About Institute for Global Health and Development

Professor Sophie Witter

Research co-director

Sophie is a health economist and health system researcher, whose work has spanned more than 30 years and countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central Europe and the Middle East. She has successfully led multi-disciplinary, multi-country research teams to timely and effective completion, with a strong focus on evidence into practice.

Sophie’s health system and policy research networks are extensive (she is an active and highly sought-after technical advisor) and she works closely with FCDO, other funders, academics and global health networks, as well as developing capacity through collaborations, teaching and mentoring.

Sophie is Professor of International Health Financing and Systems and Deputy Director of the Research Unit on Health in Situations of Fragility at IGHD. Her recent research work focused on fragile and conflict-affected states, understanding resilience in shock-affected health systems, health system strengthening, fostering learning in health systems, evaluation of complex health system interventions, embedded development and research, alongside health financing and human resources for health.

Contact Sophie on via the IGHD website [opens new tab]

Dr Maria Bertone

Researcher

Maria’s research looks at health financing and human resources for health issues (including purchasing arrangement, performance-based financing schemes, health workers’ remuneration and incentives), with a focus on fragile and conflict-affected settings. She is particularly interested in the political economy dynamics that define the design, implementation and adaptation of health financing and HRH policies in fragile contexts. She is currently leading NIHR-funded research focusing on the political economy of universal health coverage in francophone Africa.

Prior to working in academia, Maria provided technical advice to the Ministry of Health of Burundi, through the Overseas Development Institute Fellowship and then as consultant in numerous countries including DR Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Chad, Benin, Laos, Comoros and Botswana.

Maria is the vice-chair of HSG’s Thematic Working Group on Fragile and Conflict-Affected States. [Opens new tab]

Contact Maria on via the IGHD website. [Opens new tab]

Dr Karin Diaconu

Researcher

Karin is a health scientist with a particular interest in health service delivery and function in low- and middle-income countries and humanitarian settings. Her research priorities include community capacities during/post humanitarian crisis, health technology assessment, priority-setting and the evaluation of interventions and service delivery initiatives via mixed-method approaches.

Karin is currently one of the research fellows active in the Research Unit for Health in Situations of Fragility, focused primarily on supporting research in the Middle East, including evaluations of mental health, diabetes and hypertensive care delivery and uptake among vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian populations in Lebanon. She is also the lead analyst for a clinical trial examining the effectiveness of a provider-targeted performance-based financing scheme for strengthening tuberculosis management in Georgia.

Contact Karin via the IGHD website. [opens new tab]

Dr Natasha Palmer

Researcher

Natasha is a health economist specialising in health financing policy and health systems research in low- and middle-income countries. She has 30 years experience in these areas, working first in development agencies/NGOs and then at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, various consulting positions and joined QMU Edinburgh in 2023.

In her research to date she has had a particular focus on approaches to private sector engagement (particularly contracting, sometimes with a focus on fragile and conflict-affected settings), health financing and health systems. Recent work has focussed on the approach to health systems strengthening of key Global Health Initiatives and options to improve approaches to both evaluating and investing in this area. Natasha is leading a case study of investments in the health system in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, with a focus on lessons for fostering resilience.

Mariel Horncastle

Institute officer

Mariel works to support smooth project administration in IGHD and is involved with the logistical planning and effective operation of active research projects.

Before joining IGHD in 2024, Mariel worked in the youth charity sector in Canada for five years and has been an active member of inclusion and advocacy networks in New Brunswick such as Special Olympics, Easterseals, and Best Buddies since 2014.

She holds a Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership and a MSc in Global Healthy Policy. During her postgraduate studies, Mariel’s dissertation project focused on examining barriers to equitable, culturally appropriate, and trauma-informed maternity care for Indigenous women, gender diverse, and two-spirit individuals across Canada.