Joanna Busza joined LSHTM in 2001, after having worked for the Population Council in Southeast Asia, where she conducted operations research on HIV prevention for marginalised populations, including designing and evaluating a community mobilisation programme for migrant Vietnamese sex workers in Cambodia.
Joanna currently leads LSHTM's participation in the DFID funded research programme consortium, Realising Rights, which addresses reproductive health and human rights issues, and contributes to the DFID programme on Sexual Health and HIV. She also leads a technical assistance project assisting UNICEF to develop reseach and intervention activities on HIV prevention for most-at-risk young people in 7 East European countries.
Teaching
Joanna organises Social Epidemiology (with James Hargreaves). She also teaches on Family Planning Programmes; Foundations in Reproductive Health; and Research, Design and Analysis.
Joanna conducts training in research, monitoring, and evaluation skills for NGO and other institutions based in developing countries. She also conducts short training packages on the design and evaluation of behaviour change programmes for sexual and reproductive health, most recently for UNICEF.
Research
Joanna's research interests focus on assessing the health needs of "hard to reach" communities, including sex workers, injecting drug users, undocumented migrants, and street children. She is interested in developing context-specific sampling and data collection methods to inform the design of community-based interventions, particularly those that challenge the "risk environments" shaping unsafe sexual behaviour and poor access to health services.
She has extensive experience in participatory approaches and qualitative analysis. She also works with NGOs and researchers in developing countries to develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation strategies for sexual and reproductive health projects with various vulnerable populations. She is currently working on studies based in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, as well as assisting with qualitative data collection and analysis for a study of social networks, support and health among migrant sex workers in London.
Selected publications
Busza, J.; Having the rug pulled from under your feet: one project's experience of the US policy reversal on sex work. Health Policy Plan, 2006; 21(4):329-32
Mshana, G.H.; Wamoyi, J.; Busza, J.; Zaba, B.; Changalucha, J.; Kaluvya, S.; Urassa, M.; Barriers to accessing antiretroviral therapy in kisesa, Tanzania: a qualitative study of early rural referrals to the national program. AIDS Patient Care STDS, 2006; 20(9):649-57
Pronyk, P.M.; Hargreaves, J.R.; Kim, J.C.; Morison, L.A.; Phetla, G.; Watts, C.; Busza, J.; Porter, J.D.H. Effect of a structural intervention for the prevention of intimate-partner violence and HIV in rural South Africa: a cluster randomised trial Lancet, 2006; 368(9551):1973-1983
Busza, J.; Castle, S.; Diarra, A.; Trafficking and health. British Medical Journal, 2004; 328(7452):1369-71
Hosegood, V.; Preston-Whyte, E.; Busza, J.; Moitse, S.; Timaeus, I.M.; Revealing the full extent of households' experiences of HIV and AIDS in rural South Africa. Social Science and Medicine, 2007; 65(6):1249-59
Busza, J. How does a "risk group" perceive risk? Voices of Vietnamese sex workers in Cambodia Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 2005; 17(1/2):65-82
Montgomery, C.M.; Hosegood, V.; Busza, J.; Timaeus, I.M.; Men's involvement in the South African family: engendering change in the AIDS era. Social Science and Medicine, 2006; 62(10):2411-9
Puri, M. C.; Busza, J. In forests and factories: sexual behaviour among young migrant workers in Nepal Culture Health & Sexuality, 2004; 6(2):145-158