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Dr Neha Singh

PhD MPH BA

Associate Professor
of health systems and policy

LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom

Tel.
+44 (0) 20 7927 2902

I conduct interdisciplinary health policy and systems research, aiming to improve the design, prioritisation, affordability and availability of essential health services for populations in humanitarian crises settings. Under this broad theme, my research fits into 3 areas: (1) health services provision and access;
(2) health financing to improve health service delivery and equity; and (3) health policy implementation.

I am also co-Director of the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre, and co-Programme Director of the new distance learning MSc in Health in Humanitarian Crises.

Affiliations

Faculty of Public Health and Policy
Department of Global Health and Development

Centres

Centre for Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health (MARCH)
Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre

Teaching

I am the co-Programme Director of the new distance learning MSc in Health in Humanitarian Crises. I also co-organise and teach on the Family Planning Programmes module; and lecture on the Conflict and Health and Control of STIs modules.

I supervise PhD, DrPH and MSc students, and tutor students in the Reproductive and Sexual Health Research MSc course.

Research

My research includes a range of studies focused on health policy and systems research to improve women's, children's and adolescent health in humanitarian crises settings. I spend my time between academic research and technical support to humanitarian health actors, including UN agencies and NGOs, at local, national and global levels.

I am the Principal Investigator of the RAISE study, which aims to assess governance (including decision-making and financing) and delivery of vaccines for children in humanitarian settings, to improve the equitable delivery of vaccines to zero-dose children in crises-affected settings. I co-lead the sexual and reproductive health-focused work package in the Afya Consortium, which conducts research on public health threats in populations affected by crises in Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. I am the health financing work package lead in the GOAL project, which aims to support government and partners in strengthening the ability of health systems to meet the mental health needs of Syrian refugee and host communities in Lebanon. 

My previous research has focused on health financing arrangements and service delivery for sexual and reproductive health interventions for South Sudanese refugee and host populations in Northern Uganda as part of the RECAP project; and on assessing the implementation of key health interventions for women and children in Syria as part of the BRANCH consortium. As part of this consortium, I also led a study on analysing the implementation of key interventions for women, children and adolescents in 10 conflict-affected countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America which was published in the first Lancet series on women's and children's health in conflict settings. I have conducted research on the impacts of COVID-19 on maternal, newborn and child health in humanitarian settings (report available here). In Afghanistan, I worked as part of an international team of academics to revise the country’s basic package of health services. I have also led a series of evidence reviews of sexual and reproductive health interventions, including for young people, in humanitarian settings.  

My research experience has made me keenly aware of inequities present in current research structures and health responses in humanitarian contexts. My vision is to develop and operationalise more respectful and gender-transformative ways of working in humanitarian settings and on sensitive issues (e.g. sexual and reproductive health). Working with humanitarian actors and academics, I led the first guidance document on conducting feminist and decolonial research in forced displacement settings, and am aiming to test and refine the checklist we proposed in my research. With a generous donation from the Reproductive Justice Initiative (formerly Decolonising Contraception), I have co-founded the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Equity Fund at LSHTM, which consists of a prize and scholarships aiming to encourage MSc students to conduct research on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of marginalised communities in the UK.

Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ij0s_0QAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate.

Research Area
Child health
Complex interventions
Conflict
Health care financing
Health systems
Maternal health
Public health
Sexual health
Systematic reviews
Vaccines
Adolescent health
Health workers
Behaviour change
Global Health
Mixed methods
Mobile technologies
Implementation research
Qualitative methods
Reproductive health
Discipline
Health economics
Epidemiology
Nutrition
Operational research
Disease and Health Conditions
Malnutrition
Country
Afghanistan
Brazil
China
Ethiopia
India
Kenya
Lebanon
Mozambique
Peru
Syria
Tanzania
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Region
Arab World
Middle East & North Africa (developing only)
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa (developing only)
World

Selected Publications

The development of Afghanistan's Integrated Package of Essential Health Services: Evidence, expertise and ethics in a priority setting process.
Lange IL; Feroz F; Naeem AJ; Saeedzai SA; Arifi F; Singh N; Blanchet K
2022
Social Science & Medicine
Do we really want to know? The journey to implement empirical research recommendations in the ICRC's responses in Myanmar and Lebanon.
Leresche E; Hossain M; Rossi R; Truppa C; Barth CA; Mactaggart I; Leaning J; Singh N
2022
Disasters
Analysis of health overseas development aid for internally displaced persons in low- and middle-income countries.
Roberts B; Ekezie W; Jobanputra K; Smith J; Ellithy S; Cantor D; Singh N; Patel P
2022
Journal of migration and health
A systematic review of newborn health interventions in humanitarian settings.
Rodo M; Duclos D; DeJong J; Akik C; Singh NS
2022
BMJ global health
Prioritising women's and girls' health in disaster settings: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and the overlapping crises affecting Beirut, Lebanon.
Stevenson K; Holtermann-Entwistle O; Alameddine R; Ghattas H; DeJong J; Singh N; Usta J
2022
Global public health
Avoiding the Road to Nowhere: Policy Insights on Scaling up and Sustaining Digital Health.
LeFevre A; Chamberlain S; Singh NS; Scott K; Menon P; Barron P; Ved RR; George A
2021
Global Policy
Delivering health interventions to women, children, and adolescents in conflict settings: what have we learned from ten country case studies?
Singh NS; Ataullahjan A; Ndiaye K; Das JK; Wise PH; Altare C; Ahmed Z; Sami S; Akik C; Tappis H
2021
The Lancet
Zooming in and out: a holistic framework for research on maternal, late foetal and newborn survival and health.
Singh NS; Blanchard AK; Blencowe H; Koon AD; Boerma T; Sharma S; Campbell OMR
2021
Health Policy And Planning
Research in forced displacement: guidance for a feminist and decolonial approach.
Singh NS; Lokot M; Undie C-C; Onyango MA; Morgan R; Harmer A; Freedman J; Heidari S
2021
Lancet (London, England)
Responding to health needs of women, children and adolescents within Syria during conflict: intervention coverage, challenges and adaptations.
Akik C; Semaan A; Shaker-Berbari L; Jamaluddine Z; Saad GE; Lopes K; Constantin J; Ekzayez A; Singh NS; Blanchet K
2020
CONFLICT AND HEALTH
Investigating the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in conflict settings: a collection of case studies from the BRANCH Consortium.
Ataullahjan A; Gaffey MF; Sami S; Singh NS; Tappis H; Black RE; Blanchet K; Boerma T; Langer A; Spiegel PB
2020
Conflict and Health
Equity of resource flows for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health: are those most in need being left behind?
Martinez-Alvarez M; Federspiel F; Singh NS; Schäferhoff M; Lewis Sabin M; Onoka C; Mounier-Jack S; Borghi J; Pitt C
2020
BMJ
What does 'leave no one behind' mean for humanitarian crises-affected populations in the COVID-19 pandemic?
Singh L; Singh NS; Nezafat Maldonado B; Tweed S; Blanchet K; Graham WJ
2020
BMJ Global Health
COVID-19 in humanitarian settings: documenting and sharing context-specific programmatic experiences.
Singh NS; Abrahim O; Altare C; Blanchet K; Favas C; Odlum A; Spiegel PB
2020
Conflict and Health
A realist review to assess for whom, under what conditions and how pay for performance programmes work in low- and middle-income countries.
Singh NS; Kovacs RJ; Cassidy R; Kristensen SR; Borghi J; Brown GW
2020
Social Science & Medicine
Mathematical modelling for health systems research: a systematic review of system dynamics and agent-based models.
Cassidy R; Singh NS; Schiratti P-R; Semwanga A; Binyaruka P; Sachingongu N; Chama-Chiliba CM; Chalabi Z; Borghi J; Blanchet K
2019
BMC Health Services Research
Lenses and levels: the why, what and how of measuring health system drivers of women's, children's and adolescents' health with a governance focus.
George A; LeFevre AE; Jacobs T; Kinney M; Buse K; Chopra M; Daelmans B; Haakenstad A; Huicho L; Khosla R
2019
BMJ Global Health
Progress and challenges in maternal health in western China: a Countdown to 2015 national case study.
Gao Y; Zhou H; Singh NS; Powell-Jackson T; Nash S; Yang M; Guo S; Fang H; Alvarez MM; Liu X
2017
The Lancet Global health
Subnational variation for care at birth in Tanzania: is this explained by place, people, money or drugs?
Armstrong CE; Martínez-Álvarez M; Singh NS; John T; Afnan-Holmes H; Grundy C; Ruktanochai CW; Borghi J; Magoma M; Msemo G
2016
BMC public health
Countdown to 2015 country case studies: what have we learned about processes and progress towards MDGs 4 and 5?
Moucheraud C; Owen H; Singh NS; Ng CK; Requejo J; Lawn JE; Berman P; Countdown Case Study Collaboration Group
2016
BMC public health
Countdown to 2015 country case studies: systematic tools to address the \"black box\" of health systems and policy assessment.
Singh NS; Huicho L; Afnan-Holmes H; John T; Moran AC; Colbourn T; Grundy C; Matthews Z; Maliqi B; Mathai M
2016
BMC public health
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