypertension patients in eSwatini to ensure that questionnaire questions are locally relevant and understood as intended, and that counselling messages are contextually appropriate. EBH is key to scaling up diabetes and hypertension screening in eSwatini’s medium and large-sized companies as part of the WHO-PEN scale-up, and for using its business expertise to develop an open-source toolkit for policy makers, CHW programme managers, and business leaders.

Members of the consortium have extensive experience with leading multi-partner health system research projects as well as individual work packages, including across multiple continents (such as the HAALSI Study [US National Institutes of Health P01 AG041710] (over 40 organizations and affiliated partners including the INDEPTH Network), the ARISE Network (over 10 organizations and research sites), RECOVER-E [Horizon2020 ID: 779362] (15 organizations), as well as the ASSIST Project CHW Project in eSwatini (5 organizations). The consortium has a wide range of expertise in the disciplines needed to carry out the WHO-PEN@Scale project. UKHD, which includes the world’s experts in implementation science and intervention design and testing, is the ideal institution to coordinate this consortium. Both CHAI and UneSwa have a long-term presence in eSwatini and have collaborated closely with the Swazi Ministry of Health for over a decade. They are, therefore, well-positioned to ensure that WHO-PEN@Scale and the government’s activities and priorities remain closely aligned throughout the project period. Apart from their technical expertise, CHAI and UNESWA add valuable knowledge of the local health system and socio-cultural context

UKHD’s particular comparative strengths in this consortium are its wide range of expertise needed for this project, and its long-standing experience in randomised health systems implementation trials, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Swiss TPH contribute expertise in health economics as well as health systems, management strengthening, and human resources. AIGHD adds in-depth knowledge and experience in anthropological (ethnographic) and mixed-methods research methods, which it has applied over the years in several complex projects in eSwatini. AIGHD also has extensive experience in conducting gender analysis and participatory research and brings this expertise to the consortium. In addition to its special strength in information and communication technology, UGOE also contributes methodological expertise in impact evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis, as well as thematic expertise in health economics and health systems through its chair for development economics. As detailed above, NIPH contributea world-leading expertise in the area of evidence synthesis for health system questions in low-and middle-income countries, and effective dissemination of trial and systematic review results to regional and international policy makers. Apart from their on-the-ground experience and local expertise, CHAI contributes its strengths in project management, capacity building, and impact evaluations of health systems projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and UneSwa its expertise in qualitative, mixed-methods, and political economic research. DiaSwa and EBH’s comparative advantages are not their methodological skills but rather their knowledge of the local context and the power of community engagement, which is indispensable for this project.

In addition to the individual skills and experience brought to the research, each partner has a strong commitment to collaborative research. This consortium builds on existing collaborations, including previous projects funded by the European Commission (EC) or EC Member States.

Dumsile Mavuso

Founder and executive director
Diabetes Swaziland

She experienced first-hand the suffering and damage caused by lack of access to diabetes services in eSwatini after losing her father to type 2 diabetes, and then being diagnosed with the disease herself. Dumsile established Diabetes Swaziland to enable diabetics to advocate for access to the essential services and products which could save their lives. (Diabetes Swaziland)

Colile Shiba

Finance and Human Resource Coordinator
CHAI eSwatini

She has been with CHAI since 2015 in current position and has accounts and coordination experience from the private health sector in eSwatini. She currently leads the coordination of financial accounting and reporting, payments, cash and bank management as well as human resource coordination for the CHAI eSwatini Team. She has a degree in Accounting and Finance from Aldersgate College, Philippines. (CHAI)

Nyasatu Ntshalintshali

Country Director
CHAI eSwatini team

She has been with CHAI since 2012 and most recently served as Malaria Regional Manager for Southern Africa and has extensive experience working with ministries of health, international health partners and multilateral organizations as well as supervising complex health projects in the public sector. She was the CHAI focal point for the multi-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for the malaria elimination work in southern Africa and brings a strong background in project management, grants management and operations. She has coordinated and provided strategic oversight for malaria elimination research studies funded by the BMGF, Malaria No More UK and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Burroughs Wellcome Fund/American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She has an MBA from Midlands State University, Zimbabwe.

Prof. Ria Reis

Professor of Medical Anthropology
Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development

She is full Professor of Medical Anthropology at Leiden University Medical Center, Department of Public Health and Primary Care (LUMC/PHEG), Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, Honorary Professor at the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town and Fellow of the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands. A medical anthropologist, Reis’s doctoral research took her to eSwatini, where she lived from 1985-89, investigating treatment for epilepsy and therapy choices of people with seizures. Since the 1990s she has been involved in many other projects on chronic illness in different cultural settings, including projects on diabetes. She has extensive experience in leading projects in many productive international multidisciplinary collaborations. She is an expert in the articulation of anthropological research in multidisciplinary health research and interventions and PI of several applied medical anthropological projects in international multidisciplinary collaborations with partners in epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, health economics, health promotion and health care practice. These include: the social science component of ‘MaxART: Towards Better Health and Zero New HIV Infections’, which aimed at bolstering HIV prevention efforts in eSwatini, a Dutch Postcode Lottery funded project in which the University of Amsterdam collaborated with the Ministry of eSwatini, Stop Aids Now, Clinton Health Access Initiative, GNP+, SafAIDS and SACEMA; several projects on community health within the ‘Academic Collaborative Center Public Health – youth North South-Holland’ (AWP-j NZH) and ‘Healthy Cities for Children’, a Sanpad-funded project with the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her education includes a PhD in Medical Anthropology and MA in Cultural Anthropology.

Prof.Lutz M. Kolbe

Chair Information Management
University of Goettingen.

His research focuses on the management of information, information technologies and processes, e.g. through the business model-oriented evaluation of new technologies and further research questions regarding digital transformation (for instance within the Digital Transformation Research Center). The research objective is not only to evaluate technical feasibility and implementation, but also economic efficiency and acceptance of innovative technologies in concrete fields of application like health or mobility. Furthermore, Lutz Kolbe has long-standing managerial experience in various federally funded research projects on ICT interventions for behavioral change. For instance, he has coordinated a BMBF project for the evaluation of service configurations in telemedicine in cooperation with the medical center of the University of Goettingen, with whom collaborations in various research contexts has been maintained. For example, a current research project evaluates potentials of machine learning for ICT-based decision making in cancer treatments.

Dr. Simon Lewin

Senior Researcher
Global Health Cluster of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health & Health Systems Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council.

His work is largely within the field of health systems research, including systematic reviews of complex health system interventions; the evaluation of strategies for changing professional and consumer behaviours and the organization of care; and methods for synthesizing the findings of qualitative studies and assessing confidence in such findings. Simon is the Joint Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group; a Coordinator of the GRADE-CERQual Project Group; and a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at WHO. He also sits on a number of other Advisory Committees at WHO and for a number of other research initiatives. Simon has worked extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa on projects related to strengthening health systems and improving the use of research evidence to inform health policies. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, including in The Lancet, British Medical Journal, and PLOS Medicine. His work has been cited more than 10.000 times. (NIPH)

Dr. Christopher Pell

Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development

Has a background in qualitative social science, particularly medical anthropology. From 2016-2018, Dr. Pell participated in the social science component of ‘MaxART: Towards Better Health and Zero New HIV Infections’. This mixed methods ancillary research examined the implementation of universal test and treat for HIV in eSwatini. In 2014, he completed his PhD, which drew on two multi-site programmes of anthropological research, which included analysis of the acceptability of infectious disease interventions. For both of these projects, and in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Centers for Disease Control, he conducted fieldwork in western Kenya. He holds a PhD in Social Science, Msc in Anthropology and Ecology of Development, as well as a BA in Human Sciences.

years. He has an extensive research portfolio in the fields of infectious disease and has a personal affinity for novel and contextually relevant methodological approaches for capturing public health needs and designing appropriate interventions. He designed, implemented, and analysed large population-based surveys (~50.000 participants) in Tanzania and Bangladesh. Dr. van Leth is involved in teaching at the Bachelor, Master, and PhD level, where he focuses on epidemiological concepts and statistical methodology for the field of Global Health. He is the current chair of TBnet, a European Consortium of over 650 members dedicated to collaborative basic, translational, clinical, and applied TB research. Other international collaborations include Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, and Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Bangkok, Thailand. He holds a PhD in Infectious Diseases and Msc in Epidemiology, as well as an MD degree. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, including in Lancet and PLOS Medicine. His work has been cited more than 4.000 times; his h-index is 24 and his i10-index is 47. (AIGHD)

Dr. Fortunate Shabalala

Lecturer
University of Eswatini

In the Department of Community Health Nursing Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of eSwatini. Besides teaching under- and graduate nursing students, Fortunate coordinates research activities in her department. She obtained her MPH from The George Washington University, Washington DC and her doctorate from the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation focused on the illness experience of adolescents living with HIV in different family contexts. Fortunate has been involved in a number of intervention research initiatives including the social science component of ‘MaxART: Towards Better Health and Zero New HIV Infections’, which aimed at bolstering HIV prevention efforts in eSwatini, a Dutch Postcode Lottery funded project in which the University of Amsterdam collaborated with the Ministry of eSwatini, Stop Aids Now, Clinton Health Access Initiative, GNP+, SafAIDS and SACEMA; the World Bank and Sexual Violence Research Initiative in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego, as well as adolescent boys and young men’s experience of violence in eSwatini. She holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology, MPH in Global Health Promotion, and a BNSc in Community Health Nursing, Midwifery and Mental Health. (Uneswa)

Dr. Dr. Frank van Leth

Associate Professor
Department of Health Sciences, VU University.

Trained in Tropical Medicine, Dr. van Leth worked as a Medical Officer in-charge in Western Kenya for 4 years. He has an extensive research portfolio in the fields of infectious disease and has a personal affinity for novel and contextually relevant methodological approaches for capturing public health needs and designing appropriate interventions. He designed, implemented, and analysed large population-based surveys (~50.000 participants) in Tanzania and Bangladesh. Dr. van Leth is involved in teaching at the Bachelor, Master, and PhD level, where he focuses on epidemiological concepts and statistical methodology for the field of Global Health. He is the current chair of TBnet, a European Consortium of over 650 members dedicated to collaborative basic, translational, clinical, and applied TB research. Other international collaborations include Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, and Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Bangkok, Thailand. He holds a PhD in Infectious Diseases and Msc in Epidemiology, as well as an MD degree. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, including in Lancet and PLOS Medicine. His work has been cited more than 4.000 times; his h-index is 24 and his i10-index is 47. (AIGHD)

Dr. Fabrizio Tediosi

Group Leader for Health Policy and System research
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

He holds a degree in economics and management from the University of Pavia, an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York, and a PhD in Epidemiology from University of Basel. He is an economist specialized in health policies analysis, economic evaluation for priority setting, costing of health care, health systems organisation and financing, economics of drugs, economics of ageing, and international development co-operation. He published more than hundred publications, including articles in peered reviewed journals, books, book chapters. Dr. Tediosi is recipients of grants from several global health agencies such Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, Cariplo Foundation, World Health Organization, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In the last years he has been principal investigator of several research projects in the area of health policy and systems research, economic evaluations and social health protection. His work has been cited more than 2.000 times; his h-index is 20 and his i10-index is 46. (SwissTPH)

Lisa Stehr

Research Associate & PhD candidate

Heidelberg Institute of Global Health

Dr. Sakhile Khetsiwe Salome Masuku

Lecturer
University of Eswatini

She is a lecturer at the University of eSwatini, Department of Community Health Nursing Science, Faculty of Health Sciences and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Public Health focusing on diabetes care in eSwatini. Her master’s degree was on Nutrition studies within the context of public health. Her bacherlor’s degree was in community health nursing. Sakhile has managed intervention research projects, including improving the quality of maternal health care in eSwatini. She is currently coordinator of a World Bank funded study headed by Dr. Shabalala on preventing and addressing campus sexual assault in eSwatini. Sakhile’s research strength is quantitative social science research methods. She has authored over eight publications on nutrition related studies including diabetes care in eSwatini. She is currently a PhD Candidate in Public Health and holds a Msc degree in Health and Nutrition Epidemiology, as well as a BNSc degree in Community Health Nursing. (Uneswa)

Thobile Dlamini

Chief Executive Officer
Eswatini Business Health & Wellness

Prof. Dr. Dr. Till Bärnighausen

Director
Institute of Global Health Heidelberg

He is also Adjunct Professor of Global Health at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Faculty Member at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies; and Senior Faculty at the Wellcome Trust’s Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa. Till’s research focuses on establishing the causal impact of global health interventions on population health, social and economic outcomes. In particular, he works on large-scale population health interventions for HIV, diabetes, hypertension, and vaccine-preventable diseases. His research has been funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Wellome Trust, NIH (including 6 R01 grants), the European Union, ANRS, 3ie, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Rush Foundation, USAID, UNAIDS, World Bank, and GAVI.

In 2016, Till received the Alexander von Humobldt Professor Award, Germany’s most highly endowed international science price. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, which have been cited more than 12,000 times; his h-index is 56.

Till trained as a medical doctor and is a consultant and clinical specialist in Family Medicine. He previously worked as a Family Medicine doctor in Germany, China and South Africa, as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, and as a journalist for Die Welt. Till holds doctoral degrees in International and Population Health (Harvard) and History of Medicine (Heidelberg), as well as master degrees in Health Systems Management (LSH&TM, University of London) and Financial Economics (SOAS, University of London).

Dr. Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer

Stanford University

He holds both a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Global Health from Harvard University. He has extensive experience in randomised impact evaluations of health services interventions in low-and middle-income countries with a special focus on the use of community health workers (CHWs) to improve primary healthcare. He was co-PI for a cluster-randomised trial of CHW-led community delivery of HIV medicines in Dar es Salaam, and is PI for a cluster-randomised trial of a CHW intervention to improve hypertension and diabetes care in Burkina Faso. He is very familiar with the Swazi health system having been co-PI for the economic evaluation of a randomised HIV “test and treat” trial in the Hhohho region of eSwatini, and co-PI for a USAID/ASSIST-funded mixed-methods evaluation of CHW programs in eSwatini. He has collaborated closely with Till Bärnighausen (UKHD), Ria Reis (AIGHD), Günther Fink (Swiss TPH) as well as Sebastian Vollmer (UGOE). Pascal is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University but will be employed at the Institute of Public Health at UKHD by the beginning of the WHO-PEN@Scale project. (UKHD)

Dr. Maike Greve

Head of Digital Health Research Group (DHRG)
Chair of Information Management

Lisa-Rufaro Marowa

Manager
Clinton Health Access Initiative

Michaela Theilmann

Research Associate
Heidelberg Institute of Global Health
PhD Candidate
Technical University of Munich

This is our team

Consortium

Dumsile Mavuso

Colile Shiba

Nyasatu Ntshalintshali

Prof. Ria Reis

Prof.Lutz M. Kolbe

Dr. Simon Lewin

Dr. Christopher Pell

Dr. Fortunate Shabalala

Dr. Dr. Frank van Leth

Dr. Fabrizio Tediosi

Lisa Stehr

Dr. Sakhile Khetsiwe Salome Masuku

Thobile Dlamini

Prof. Dr. Dr. Till Bärnighausen

Dr. Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer

Dr. Maike Greve

Lisa-Rufaro Marowa

Michaela Theilmann

Kimsey Zajac

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