1. Faculty of Medicine and Health
  2. School of Medicine
  3. Research groups
  4. Research at the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development

Research at the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development

  • Group summary: The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development is an established specialist centre for Research, Consultancy and Advisory Services and for Under and Postgraduate Teaching in Global Health. Our research addresses priority global health and development challenges to inform and improve health policies, systems and practices. For over 40 years, the Centre maintained its reputation for international leadership in global health, primarily in low- and middle-income countries.

Where we work

Our work is primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We also work with vulnerable populations in the UK. For details, please the map (created from: https://mapchart.net/).

Nuffield Centre - Leeds - International Development Map

We work closely with governmental and non-governmental decision-makers, programme managers and service providers, plus our long-standing research partners in these countries. We have been a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Research and Capacity Strengthening of Health Policy, Governance and Services with a renewal process in progress. 

Our research 

We address priority health and developmental challenges and focus on improving the health and wellbeing of poor and vulnerable populations. We use an embedded approach to research to maximise research uptake and its impact on policy and practice. Throughout the research process, we maintain strong relationships with decision-makers and local communities. Our research aims to: 

  • Enhance understanding of how health policies and systems can be better configured to improve healthcare and achieve systems goals of responsiveness, sustainability, equity, and universal health coverage.

  • Develop, implement and evaluate complex health interventions at community and facility levels to improve service delivery on priority communicable and non-communicable diseases, multi-morbidities and maternal and child health. 

Our research portfolio covers six inter-related themes:

  1. Health policy and systems research: Policy analysis | Accountability, Responsiveness | Equity, Social inclusion | Governance, health planning | Financing | Health workforce. Theme lead: Dr Bassey Ebenso.

  1. Antimicrobial resistance: Community engagement | Facility and health systems interventions Theme lead: Dr Rebecca King 

  1. Urban Health: Multi-sectoral solutions | Urban poor | Methodological innovations to urbanisation challenges. Theme lead: Prof Tim Ensor 

  1. Planetary health: Climate change and health | Resilience | Sustainability Theme lead: Prof Lea Berrang Ford 

  1. Improving healthcare: Packages of primary care | non-communicable diseases (cardio-vascular, cancer, diabetes, mental health) | communicable diseases (hepatitis, tuberculosis and COVID-19). Theme lead: Prof John Walley 

  1. Equity and Social Inclusion: Drivers of exclusion and inclusion in public service | Sustainable capacity building | Research uptake | Community engagement | Social inclusion. Theme lead: Dr Ghazala Mir 

 

Health policy and systems research  

  • REVAMP: Realist evaluation of a maternal and child health programme in Nigeria  

  • RESPONSE: Improving health systems responsiveness in Ghana and Vietnam  

  • GHRG-ST: Global Health Research Group on surgical technologies in India and Sierra Leone  

  • AMIPS: Understanding gaps in implementation of medicines pricing policies in Ghana  

  • EXTEND: digital technology to improve access to healthcare in Nigeria   

  • HESVIC: Health systems stewardship and governance for maternal and child health in India, Vietnam and China  

  • RESPOND: Improving patient feedback systems in Bangladesh  

  • PERFORM: Improving district health management for workforce performance in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda  

  • EVAL-HEALTH: Understanding evidence-informed policy in India, Nigeria  

  • Digi-Pall: Digital technology for palliative cancer care in Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe  

  • Big Picture – Improving evidence-informed mental health policymaking in India  

  • Partnerships for Equity and Justice – Interventions to reduce inequalities for disadvantaged populations in LMICs 

Antimicrobial resistance  

  • CE4AMR – Community engagement for antimicrobial resistance   

  • Community Dialogues – Engaging with local communities for preventing and controlling antibiotic resistance in Bangladesh  

  • CARAN – Community arts against antibiotic resistance through participatory film-making in Nepal  

  • COSTAR –  Community Engagement for Anti-microbial Resistance   

Urban health  

  • CHoRUS: FCDO funded research programme consortium focused   on improving urban health systems in West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria) and South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal)  

  • SINC-Urban – Understanding social inclusion within sustainable urban developments in Nigeria and Vietnam  

  • SUE – Improving quality and use of data to inform urban health decisions in Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam  

  • Social Networks and Infant Mortality – Using participatory methods to improve maternity services in the UK  

  • Socially Inclusive Cities – Review of key drivers and strategies for social inclusion in Asia, Africa and UK 

Planetary health  

  • Effectiveness of interventions responding to the health impacts of climate change in LMIC 

Improving healthcare  

  • COMDIS-HSD – FCDO funded research programme consortium with portfolio of projects focused on developing and evaluating interventions for communicable and non-communicable disease control in Asia (China, Bangladesh, Nepal) and Africa (Swaziland, Uganda)   

  • Social Networks and Infant Mortality – Using participatory methods to improve maternity services in the UK   

  • EndHep – Improving hepatitis care in rural health centres in Pakistan  

  • NCDs in primary care Nigeria through guidelines and mHealth training  

  • ADMC – Addressing Depression in Muslim Communities in the UK, Turkey and Pakistan 

Capacity building  

  • Partnerships for Equity and Inclusion – Capacity building for leadership and addressing inequities in health and other public services   

  • CHEPSAA – Improving capacity for health policy and systems research in seven African Universities  

  • IMPACT – Global Health Research Group on research capacity building for mental & physical multi-morbidity in Asia  

  • Ethnicity Training Network – knowledge transfer to support cultural competence in health and social services  

  • ADMC – Addressing Depression in Muslim Communities in the UK, Turkey and Pakistan  

  • K4D – Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development to assist DFID and others to be innovative and responsive, to rapidly changing and complex development challenges  

  • EEiC – Improving the use of evidence in commissioning and delivery of health services for multi-ethnic populations   

  • Inequalities Research Network – Multidisciplinary collaboration to reduce health and social inequities 

Further details of these and other projects are in the School of Medicine’s projects directory. 

The wider context 

Our research anticipates and responds to global developmental issues and strategic directions, specifically: 

  • The Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 1 (poverty), 3 (health), 5, 10 (gender, equity), 13-15 (sustainability and climate change) and 16 (justice, institutions). 

  • Priority Areas for the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund, particularly sustainable health and wellbeing; clean air, water and sanitation; resilience and action on environmental change, sustainable cities and communities and social justice. 

Our work spearheads collaborative and multi-disciplinary Global Health Research at the University of Leeds, in pursuit of: 

  • The University Strategy for 2020-2030 ‘Making Global Impact’ and the University’s Global Health Theme, particularly access and equity, anti-microbial resistance, climate change and planetary health, health systems governance and financing, and mental health. 

  • The Faculty of Medicine and Health’s Internationalisation Strategy and the School of Medicine’s Medicine Redefined Strategy, particularly applied health research, cancer and cardio-vascular diseases. 

Who we are 

Our team comprises people with diverse methodological expertise in the areas of: health policy analysis, health systems strengthening, anthropology and social sciences, epidemiology, health economics, health service delivery, capacity building, urban health and climate change.  

We work closely with our long-standing partners in different Asian and African countries and have strong cross-faculty links with Sociology and Social Policy, Arts, Earth and Environment, and Psychology. We also welcome enquiries about future collaborations. 

Head of Division 
Dr Rebecca King

Follow us on: Facebook @ncihdleeds and Twitter @NCIHD_Leeds