The Expert is an anthropologist whose research and publications since 1995 have focused on the intersections of culture, sexuality, gender and HIV in Africa, especially in South Africa and in relation to young women’s vulnerability. Her academic work as former Professor and Head of the Anthropology Department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal was complimented by active involvement in the design, implementation and evaluation of HIV programs in South Africa and its neighboring countries. Currently working as a Senior Advisor for HIV and health with the US Agency for International Development, The Expert got her start in development as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon.
The Expert has worked as a consultant to UNAIDS, SADC, the World Bank, and WHO, as well as to several regional non-government organizations and community-based organizations. She helped to draft South Africa’s Sexual Offences Act and the Children’s Bill and authored UNAIDS’ 2009 Action Brief on Inter-generational and Transactional sex in Southern Africa. She worked with the Commission on Gender Equality, the South African Law Commission and other legal bodies to assess various cultural and medical practices for human rights violations. Professor Leclerc-Madlala is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the International AIDS Society, the American Anthropological Association, and the Southern African Association of Anthropologists.
LGBTQ, Child abuse, Sexual abuse/assault, gender-based violence/domestic violence, forced marriage, FGM/FGC, trafficking, likelihood of homelessness or destitution, Land Tenure Disputes, Ethnic, religious, or tribal discrimination or persecution, Torture/Risk of political persecution/Risk from state actors, Risk from non-state actors, Risk of retaliation, Safe internal relocation, Sufficiency of Protection, Healthcare Access/Health systems capacity, Mental Illness, HIV/ AIDS, Specialized medical services: Neurology, Cardiac care, Cancer Treatment, Pulmonary, Disability services
Writing reports and giving expert interviews and testimonies on human rights violations , crimes against sexual minorities, policies related to abuse and customary practices.
2021 How to Integrate Mental Health and HIV Services: A Social-Ecological Approach
(with H. Schweitzer). Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Reports
2(8): https://doi.org/10.38207/JCMPHR/2021/0208148
2020 Urban-rural disparity in socio-demographic characteristics and sexual behaviors of
HIV-positive adolescent girls and young women and their perspectives on their male
sexual partners: A cross-sectional study in Zimbabwe. PLoS One 5(4): e0230823.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230823. (eCollection 2020)
2019 Sex & Sexuality in Africa. In R. Grinker, E. Goncalves, C. Stein and S.
Luhkmann, Eds. Companion to The Anthropology of Africa. Pp. 229-248.
New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
2018 “Even the fowl has feelings”: Access to HIV information and services
among persons with disabilities in Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia (with
K. Schenk et al). Disability and Rehabilitation 4(2): 1464-516
https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2018.1498138
2018 Relevant socio-cultural characteristics of male-female partnerships
among HIV positive adolescent girls and young women: Qualitative findings from
Zimbabwe (with Mavhua, et al.). PLoS ONE 13(3): e0194732.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194732
2016 Traditional Healers and the ‘Fast Track’ HIV Response: Is success possible
without them? African Journal of AIDS Research 15 (2): 185-193.
2014 Silver Bullets, Glass Beads, and Strengthening Africa’s HIV Response.
The Lancet 383: 1203-1204.
2014 Engaging anthropologists in a more systematic way would strengthen our global outbreak response. International Journal of Infectious Diseases. 29 e145.
2014 Do Community-Based Programs Help to Improve HIV Treatment and Health
Outcomes? (with U. Amanyeiwe) World Journal of AIDS. 4: 311-320.
2013 Draft Guidelines for PrEP Introduction. WHO/UNAIDS, Ethics in PrEP Working Group.
2011 Relating Social Change to HIV Epidemiology. Editorial. Future Virology 6(7): 1-3.
2009 Intergenerational Sex in Southern Africa ‘Action Brief’. Geneva: WHO/UNAIDS
2007 What Prevents Prevention? An Overview of the Sociological and Gender Context of HIV Prevention in Southern Africa. AIDS Legal Quarterly, November.
2006 “We will eat when I get the grant:” Negotiating AIDS, Poverty and Treatment in
South Africa. African Journal of AIDS Research 5(2): 85-96.
2005 Popular Responses to HIV/AIDS and Policy in South Africa. Journal of Southern
African Studies. 31(4) 845-856.
2003 Protecting Girlhood? Virginity Revivals in the Era of AIDS. Agenda 56: 16-26.
2003 Youth, HIV/AIDS and the Importance of Sexual Culture and Context. Social
Dynamics 28(1): 1-22.
2002 On the Virgin Cleansing Myth: Gendered Bodies, AIDS and Ethnomedicine.
African Journal of AIDS Research 1(2): 87-95.
2002 Traditional Healers and the Fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Les Cahiers
D’Ifras (Journal of the French Institute of South Africa.) 2: 61-73.
2001 Virginity Testing; Managing Sexuality in a Maturing HIV/AIDS Epidemic. Medical
Anthropology Quarterly 15(4):533-. 552
1999 Enemy of the People: The Gendering of the South African AIDS Epidemic.
The New Internationalist. June, No 313.