Africa Hub

Developed in 2020, the USC Africa Hub continues to strengthen equitable partnerships in research, education, and policy engagement across the region. IIGH works with long-standing collaborators across Africa to co-create research, educational opportunities, and policy responses to critical global health priorities. These partnerships are bi-directional and interdisciplinary, centering local expertise and collaboration with NGOs, universities, governments, and multilateral institutions.

Amref Health Africa remains the cornerstone of the Africa Hub, including Amref International University, where IIGH Research Director Laura Ferguson also holds an honorary title of associate professor of research. We continue to strengthen our work across the region through long-term partnerships with Amref Health Africa, Amref International University, CARTA, Conservation Through Public Health, KELIN, the University of the Witwatersrand, and Zambart, as well as national government partners in Kenya and Uganda.

Featured Areas of Work

One Health in Uganda

Since 2022, IIGH has partnered with the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Conservation Through Public Health, and others to embed legal and policy, rights and gender considerations into work at the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health. The team brings together diverse expertise—from anthropology to entomology, primatology, and zoology—and includes government, civil society, and academic partners. Following the conclusion of funding from the International Development Research Center (IDRC Canada), recent activities have focused on informing epidemic preparedness and response, strengthening community-based surveillance efforts, and disseminating findings through tools such as an interactive story-map and videos developed by the COHRIE Uganda Group. Findings have also been shared through peer-reviewed articles such as “One health laws, policies and governance in Uganda: What’s on paper and what’s really happening,” and “Gender and exposure pathways to zoonotic infections in communities at the interface of wildlife conservation areas of Uganda: A qualitative study”. Leveraging the portfolio of four One Health projects funded by the IDRC, researchers have also been working across these different studies to maximize learning, including, for example, exploring how different understandings of gender across contexts as varied as Brazil, Guinea and Uganda shape One Health responses at local and national levels. The COHRIE Uganda group continues to seek funding opportunities to build on the strong foundation of this work to generate deeper understanding of the factors affecting zoonotic diseases in Uganda and to further strengthen community-based surveillance and response as well as their associated governance mechanisms.

Using AI to Forecast Child Malnutrition in Kenya

IIGH, in partnership with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society, Amref Health Africa, Microsoft, and the Government of Kenya, has developed a model that can forecast where in Kenya acute malnutrition is likely to occur six months in advance, in order to pre-position supplies and mitigate potential impacts. We are currently working to embed a dashboard including the model’s findings into a Kenyan government website where it can be regularly updated and used for decision-making. Work to improve the model is ongoing, and there is significant interest in  strengthening local capacity to lead these efforts and to expand this type of model to other countries and health issues. This work has received significant media coverage from a wide range of publications, including SciDev, iAfrica, EurekAlert!, and The Conversation.

Addressing HIV-related Stigma, Discrimination, and Abuse in Zambia

In partnership with Zambart, IIGH received a 2024 NIH grant, with funding from the Fogarty International Center and the National Institute of Mental Health, to address HIV-related stigma, discrimination, and abuse in Zambian boarding schools. The study started by assessing stigma and abuse in school contexts and reviewing safeguarding policies against national and international guidelines. These findings have been used to inform tailored interventions that are currently being implemented at the study schools to increase learners’ safety and decrease HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Interventions are ongoing; once complete, their impact will be assessed with a view to informing future policies and interventions.

Centering African Priorities in the Future of Global Health

With the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP), the African Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of USC, IIGH expanded opportunities in 2025 for leading African public health experts to influence public health in countries, and at the regional and global level. Our signature annual dialogue series, “The Future of Africa’s Health,” features all-African panels of public health experts addressing urgent regional and global issues. In September 2025, IIGH launched the USC Senior Fellowship in Global Health Communication Leadership, supporting leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa using innovative communication strategies to amplify their work on climate change, population aging, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. In addition to strengthening African voice and agency in global health, the fellowship program will open new opportunities for equitable partnerships between IIGH and fellows’ home institutions, such as The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bhekisisa Center for Health Journalism, the Eastern and Southern African Parliamentary Forum on Population Health and Development, and Moi University. This initiative has garnered coverage from the Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media.

Growing Inclusive Population Register Systems

IIGH has a longstanding partnership with the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) to advance gender equity, human rights, and ethical standards in population data systems. Together with IUSSP, the University of the Witwatersrand, and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), IIGH is working to strengthen the technical quality of population registers so that modernization and digitalization efforts build systems that are inclusive, trusted, and responsibly used. This work is essentially as one in eight people globally currently do not have legal identity, with marginalized populations disproportionately affected, and with huge impacts on their ability to access basic services. The consortium—including fellows from Brazil, Cameroon and Uganda—is driving research and action to address who gets left behind in digital transitions: from children who remain unregistered to refugees and internally displaced people excluded from population registries. This work has recently expanded to also include attention to the importance of inclusive population register systems for sexual and reproductive health and rights, and in the context of climate change. Further information on this work as well as select outputs are available here.

Additional Resources