An international leader in public health and HIV research, the LSHTM contributes a range of expertise and innovation to the STRIVE consortium:
- wide-ranging and long-running research into gender inequalities, masculinities and violence,
- methodological innovation, particularly mathematical modelling,
- thinking and practice on evaluation of complex structural interventions, and
- financing and cost-effectiveness analysis.
STRIVE is managed by the Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group (SaME) in the LSHTM’s Department of Global Health & Development. SaME is a multi-disciplinary research group that conducts applied research on HIV and its social determinants.
People
Charlotte Watts, STRIVE Research Director, heads the Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group in the Department of Global Health and Development.
Lori Heise, STRIVE Chief Executive, previously headed the Global Campaign for Microbicides and the WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence.
Annie Holmes, STRIVE Director of Research Uptake, is a writer and filmmaker from Zimbabwe who previously led knowledge and communications for an international feminist movement-building network.
Martine Collumbien, evaluation of complex interventions
James Hargreaves, evaluation of structural interventions
Justin Parkhurst, structural drivers and policy analysis
Anna Vassall, financing and cost-effectiveness analysis
Anna Voss, mathematical modelling
Background
Britain's national school of public health and a leader in global health research, the LSHTM was the first academic organisation to be awarded the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates award (in 2009). The School has long-term research links with STRIVE’s Southern research partners, built up over many years of collaboration, and is committed to mentoring the development of Southern capacity.
STRIVE builds directly on LSHTM expertise in epidemiology, social science, political science, economics and mathematical modelling. The consortium also engages LSHTM’s broader community of researchers and cross-disciplinary centres, including:
- the Centre for Public Health Intervention Research (CEPHI), and the Complex Interventions Research Groups (CIRG), discussion groups on evaluating complex interventions;
- the Gender Violence and Health Centre (GVHC), conducting action-oriented research on gender-based violence;
- the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID), a cross-faculty forum for methodological debate and development.
Influence
LSHTM staff on the STRIVE team engage with researchers, policy makers and civil society at national and international levels. They contribute technical and policy advice to a range of international organisations, including the WHO, World Bank, UNDP and the International Organization for Migration, and to other international actors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Fund. In partnership with rights organisations such as ActionAid and Amnesty International, the LSHTM researchers have influenced policy on trafficking and violence against women.
- The IMAGE micro-finance and HIV impact study in South Africa contributed to the inclusion of domestic violence in the country’s National HIV Plan. IMAGE was also featured as best practice by UNAIDS.
- Mathematical modelling of the potential public health impact of microbicides helped mobilize large-scale investment in microbicide research.
- Research on the health impacts of trafficking in women have informed the International Organization for Migration’s protocols and UK immigration policy.
- Cost projections led to the inclusion of $300 million for gender-based violence programming in UNAIDS’ 2010 global AIDS response.
