Global Health

Professor Ndola Prata's exceptional undergraduate students from the PH181 course Poverty and Population this fall semester have communicated with their United States representatives!

December 18, 2025

This fall 2025 semester Professor Ndola Prata has six exceptional undergraduate students from the PH181 course Poverty and Population who have communicated with their United States representatives, expressing their strong arguments for contraceptives as foreign aid for USAID, comprehensive sex education in public schools, abortion pills, community protection from hunger and climate stress, food security and women's access to reproductive care. These students are Rishabh Ganesh Balamitran, Raka Bose, Alyssa Chan, Rosalie Güitrón,...

Maternal mortality due to abortion complications in forcibly displaced populations: A study protocol for a community-facility capture-recapture (CFCR) study

Karen Weidert
Blake Erhardt-Ohren
Dipika Paul
Anik Mahmud
Anika Tarannum
Altaf Hossain
Sayed Rubayet
Ndola Prata
2025

There is a paucity of research exploring abortion complication-related morbidity and mortality in humanitarian settings. The most recent data we have to understand the impact of global negligence on forcibly displaced persons’ reproductive health needs in humanitarian emergencies is from the 1999 United Nations Population Fund’s annual report, which estimated that 25-50% of maternal deaths in refugee settings were due to complications from unsafe abortion. This study will investigate maternal death surveillance and reporting (MDSR). The protocol will be implemented in a refugee setting:...

Bixby Center Chair Dr. Ndola Prata Presented Research at the the 30th International Population Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

July 18, 2025
Can Women’s Empowerment Accelerate Fertility Decline in Angola

Ndola Prata, Bixby Center, UC Berkeley
Karen Weidert, University of California, Berkeley

Women’s empowerment has been associated with lower fertility. Angola, a country in middle Africa has a TFR of 6.2. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether women’s empowerment in Angola is associated with fertility preferences. More...

Bixby Center Research Affiliate, DrPH Candidate Bhavya Joshi Presented Research at the 30th International Population Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

July 14, 2025
Impact on Reproductive Health Service Delivery in Kakuma and Kalobeyei Camps during Compounded Crises: A Qualitative Study

BHAVYA JOSHI, University of California, Berkeley
Ndola Prata, Bixby Center, UC Berkeley

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has reported a 4000% increase in forcibly displaced individuals from 1951 to 2020. Crises and its impacts are increasing worldwide, and a growing number of populations are being impacted by multiple events of crises - compounded crises. Populations in compounded crises settings face additional challenges...

Dr. Ndola Prata's high school student summer interns

August 21, 2025

This summer, Dr. Ndola Prata, Chair of the Bixby Center, mentored high school students participating in the University Global Health Institute (UCGHI) Summer Researchers in Global Health program. Student interns were introduced to a myriad of global health issues and solutions through lectures, outreach activities and fieldwork. This cohort's independent project focused on global maternal, child and adolescent health.

The Bixby Center is co-sponsoring the Summer School on Refugee and Migrant Health in Bern, Switzerland

August 18, 2025

The Bixby Center is co-sponsoring the Summer School on Refugee and Migrant Health in Bern, Switzerland, September 9-12. This session offers a unique opportunity to impart specialist and background knowledge in the field of migration and refugee healthcare and to prepare health professionals for the challenges and special features in the treatment of patients with a migration background. More details and registration information can be found here

Bhavya Joshi, a UC Berkeley Public Health doctoral student, one of the Bixby Center's fellows of reproductive health was in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp supporting women's health

March 27, 2025

Using community-based participatory research, Bhavya Joshi collaborates with refugee women to address maternal health crises, gender-based violence, and family planning. Her work highlights urgent healthcare gaps and empowers communities to shape solutions, aiming to reach marginalized populations first and drive sustainable policy change. Click here to see her and her teams with refugees to support women's health.

Reaching the hard to reach

Martha Campbell
Malcolm Potts
Pouru Bhiwandi
1994

PIP: The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development proposed increasing contraceptive couple protection from 550 million in 1995 to 880 million in 2015. The task for family planning (FP) programs is to provide access to services for, sometimes, inaccessible rural populations. FP need based on desire for no more children has ranged from under 20% in Senegal to almost 80% in Peru. Socioeconomic development was found not to be a prerequisite for fertility change. Gender inequalities in education and social autonomy must be changed. FP access is very important among women with...

"Berkeley professor from Angola talks about the threat to abortion rights—globally"

May 22, 2022
48 Hills

a woman professor with short dark curly hair wearing glasses smiling at you

Professor Ndola Prata MD, MSc was interviewed by 48 Hills to speak about abortion rights globally. She discussed important aspects of medical demography, population, and family planning, and maternal, child, and adolescent health worldwide, with special emphasis on law and social justice. To read the complete article,...

Climate–Poverty Connections: Opportunities for synergistic solutions at the intersection of planetary and human well-being

Yusuf Jameel
Carissa M. Patrone
Kristen P. Patterson
Paul C. West
2022
Drawdown Lift’s Climate–Poverty Connections: Opportunities for synergistic solutions at the intersection of planetary and human well-being provides concrete evidence of how climate solutions can also be win-win opportunities for meeting development and human well-being needs while boosting prosperity for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africaand South Asia.

This landmark report produced by the...