Dr Euphemia Sibanda

Biography

Euphemia Sibanda is an epidemiologist based at the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV AIDS Research Zimbabwe, where she is Deputy Executive Director (Science). Euphemia leads a portfolio of implementation research studies in the field of HIV and sexual and reproductive health. Her research has been instrumental in informing improvement in uptake of evidence-based HIV and sexual and reproductive health interventions in Zimbabwe, in the African region, and beyond. Her main areas of research include self-care for HIV and sexual and reproductive health, community-led HIV and sexual and reproductive health interventions, including pharmacy-based delivery of HIV pre-and post-exposure prophylaxis. Some of her work focusses on health systems strengthening, and she is a member of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) Institute for Resilient Health Systems.

Euphemia holds a BPHARM (HONS), from the University of Zimbabwe, MSc Public Health (Health Services Research), from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD Public Health, from University College London. She is also a National Institute for Health and Care Research Global Health Research Professor.

Research interests

Euphemia’s recent and current work includes implementation research in self-care for HIV testing, HIV prevention and family planning, with projects in different population groups including general populations, young people, and sex workers. She strives to inform attainment of universal health coverage and recognise the importance of developing interventions that make health services more accessible. Her projects have a strong focus on community-based delivery of health interventions, including community-led interventions. Euphemia also conducts evaluations of pharmacy-delivery of HIV and SRH interventions and has started to diversify her research portfolio to include climate and health – with a project aimed at strengthening health systems resilience to climate crises. Euphemia employs robust evaluation methods including individual and cluster randomised trials, quasi experimental methods, often in mixed-methods projects that include qualitative methods and economic evaluation.