Youth in Malawi face a range of barriers to realising their potential, particularly relating to sexual and reproductive health, access to clean water and sanitation, and mental health and well-being.  We are offering a PhD scholarship for a student to work with experts and policy stakeholders from Malawi and from Strathclyde on topics related to health economics and policy analysis for adolescent health in Malawi.  Critical tasks will be mapping the policy landscape to understand the opportunities for influencing policy, quantifying the burden of poor adolescent health in the country as a way of making the case for change, and evaluating interventions which are feasible and culturally relevant within the Malawian context which could make a difference. 

Candidates for this scholarship should be interested in how economic, educational and public health evidence can inform policy in a low-income setting, sympathetic to the challenges faced by Malawian young people, and committed to contributing to Malawi’s development goals.

This PhD forms part of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing, an interdisciplinary research project with a focus on the health and wellbeing of adolescents in Malawi. This PhD will support an examination of policy and economic frameworks that are needed to support long term change in the lives of adolescents, to bring immediate benefits, as well as benefits throughout their future adult lives and for the next generation of children. This involves taking an all-round approach to understanding young people’s lives in both urban and rural settings, and includes a focus on:

1. gender, sexual and reproductive health rights
2. aspirations and wellbeing including mental health
3. water, sanitation and hygiene areas.

Further information

Students will undertake their doctoral studies full-time based in Scotland for the first year. They may return to Malawi for fieldwork in the second year and writing up can be undertaken at a location to be determined at their convenience.