Global health
Gender and health
Research in the Centre for Global Development examines the politics of health ‘from below’ and focuses on the micro-level of everyday experiences of HIV risk as serious objects of study.
Dr Emma-Louise Anderson’s work with Amy Patterson questions how local actors respond to Africa’s high dependence on donor health funds for HIV. Based on extensive empirical material in Malawi and Zambia they develop novel understanding of “dependent agency” practiced by local people in their relationships with external donors, and how these invert development outcomes. The significance and rigour of this research was recognized through the award of the International Studies Association Global Health Section Best Book Prize in 2018.
Dr Anderson’s work on African health generated policy-relevant insights and she co-developed and drafted the Malawian government’s National Gender and HIV Implementation Plan (2015-2020), which drew extensively on her work and that of Betty Chinyamunyamu, one of our PhD graduates. The plan has changed the way policy makers understand how gender impacts on HIV risk, formulate policy and implement policy. It directs the work of all gender and HIV actors in Malawi.