Projects
The School’s research is characterised by its collaborative nature. On the following pages we provide information research and project activities conducted in the SOPH since 2019.
The list of partners reflects the extensive network of links we have with local and international academic institutions, health sector partners, local community organisations and international development organisations. This work is supported by a wide range of funders, both large and small, which include, among others, the EU, NIH, IDRC, NRF, SAMRC and the Belgian government. Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) remains a corner stone of our work, clustered around and supported by two SARChIs Chairs in Health Systems and an extra-mural SAMRC Research Unit (Health Services to Systems).
HIV/AIDS remains and important programmatic area of work, with projects exploring the acceptability and feasibility of a family intervention to improve ART adherence (SINAKO) and Interventions to improve adherence and retention in care for adolescents on anti-retroviral therapy in the Western Cape.Other projects in the School also explore public health challenges faced by adolescents, from the impact of violence to access to health services.
Food security, food choices and their interaction with non-communicable diseases, as well as pharmaceutical public health, have continued to feature strongly in our research portfolio.
- This consortium aims to fill an urgent and widespread gap in understanding and addressing workplace violence and its gendered dimensions experienced by the PHC workforce in three countries— Burkina Faso, South Africa and Tanzania—where high proportions of women work as PHC health workers and have reported high levels of violence. Imarisha is a Swahili word meaning ‘to strengthen’
- The aim of this study is to explore healthcare seeking practices and access to healthcare services among migrant parents and/or caregivers for their under-five children in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The study will focus on 4 countries namely; Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
- The unprecedented emergence and global spread of the COVID-19 has resulted in severe social and economic consequences for families globally. Millions across the world have lost their loved ones as well as their sources of livelihood leading to increase in suicide rates due to increased unemployment and financial instability.
- The Centre of Excellence, located at UWC, with co-leadership and joint expertise at ITM, will lead initiatives to strengthen pharmacovigilance activities in South Africa and more broadly in the Southern African Region.
- This project, funded by ICARS (International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions) through a grant from Wellcome from February to December 2023, developed guidelines to facilitate Responsive Dialogues to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in LMIC settings.
- This project seeks to address the twin challenges of developing capacity for training and research in pharmaceutical public health and doctoral education, and contributing to the goal of strengthening health and pharmaceutical systems capable of sustainably addressing key threats to health.
- Despite the important roles Community Health Workers (CHWs) play in monitoring TB and HIV treatment, they have almost no training in adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and little material is available on this topic for this level of health worker. The SPaRCS project worked collaboratively between 2020 and 2023 to develop training materials to address this gap. The materials are open source and aim to increase awareness and facilitate initiatives to increase adverse drug reaction reporting by health care workers, including community health workers.
- The African Regional Community of Practice (CoP) for Gender and Health in Africa was formed to facilitate a space in which the African community can engage in greater discussions and share ideas on matters of Gender and Health, especially after the Covid-19 global pandemic. It aims to advance African initiatives that facilitate regional understanding, collaboration, and policy-relevant knowledge production and practice on gender and health.
- The overall aim of the project (February 2022-May 2025) is to foster a strengthened community of researchers and policymakers informed, connected and empowered to use gender-transformative frameworks and methods in their research and practice.
- The three year project started in February 2022 and will develop and explore learning partnerships to support gender-transformative innovations in adolescent and young people’s sexual and reproductive health in South Africa
- The overall goal of this 3-year project is to understand and strengthen KTPs in supporting UHC-related policy and practice in South Africa.
- Through evidence synthesis and participatory action research, this EDCTP funded project seeks to gain an in-depth understanding of community engagement in clinical trials. ‘Ceth’ means to accomplish something outstanding and to do something very worthwhile for humanity.
- The School of Public Health (SOPH) has held a series of a sub-grants from UNICEF USA to support the health policy and systems-related work of the Countdown to 2030 programme, for the period 2017 to 2025.
The experiences of community health workers affected by COVID-19 during the outbreak in South Africa
This qualitative study explores the meaning and impact of COVID-19 and its care and outbreak control measures.- This project explored the changes in shopping, cooking and food consumption that have occurred globally during the COVID-19 lockdown crisis.
- This project aims to develop a strategy of interprofessional learning which will support and strengthen community health workers (CHWs) in preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Africa.
- The main goal of this project is to increase the quality and relevance of education in health information systems at the three partner universities.
- The primary aim of the study is to develop guidelines to support adolescents living with HIV to achieve and sustain improved treatment outcomes.
- The study explored the effects of violence and crime on youth access to HIV and sexual and reproductive health care delivery in violence- and crime-vulnerable suburbs in Cape Town
- A developmental collaborative initiative with the Universities of Essex, Southampton, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
- The study is being undertaken in selected health facilities in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.
- A two-phased mixed method design study undertaken in the Easter Cape province of South Africa.
- An explorative cultural comparison of male success with traditional initiation, in collaboration with University of Missouri.
- Investigating the social and developmental origins and consequences of overweight and obesity, negative body image, disordered eating, and impaired psychological wellbeing in South Africa and Sweden
- The study seeks to better understand the context of respectful maternal care and the barriers to quality of care throughout the continuum of maternal health care in South Africa.
Support to the Regional Centre of Excellence for Vaccines, Immunisation and Health Supply Management
Technical Support to the implementation of the East African Community RCE-VIHSCM- An assessment of a toy-based intervention aimed at promoting cognitive development for children aged 2-5 years old in Cape Town, South Africa.
- Researching the obesogenic food environment, its drivers and potential policy levers in South Africa and Ghana
- SOPH’s key focus with ITM has been on strengthening South-based knowledge generation based on ‘embedded country’ health policy and systems research (HPSR) and education.
- This study was undertaken in South Africa and Kenya to understand the architecture, implementation and effectiveness of feedback and response mechanisms in health system settings in LMICs
- In 2019 UWC entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) to work together on advancing research and policy on gender and health from a global South perspective.
- This three-year project sought to enhance research capacity and competence for designing and conducting health policy and systems research with a focus on community-based health systems (CHS)
- SOPH is one of four academic institutions in an academic consortium contracted by the WHO to develop prototype curricula for training in Human Resources for Health (HRH) leadership which will contribute to the implementation of the Global Health Workforce Strategy.
- A survey was conducted in mid-2020 with a view to understanding the wellbeing of higher education students in various countries.
- An evaluation of process and contextual factors in the implementation of the National Department of Health-led Mphatlalatsane quality improvement initiative in three provinces of South Africa
- To date, no investigation has been conducted to determine the profile of students enrolling in the postgraduate programmes of the SOPH.
- The School of Public Health, with its South African partners, are exploring how child health and wellbeing indicators can drive change through multisectoral policy processes in the Western Cape, South Africa.
- The overall purpose of the project is to adapt the Diabetes Prevention Programme (DPP) for delivery in a developing world setting and to evaluate its feasibility and effectiveness in an urban community in South Africa.
- Developing and testing an intervention to capitalise on the intermediate role of the household in community support for chronic HIV care.
- This multi-country study was conducted between July and September 2020 in the United States and South Africa.
- SPaRCS is a 3-year project which commenced in April 2020 funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)
