I am a social and medical anthropologist who has worked in the field of global health for over 25 years. I lived in Eastern and Southern Africa for 22 years, where I worked with government and other institutions including NGOs, the National Institute for Health Research (Tanzania), the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Research Programme (Malawi). I have extensive experience of social and health related research and fieldwork in rural and urban communities. I have conducted fieldwork in medical anthropology on social and health risks including on treatment seeking, disease interpretation, traditional religio-cultural beliefs, social networks, social status (reputation), social position, stigma and discrimination.
I am a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Global Research Professor based within the Department of Global Health and Development at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). I have a portfolio of research across geographies and diseases with a primary focus on sub-Saharan Africa and am strongly committed to supporting capacity strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa. I hold a number of external positions including on funding panels and the World Health Organisation (WHO) HIV self-testing Steering Advisory Group and Technical Working Group for HIV self-testing guidelines and the UNAIDS Behavioural Prevention Task Force Committee for targeted risk reduction interventions. I am an external expert for the Institut Pasteur (France), the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (UK) and the Kamuzu College of Health Sciences Ethics Committee (Malawi), an external examiner for University College London (UCL) Institute of Global Health (IGH) MSc Global Health programme and a Commonwealth Scholarship Commission Adviser (UK). I am a senior advisor for the Global Health Bioethics Network (GHBN), Wellcome Trust (UK), was a member of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) ethics committee (UK) and led the Athena Swan Gender Equity agenda at LSTM (UK). I sit on Malawi Ministry of Health Technical Working Groups for HIV Prevention and Key Populations and was an invited member of the WHO Key Populations & Innovative Prevention Expert Review Committee (Global).
Addiction/Drug Policy; Climate-reltaed issues, Coercive Population control, Document Authentication, Ethnic Discrimination or Persecution, FGM/FGC, Forced Marriage, Gender-based violence/domestic violence, Healthcare access/health systems capacity, HIV/AIDS, Land tenure disputes, LGBTQ, Likelihood of destitution or homelessness, Mental illness, Political persecution, Religious discrimination or persecution, Risk of retaliation, Sexual abuse/assault, Specialized medical services, Tribal discrimination or persecution, Child protection
Stigma & discrimination, human rights, diagnostics, self-care, bioethics, community engagement, coercion, intimate partner violence, structural violence, health systems, social harms and benefits, intended and unintended consequences, vaccines, vaccine hesitancy, key populations, sex work, vulnerability, marginalisation, equity, justice, alternative and traditional medicine, witchcraft, risk perceptions, non communicable disease, sexual and reproductive health, infectious disease, outbreaks and pandemic preparedness (community resilience and health system readiness)
Sanyang, Y., Sanyang, S., Ladur, A.N., Cham, M., Desmond, N., Mgwadere, F. Are facility service delivery models meeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa? A qualitative evidence synthesis. BMC Health Serv Res 25, 193 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-12344-1
Choko, A. T., Dovel, K., Kayuni, S. A., Conserve, D. F., Butterworth, A., Bustinduy, A. L., ... Desmond, N & Corbett, E. L. Lakeside Combined interventions for the testing and treatment of HIV and schistosomiasis among fishermen in Malawi: a three-arm, cluster-randomised trial The Lancet Global Health, Volume 12, Issue 10, e1673 - e1683
Johnson, Tess, Lerato Ndlovu, Omolara Baiyegunhi, Wezzie Lora, Nicola Desmond. Coercive public health policies need context-specific ethical justifications. Monash Bioeth. Rev. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-024-00218-x
Loveleen Bansi-Matharu… Nicola Desmond … Frances Cowan. (2024) The impact and cost-effectiveness of programs for sex workers on HIV transmission in East, Central and Southern Africa: a modelling study Lancet Global Health, Volume 12, Issue 9, 2024, Pages e1436-e1445, ISSN 2214-109X, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00224-9.
Suwedi-Kapesa LC, Nyondo-Mipando AL, Choko A, Obasi A, MacPherson P, Desmond N. Process Evaluation of Services for HIV-Infected Post-Partum Women and HIV-Exposed Infants in Primary Health Care Blantyre Malawi. Health Serv Insights. 2024;17:11786329231224623.
Mee P, Neuman M, Kumwenda M, Lora WS, Sikwese S, Sambo M, et al. Experience of social harms among female sex workers following HIV self-test distribution in Malawi: results of a cohort study. BMC Infect Dis. 2024;22(Suppl 1):978.
Gondwe MJ, Desmond N, Aminu M, Allen S. Resource availability and barriers to delivering quality care for newborns in hospitals in the southern region of Malawi: A multisite observational study. PLOS Glob Public Health. 2022;2(12):e0001333.
Cowan FM, Machingura F, Chabata ST, Ali MS, Busza J, Steen R, et al. Differentiated prevention and care to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission among female sex workers in Zimbabwe: study protocol for the 'AMETHIST' cluster randomised trial. Trials. 2022;23(1):209.
Lees S, Marchant M, Desmond N. Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Using Gender-Transformative Approaches at a Community Level in Rural Tanzania: The UZIKWASA program. J Interpers Violence. 2021;36(13-14):NP7791-NP812.
Nyirenda D, Sariola S, Kingori P, Squire B, Bandawe C, Parker M, et al. Structural coercion in the context of community engagement in global health research conducted in a low resource setting in Africa. BMC Med Ethics. 2020;21(1):90.
MacPherson EE, Phiri M, Sadalaki J, Nyongopa V, Desmond N, Mwapasa V, et al. Sex, power, marginalisation and HIV amongst young fishermen in Malawi: Exploring intersecting inequalities. Soc Sci Med. 2020;266:113429.
Kumwenda MK, Johnson CC, Choko AT, Lora W, Sibande W, Sakala D, et al. Exploring social harms during distribution of HIV self-testing kits using mixed-methods approaches in Malawi. J Int AIDS Soc. 2019;22 Suppl 1(Suppl Suppl 1):e25251.
Kumwenda MK, Corbett EL, Choko AT, Chikovore J, Kaswaswa K, Mwapasa M, et al. Post-test adverse psychological effects and coping mechanisms amongst HIV self-tested individuals living in couples in urban Blantyre, Malawi. PLoS One. 2019;14(6):e0217534.
Kumwenda MK, Corbett EL, Chikovore J, Phiri M, Mwale D, Choko AT, et al. Discordance, Disclosure and Normative Gender Roles: Barriers to Couple Testing Within a Community-Level HIV Self-Testing Intervention in Urban Blantyre, Malawi. AIDS Behav. 2018;22(8):2491-
Chikovore J, Hart G, Kumwenda M, Chipungu G, Desmond N, Corbett EL. TB and HIV stigma compounded by threatened masculinity: implications for TB health-care seeking in Malawi. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2017;21(11):26-33.
Lora W, Chipeta E, Desmond N. Understanding coercion in the context of semi-supervised HIV self-testing in urban Blantyre, Malawi. 2016.
Kumwenda M, Desmond N, Hart G, Choko A, Chipungu GA, Nyirenda D, et al. Treatment-Seeking for Tuberculosis-Suggestive Symptoms: A Reflection on the Role of Human Agency in the Context of Universal Health Coverage in Malawi. PLoS One. 2016;11(4):e0154103.
Hawkes S, Shand T, Desmond N, Colvin C, Zamawe C. O14. 5 Blind spot on heterosexual men? multiple pathways to STI care among men in Malawi. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd; 2015.
Hanefeld J, Bond V, Seeley J, Lees S, Desmond N. Considerations for a Human Rights Impact Assessment of a Population Wide Treatment for HIV Prevention Intervention. Dev World Bioeth. 2015;15(3):115-24.
Desmond N. Engaging with risk in non-Western settings: An editorial. Taylor & Francis; 2015. p. 196-204.
Brostrom M, Desmond N. Through the rabbit hole: Considering the situational experience of risk among men who have sex with men in the context of HIV prevention. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. 2014;30(S1):A22-A.
Kadir A, Marais F, Desmond N. Community perceptions of the social determinants of child health in Western Cape, South Africa: neglect as a major indicator of child health and wellness. Paediatr Int Child Health. 2013;33(4):310-21.
MacPherson EE, Sadalaki J, Njoloma M, Nyongopa V, Nkhwazi L, Mwapasa V, et al. Transactional sex and HIV: understanding the gendered structural drivers of HIV in fishing communities in Southern Malawi. J Int AIDS Soc. 2012;15 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):1-9.
Desmond N, Prost A, Wight D. Managing risk through treatment-seeking in rural north-western Tanzania: Categorising health problems as malaria and nzoka. Health, risk & society. 2012;14(2):149-70.
MacPherson P, Webb EL, Choko AT, Desmond N, Chavula K, Napierala Mavedzenge S, et al. Stigmatising attitudes among people offered home-based HIV testing and counselling in Blantyre, Malawi: construction and analysis of a stigma scale. PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e26814.
Desmond NA. ‘Ni kubahatisha tu!’-‘It’s just a game of chance!’Adaptation and resignation to perceived risks in rural Tanzania: University of Glasgow; 2009.
Desmond N, Allen CF, Clift S, Justine B, Mzugu J, Plummer ML, et al. A typology of groups at risk of HIV/STI in a gold mining town in north-western Tanzania. Soc Sci Med. 2005;60(8):1739-49.