Dr. Martina Esinala Lembani

School of Public Health

Dr Martina Lembani is Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health at UWC. She joined the SoPH in 2014 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, focusing on health policy and systems research projects within the school. She convenes the Population Health and Development: A Primary Health Care Approach module. Dr Lembani specializes in health systems research with particular interest in the use of systems dynamics modeling methodology, focusing on maternal health, sexual reproductive health, mental health and food environments. Her current new area of interest is migration and health. She has also previously worked in the fields of HIV and AIDS, community development, and monitoring and evaluation. Dr Lembani also has experience working with non-governmental organizations where she worked as a monitoring and evaluation coordinator on a community empowerment project from 1999 to 2004 in Malawi and later briefly worked as the African regional monitoring and evaluation manager for another NGO (Orbis International) based in Cape town working in the area of eye health between 2018 to 2019. Dr Lembani is currently a Co-PI in the Food environments in Africa: Addressing Malnutrition using a Syndemics Approach, which is a project funded by the Germany Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture.

Relevant publications:

David, I., Lembani, M., Tefera, G. M., & Majee, W. (2024). COVID-19 and Immigrant Status: A Qualitative Study of Malawian Immigrants Living in South Africa. Health & Social Care in the Community.
Mlangeni, N., Adetokunboh, O., Lembani, M., Malotle, M., Ngah, V., & Nyasulu, P. S. (2023). Provision of HIV prevention and care services to farmworkers in sub‐Saharan African countries. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 28(9), 710-719.
Tefera, G. M., Lembani, M., David, I., & Majee, W. (2023). COVID-19 and Migrant Coping Strategies: A Person in Environment Perspective on Experiences of Malawian Migrants Living in South Africa. Journal of Social Service Research, 49(4), 447-460.
Mandima, P., Schaay, N., Ngara, B., & Lembani, M. (2022). Non-booking for antenatal care and risks for vertical HIV transmission among women in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe: a cross-sectional study. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 22(1), 1-7.
Mlangeni, N., Adetokunboh, O., Lembani, M., Malotle, M., & Nyasulu, P. (2022). Access to HIV healthcare services by farm workers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): a systematic review protocol. BMJ open, 12(10), e059806.
Ager, A. K., Lembani, M., Mohammed, A., Mohammed Ashir, G., Abdulwahab, A., De Pinho, H., … & Zarowsky, C. (2015). Health service resilience in Yobe state, Nigeria in the context of the Boko Haram insurgency: a systems dynamics analysis using group model building. Conflict and health, 9, 1-14.