Nyovani Madise

[2] In 2007, Madise addressed the 40th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development in New York, highlighting the importance of understanding and investing in the health and education of Africa’s next generation.

[5] In 2016, she received an honorary higher doctoral degree (DSc) from the University of Aberdeen in recognition of her contributions to research on healthcare in Africa.

She is the Board Director of AmplifyChange LTD, which supports advocacy and activist groups working on these five priority areas, such as: (i) Eliminating gender-based violence, (ii) Removing barriers to safe abortion, (iii) Challenging stigma and discrimination, (iv)Improving sexual health of young people, and (v) Increasing access to reproductive health.

This is counterintuitive to data at the Macro level which supports the fact that poorer countries will likely have fewer resources to invest in prevention services.

To get to the root of this issue Madise, Zulu and Cierra set out to address this by collecting data from four different countries Burkina Faso, Malawi, Uganda and Ghana with over 19500 participants between the ages of 12 and 19.

Their results showed that girls who are in the wealthiest quintiles in Malawi, Burkina Faso and Ghana had later sexual debut compared to those who are poor.

The report that poverty increases the likelihood of poor girls having sex is consistent with research that has shown that this is done in exchange for gifts and money.

[7] In this paper, Madise and Bernard Onyango begin by assessing the issue from a macro-level pointing out the fact that 30% of women globally have been victims of abuse perpetrated by someone that they know.

Madise and Onyango cite the paper by Julie Pannetier and colleagues in The Lancet Public Health, which shows that some migrants to Europe are infected with HIV when they reach their destination.

The authors point out that women who migrate are usually low skilled workers fleeing home countries because of poverty and high risk of sexual violence.

The current COVID-19 emergency demonstrates, if more evidence were needed, how interconnected the world is and how vital it is for scientists to continue to work together across national and regional boundaries.

This progress has been pushed forward by the Sustainable Development Goals, agreed by all countries in 2015 as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”.