Dr Ntombizodumo Mkwanazi known as Dumo is currently a Senior Research Specialist at the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) Research Division of the HSRC. She has a PhD in Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MPhil in International Community Health degree from the University of Oslo and a B.Soc.Sc. degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). She worked worked at a community-based HIV and infant feeding study, the Vertical Transmission Study (VTS) at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI). She also worked for the World Health Organizationâ??s multisite Kesho Bora Clinical Trial conducted in Kenya, Burkina Faso and South Africa which examined the impact of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) during pregnancy and breastfeeding on Mother-to-Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV to maternal health. She was a researcher for the Wits DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Human Developmentâ??s Early Childhood Development (ECD) project in collaboration with the Framework Institute in Washington DC, UNICEF, University of Stellenbosch and MRC/ Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU).
She also conducted a study on land dispossession in Limehill. In October 2018 she was part of a team from the HSRC that provided technical support in the development and enhancement of the United Nations International Childrenâ??s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) West and Central Africa Region (WCARO), Care for Child Development (CCD) in Sierra Leone. This included training the community health workers to support families and caregivers in child development. She was a grantee for the CoE post-doctoral scholarship from 2018-2020. As a postdoctoral fellow (Research Specialist) at the HSRC she worked on several projects including the study commissioned by the Presidency on understanding xenophobia in Gauteng Province and drafting the National Youth Policy 2020-2030 and a multi-country project titled: â??Innovative Youth Education and Enhanced Leadershipâ? aimed at developing a digital learning space (DLS) for the Participatory Action Research (PAR). This was to establish how civil society organisations address religious instigated persecution. This is fundamental in progressing adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health (SRHR) agenda. As a postdoc in the Research Division of UKZN, she was part of the Africa Research Implementation Science and Education (ARISE) Network and subsequently engaged with various global partners including the Africa Academy of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Heidelberg University Institute of Global Health.
