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Dr Helen Walls

BSc MPH(Hons) PhD

Associate Professor
of Global Health and Food Systems

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

Tel.
0207 927 2606

I am a public health researcher with a research focus on the structural drivers and political economy of population health, with a primary interest in food systems and nutrition. I have an MSc(Hons) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a PhD in epidemiology from Monash University, Australia. After finishing my PhD and working at the Australian National University I was awarded an NHMRC Sidney Sax Public Health Fellowship and began working in 2012 in London with the School. Prior to my PhD studies, I worked in public health in New Zealand regionally and with the Ministry of Health. I have also consulted to a range of global food systems organisations including being based in Geneva with the World Health Organization. I hold honorary appointments at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Affiliations

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

Teaching

I am Deputy Programme Director for the distance-learning MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate in Global Health Policy. Other teaching roles include contributions to the distance-learning module Health Policy, Process and Power, lecturing on modules within Masters level programmes in Global Health Policy, Nutrition for Global Health, and One Health, as well as giving lectures at external institutions.

I also supervise several PhD and DrPH students, as well as Masters students undertaking summer projects – and welcome enquiries about research supervision on areas related to my research interests.

Research

My research takes a mixed-methods approach and is highly interdisciplinary in nature. It spans countries of all income levels, with considerable recent work undertaken in Malawi, Senegal and The Gambia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. I am particularly interested in research that contributes to food system transformation, and that draws on understandings and methods from policy analysis and engages with the complexity of whole system change including in relation to climate. I also have an active interest in the conceptual and methodological development of policy analysis, such as for example through contributions to the conceptualisation of actor power and other aspects of the policy process.

I am principal investigator for a work programme funded by the European Union and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development which focuses on food system transformation in low- and middle-income countries, aiming to bring fresh perspectives to understanding how to achieve healthy and sustainable diets. I have also been principal investigator and co-investigator on a number of other studies, including two programmes of work funded by the Drivers of Food Choice Competitive Grants Program (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office). One of these for which I was principal investigator in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Malawi and SOAS University of London, examined the impact of Malawi's agricultural input subsidy programmes on food choice and dietary diversity. I am also currently co-investigator of a programme of work relating to migration and cross-border healthcare use in West Africa.

I am also a co-author of the new edition of 'Making Health Policy' for the Open University Press, published in 2023.

I am based within the Health Policy and Systems Unit at LSHTM, and lead the Political Economy of Health and Health Policy (PEHHP) research group.

Research Area
Globalisation
Health inequalities
Health policy
Public health
Agriculture
Equity
Evidence use
Food
Global Health
Trade
Discipline
Epidemiology
Policy analysis
Disease and Health Conditions
Chronic disease
Malnutrition
Non-communicable diseases
Obesity

Selected Publications

How effectively might agricultural input subsidies improve nutrition? A case study of Malawi's Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP)
Walls H; Johnston D; Matita M; Chirwa E; Mazalale J; Quaife M; Kamwanja T; Smith R
2022
Food Security
Using WhatsApp messenger for health systems research: a scoping review of available literature.
Manji K; Hanefeld J; Vearey J; Walls H; de Gruchy T
2021
Health policy and planning
Does household participation in food markets increase dietary diversity? Evidence from rural Malawi
Matita M; Chirwa EW; Johnston D; Mazalale J; Smith R; Walls H
2021
Global Food Security
Addressing Malnutrition: The Importance of Political Economy Analysis of Power.
Walls H; Nisbett N; Laar A; Drimie S; Zaidi S; Harris J
2020
International journal of health policy and management
Economic globalization, nutrition and health: a review of quantitative evidence.
Cuevas García-Dorado S; Cornselsen L; Smith R; Walls H
2019
Globalization and Health
See more Publications