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 at IGHD where she is leading a programme of research on the integration of refugee health care, working with UNHCR. Her recent research work has 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 explores health systems strengthening, health governance and health financing, with a focus on recovery in fragile and conflict-affected settings. She is particularly interested in the political economy dynamics that define the design, implementation and adaptation of health systems policies in fragile contexts. Under the ReBUILD consortium, she has conducted research in Nepal, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, and Tigray region of Ethiopia. She is also working on a UNHCR-funded research project looking at health system integration for refugees.

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 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]

Professor 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 supports effective project administration within IGHD, contributing to the logistical planning and smooth operation of active research initiatives.

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—including Special Olympics, Easterseals, and Best Buddies—since 2014.

She holds an MSc in Global Health Policy from the University of Edinburgh, where her postgraduate dissertation examined barriers to equitable, culturally appropriate, and trauma-informed maternity care for Indigenous women, gender-diverse, and Two-Spirit individuals across Canada.

Through her work with ReBUILD, Mariel contributes to research on strengthening health systems in fragile and conflict-affected settings, with particular attention to equity, ethics, and inclusion in research practice. She presented the consortium’s study, “Resilience in Fragile Health Systems: Coping with COVID-19 in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, and Gaza,” at the 11th International Conference on Public Health (ICOPH) in Bangkok, Thailand.

Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health among disadvantaged populations and co-production approaches that centre the voices of local researchers and communities in global health