Our People
Nyovani Madise is the Director of Development Policy and Head of AFIDEP Malawi office. Her work focuses on generating evidence to accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and promoting the use of evidence among decision-makers to formulate strong policies and implement programmes. She is the current president of the Union for African Population Studies.
Nyovani holds a PhD in Social Statistics from the University of Southampton, an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Aberdeen awarded in 2016, and a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Malawi. Before her current role, Nyovani spent 25 years at the University of Southampton, where she served as Professor of Demography and Social Statistics, University lead for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity, Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Mathematical and Social Sciences, and Director of the University’s Public Policy Unit. She has also worked at the African Population and Health Research Centre in Kenya (2004-7) as a Senior Research Scientist in charge of programmes in education, maternal and child health, and population and as a Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Malawi. Her commitment to building research capacity in low and middle-income countries can be emphasized by her training of over 130 PhD and masters students and her previous appointment as the Commissioner for the Commonwealth scholarship programme.
Nyovani has advised various governments on research priorities, including the UK on global health research, Norway,under the NORGLOBAL research programme, the Netherlands, Botswana, Kenya, and Malawi, covering topics from sexual reproductive health, adolescent sexual behaviour, monitoring and evaluation systems for HIV/AIDS prevention, maternal and child health to population and development. She has also advised Melinda French Gates on family planning issues, the World Health Organization on malaria eradication strategies, and the UN Commission on Population and Development.
She is one of the authors of the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report and the United Nations Global Environment Outlook as she serves as co-chair of the Global Environment Assessment Report. Nyovani is a 2023 winner of The World Academy of Sciences Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi Prize. In 2018, she was featured in the Lancet for her contributions to global health:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30935-8/fulltext
