Dr. Fortunate Machingura
Dr Fortunate Machingura is a development anthropologist of Southern Africa with over 17 years’ experience undertaking research, evaluation, and programming to increase coverage and uptake of health services. Dr Machingura joined CeSHHAR in 2019, bringing a wealth of experience working with communities, key populations, donors, governments, universities, and NGOs in Africa. She leads a Southern Africa Key Populations research agenda in direct collaborations with the University of Oxford, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Liverpool School for Tropical Medicine (LSTM).
Dr Machingura holds a PhD in Development Policy and Management from the University of Manchester, an MSc in Population Studies, Certifications in public health and a BSc in food nutrition studies. She retains a heightened interest in behavioural cross-sectional and longitudinal qualitative studies, participatory research and randomised controlled trials. Dr Machingura is particularly keen on the anthropology of health, gender, violence, poverty, inequality, sexual and reproductive health especially among female sex workers, women and sexual minorities in Southern Africa. She also evaluates the effectiveness of population interventions aimed at HIV prevention including on condom, PrEP and ART uptake.
Prior to joining CeSHHAR Dr Machingura was a postdoctoral fellow at the Global Development Institute with the University of Manchester and a Research Fellow in the Growth Poverty and Inequality Programme with the Overseas Development Institute in London. She also served as the Deputy Chief of Party for RTI International working in the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care in the Division of Preventive Services. Dr Machingura has coordinated the East and Southern Africa (ESA)’s Health Equity agenda through the regional network for equity on health in ESA (EQUINET) and the Training and Research Support Centre. She has extensive experience in the implementation of community-based development projects along with the coordination of Health Management Information Systems, including contributing towards the development of the Electronic Medical Records Systems(EMRs) and strengthening the District Health Information System Software (DHIS2) in Zimbabwe. She has worked in other contexts including in Uganda, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Malawi and the UK.
In addition to the above, Dr Machingura’s research engages with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) along with the anthropology of mental health, disasters, and the governance of life in the global south. She welcomes research partnerships and collaborations in any of those areas.
