My research  focuses on the evaluation of interventions to prevent violence, and formative research to better understand the causes and contexts in which violence occurs. I led the qualitative evaluation of a number of trials and interventions including the Jigisémèjiri cash transfer programme in Mali, a randomised controlled trial of the Good School Toolkit in Uganda, and  the qualitative evaluation of SASA! a community mobilisation intervention designed to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV risk-related behaviours.  

My current research focuses on adolescent girls and young women and their vulnerability to violence.  I am a member of STRIVE's multi-country (http://strive.lshtm.ac.uk/) Transactional Sex Working Group through which we work to improve the definition and measurement of transactional sex.  This relates closely to my work with the inter-regional Learning Initiative on Norms Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) (https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/linea) through which I explore the potential of social norms approaches to reduce adolescent vulnerability to transactional sex and sexual exploitation.  Related to this is primary research that I lead concerning adolescent girls and modern slavery in fragile contexts and humanitarian settings with the intention of improving evidence to inform interventions to reduce adolescent girls' vulnerability.  I am also developing a body of research on the vulnerability of female child domestic workers in South East Asia to exploitation and violence.  This ambitious project will first seek to synthesise what is currently known about the exploitation and violence experienced by child domestic workers before convening a forum of experts to collaborate and design a programme of research intended to provide good quality evidence to inform intervention and policy action.

More broadly, my research interests centre on social and structural determinants of health. I am particularly motivated by action-oriented research to inform interventions and positive change.