Dr Manuela Colombini
Associate Professor
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Tavistock Place
London
United Kingdom
I am an Associate professor in Health Systems and Policy and gender-based violence in the Department of Global Health and Development. I have conducted research in gender-based violence, integration of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia for the past 19 years.
My areas of expertise include gender-based violence, health systems readiness, health systems strengthening, health policy analysis and policy implementation, integration of services; intervention development and evaluations, integration of violence against women and violence against children. My research work draws on health systems and policy theoretical approaches (systems thinking, health systems readiness, agenda setting and policy implementation) and feminist theories such as gender theory and intersectionality.
My research has primarily focused on exploring how health systems factors affect development and integration of health interventions for vulnerable women and girls. I have also conducted formative and evaluation research to explore new intervention approaches to address violence against women (VAW) in the health sector; and translating evidence on health systems strengthening from promising interventions within different LMIC settings. I am particularly interested in health systems readiness and have developed a conceptual framework to explore factors impacting on the readiness of health systems to integrate services for women who experienced violence.
I am a member of the School’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee and one of the co-founders of the School Gender Violence and Health Centre (GVHC).
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
I am the Project Content Director of the new DL Master Health in Humanitarian Crises (since September 2022).
I am also Module Organiser for the distant learning course 'Health Policy, Process and Power'. In the past, I co-organised the Family Planning Programmes module (2013-2015).
I teach on distant learning courses on Health Systems and Policy in Sexual and Reproductive Health (MSc Sexual and Reproductive Health), and on Health Policy, Process and Power; Diploma in Tropical Nursing (Health service response to gender-based violence); Short course on Researching gender-based violence (health sector responses to violence against women).
Research
My main research interests include violence against women (VAW) and health sector responses, interconnections between violence against women and violence against children, reproductive coercion, integration of VAW, sexual and reproductive health and HIV services.
I currently work on three research projects:
1. Exploring collaboration across violence against women and violence against children in 3 countries in the Middle East Region (Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq) (funded by UNICEF).
2. Developing a protocol and research tools for a multi-country evaluation study on One Stop Crisis Centres (in collaboration with WHO);
3. Assessing the impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the help-seeking behaviour of survivors of violence and on service provision responding to violence against women in South Africa (in collaboration with the South African Medical Research Council).
I recently conducted 5 studies:
1. Exploring promising interventions that seek to prevent and/or respond to intimate partner violence against women and child maltreatment (systematic review funded by Innocenti, UNICEF);
2.Measuring health systems readiness of sexual and reproductive health clinics (in Brazil, Palestine, Nepal and Sri Lanka) to integrate care for intimate partner violence into their services (HERA, NIHR funded study);
3. Assessing the health systems readiness of primary health clinics in Brazil and Palestine to integrate intimate partner violence into their services (MRC Global Challenges study);
4. Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of integrating gender-based violence within an HIV prevention package for young girls in South Africa and Tanzania (EMPOWER study with Wits RHI);
5. Evaluating the implementation of a brief counselling intervention for pregnant women who experienced IPV (Safe and Sound study with Wits RHI)
In the past, I led a project as Principal Investigator to evaluate the integration of IPV into antenatal care settings and health policies in Nepal and Sri Lanka (ADVANCE study). I was a also researcher on a larger study (INTEGRA) in Kenya and Swaziland. As part of Integra, I conducted research on providers’ and clients’ experiences with integrated care, and also on women’s views and experiences of partner violence following disclosure of their HIV status. As part of my PhD, I conducted the first health policy and systems evaluation of the One Stop Crisis Centres in Malaysia.
Selected Publications
