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Dr Ana Maria Buller

Associate Professor

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom

I am a social scientist with over twenty years experience conducting qualitative and mixed methods research, impact evaluations and systematic reviews on gender-based violence, violence against women and girls, masculinities and violence, and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents; in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the UK. I have led the qualitative and mixed methods evaluation of various trials and interventions including behaviour communication change and social protection interventions such as radiodramas, cash transfer programmes and health services interventions to respond to intimate partner violence (IPV). My experience with research and programme evaluation designs includes cluster randomised controlled trials with nested qualitative methods; mixed-methods quasi-experimental program evaluations; and feasibility studies. I led the first global systematic review on the effects of cash and in-kind transfers on domestic violence which has largely shaped the research agenda of this area of work within the field of violence against women and girls (VAWG).

Currently I head the Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) project, a global learning initiative on social norms and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. This initiative is currently conducting a cluster RCT in partnership with NIMR and AGO in Tanzania, evaluating a multi-component, gender synchronised intervention using a social norms approach to prevent age-disparate transactional sex focusing on girls, men and the community. I also co-lead with Raising Voices in Uganda the mixed-methods evaluation of a proof of concept of SASA! Together Radio, which aims to address barriers to in-person programming against violence against women and take SASA! to scale.

I have been teaching on the Public Health MSc at LSHTM for the past fifteen years including acting as Course Director and currently sit in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Research MSc exam board as a member and former Deputy Chair. I am currently departmental research degree coordinator for the Global Health and Development Department and supervise various doctoral students.

Past leadership positions include being Director of the Gender Violence and Health Centre and Head of the WHO Collaborative Centre in Gender Based Violence. I was also part of the steering committee of the Global Initiative on the Sexual Exploitation of Boys led by ECPAT and led a Special Issue in Child Abuse & Neglect on the Sexual Exploitation of Boys with a focus on Low and Middle income countries.

Affiliations

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

Centres

Centre for Evaluation

Teaching

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and teach and tutor on the Public Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health Research MScs. I am a lecturer for various modules within these programmes including Principles of Social Research, Foundations of Reproductive Health and Sexual Health. I teach on the GVHC short course Researching Gender-Based Violence: Meaning and Methods which I organised up until 2023. I

I have extensive doctoral degree supervision experience having supervised 2 students to completion and currently supervising five more students working on issues around social norms and transactional sex, dating violence, reproductive violence, sexual and labour trafficking and reproductive health of adolescent girls with disabilities including qualitative and mixed methods methodologies. I enjoy teaching and mentoring research students, securing their timely progression and publications, as well as inducting them into the academic community and supporting their professional development. I have currently availability to take one more student as lead supervisor.

In the past I was Exam Board Deputy Chair for the Sexual and Reproductive Health Research MSc and Course Director for the Public Health MSc for a year.

Research

Current projects:

I currently head the Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) project (https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/linea), a global learning initiative on social norms and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. This initiative which started 6 years ago under the direction of Lori Heise, is currently working with Tanzanian partners in the development and evaluation of a multi-component, gender synchronised intervention using a social norms approach to prevent age-disparate transactional sex through an evidence-based, user-centred, iterative design focusing on girls, men and the community.

Past projects:

I led the Romantic Jealousy, Infidelity and IPV Collaborative that brings together partners from around the globe to understand the pathways of association linking infidelity and romantic jealousy to IPV. As part of this collaboration we conducted the first global systematic review on the association of romantic jealousy and intimate partner violence against women (Pichon et. al 2020).

I led the first systematic review of the effects of cash and in-kind transfers on IPV in LMIC (Buller et. al. 2018), the results of which shaped the global research agenda and policy in the field of violence against women and girls. This work contributed to the formation of the Cash Transfer and IPV Research Collaborative (https://www.ifpri.org/project/cash-transfer-and-intimate-partner-violen…). Led by IFPRI, this initiative includes LSHTM, UNC, UNICEF—Innocenti, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and aims to advance the research agenda linking cash transfers and IPV, to effectively and safely leverage cash programming for IPV prevention among poor and vulnerable women in LMIC settings.
Research Area
Gender
Impact evaluation
Sexual and reproductive health
Systematic reviews
Implementation science
Qualitative research
Mixed methods research
Gender-based violence
Violence against women and girls
Social psychology
Randomised controlled trials
Behaviour change
Disease and Health Conditions
HIV/AIDS
Country
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Ecuador
Ethiopia
Peru
Tanzania
Uganda
United Kingdom
Region
Latin America & Caribbean (all income levels)
Sub-Saharan Africa (developing only)

Selected Publications

A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review: Infidelity, Romantic Jealousy and Intimate Partner Violence against Women.
PICHON, M; Treves-Kagan, S; STERN, E; KYEGOMBE, N; Stöckl, H; BULLER, AM;
2020
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Community perspectives on the extent to which transactional sex is viewed as sexual exploitation in Central Uganda.
KYEGOMBE, N; MEIKSIN, R; Namakula, S; Mulindwa, J; Muhumuza, R; Wamoyi, J; Heise, L; BULLER, AM;
2020
BMC International Health and Human Rights
Systematic review of social norms, attitudes, and factual beliefs linked to the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
BULLER, AM; PICHON, M; MCALPINE, A; CISLAGHI, B; Heise, L; MEIKSIN, R;
2020
Child Abuse & Neglect
Sexual health of adolescent girls and young women in Central Uganda: exploring perceived coercive aspects of transactional sex.
KYEGOMBE, N; MEIKSIN, R; Wamoyi, J; HEISE, L; Stoebenau, K; BULLER, AM;
2020
Sexual and reproductive health matters
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