Our Projects

We help global health organizations, multilateral agencies, civil society, and communities living with diseases strategise and bring visibility to pressing health challenges globally. The projects below highlight selected work on TB, COVID-19, HIV, gender-based violence, and cross-cutting strategy across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.

We help global health organizations, multilateral agencies, civil society, and communities living with diseases strategies and bring visibility to pressing access to health challenges globally. The projects below highlight selected work on pediatric TB, COVID-19, HIV, and the right to health, across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.

Understanding the market for an NG/CT assay in Brazil and Thailand

  • We worked with Market Access Africa to assess prospects for marketability of an affordable assay that can detect both Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Brazil and Thailand. This involved determining, based on key informant interviews, what regulatory processes would apply to such an assay, who could be potential purchasers, the market size, and potential competitors, among other key questions. 

Facilitating continuity in global health priorities between G7 Presidencies

  • Working with the Japan Centre for International Exchange (JCIE), we designed and administered a survey distributed among diverse stakeholders, including UN agencies, civil society, government and quasi-government institutions, and private sector. Results of analysis were compiled into a survey report and recommendations for the 2024 Italian G7 Presidency, and discussed at a conference held in Tokyo, Japan, on 1st December 2023. 

Unpacking the impact of gender on access to COVID-19 vaccines

  • This research commissioned by the People's Vaccine Alliance sought to identify key barriers to COVID-19 vaccine access from an intersectional gender lens. We interviewed 25 individuals from global health agencies, UN agencies, civil society organisations (including feminist and LGBTQIA+ organisations, and academic/research institutions) on key barriers faced by women and LGBTQIA people in all their diversity, and how these barriers can and should be overcome in future pandemics. Case studies were selected through a snowball sample, following leads from desk research and qualitative interviews for documented practices that had the potential to highlight neglected areas of a global gender-sensitive COVID-19 response - resulting in case studies on Afghanistan, Malaysia, and South Sudan.

Assessing feasibility of interventions to tackle gender-based violence in Eastern Cape, South Africa

  • Eastern Cape is known for having the highest GBV rate in the country at double the national rate. These statistics exist in a complex societal fabric and norms, including that 41.7% of children in the Eastern Cape live with only their mothers, that there is widespread poverty and poor public infrastructure, and that gendered norms are inculcated through unregulated traditional practices and rituals, among other factors. We undertook a Feasibility Study to rightsize and focus interventions for GBV prevention in adolescents for a BMZ proposal, interviewing government officials, parents and caregivers, children, and traditional leaders.

Understanding barriers to diagnostics access in Madagascar

  • Communities in Madagascar face numerous barriers in accessing diagnostics services. Working with communities there, we anecdotally learned of these barriers, including high costs of diagnostics, communities needing to travel far to access testing facilities, and poor communication of results and follow-up of patients. In an effort to document these realities, we embarked on a rapid diagnostics assessment exercise, interviewing 43 individuals (including 4 health care workers) living in rural and semi-rural communities in Madagascar.

Increasing access to COVID-19 and MPOX diagnostics

  • We supported the People's Vaccine Alliance to research accessibility and affordability for COVID-19 and MPOX diagnostics, drawing upon the expertise of major experts and stakeholders to define recommendations for equitable access to diagnostics. The report recommends, inter alia, that countries should reduce dependence on proprietary platforms, that they should spearhead country-led multi-year diagnostics strategies, and increase funding for regional and local manufacturing of diagnostics and relevant components.

Mapping COVID-19 access gaps from 14 countries and territories

  • As the world tries to move on from COVID-19, access to COVID-19 tools including rapid tests, novel antivirals, vaccines, and oxygen, remains inequitable in LMICs. For vaccines in particular, ‘hesitancy’ is often invoked as a key obstacle to vaccinating the world. A recent report by Matahari Global Solutions, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, and the People’s Vaccine Alliance finds that the picture in lower- and middle-income countries is much more nuanced than a simple attribution to ‘hesitancy’.

Crowdsourcing COVID-19 data to improve access

  • Consulting with the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND), the Community Health Impact Coalition, the Ugandan Ministry of Health, Every Breath Counts, and Health Poverty Action, Matahari worked with the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition to develop a mapping tool for crowdsourcing of essential data on access to COVID-19 tools, to help inform advocacy campaigns and improve collaboration between key actors in the global health space.

A new vision for youth engagement in evidence-based drug policies

  • Together with YouthRISE, Matahari developed a five-year strategy to amplify, maximise, and centre priorities of young people affected by drug policies through coalition building, advocacy, and evidence gathering, and recommending a youth-driven, consultative, and inclusive process towards the creation of international guidelines on young people and harm reduction.

Increasing government accountability in paediatric TB

  • Working closely with the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation, Matahari evaluated the value of advocacy for paediatric TB in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe and found that the projects created measurable impact and increased government accountability on quality service delivery.

Galvanising South-to-South learning on TB and human rights

  • Matahari partnered with the Global Coalition of TB Activists on a series of workshops for civil society, academia, and TB survivors to discuss obstacles to access to TB services, human rights barriers faced by people affected by TB, and remaining stigma and discrimination in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and African regions. Further to this, we developed targeted recommendations to donors, governments, policymakers, and the TB community for a human rights-based response to TB.

Mapping priorities towards measurable realisation of the right to health globally

  • We mapped priorities on the right to health for Amnesty International’s upcoming right to health strategy, speaking directly with experts from the World Health Organization, Amnesty regional offices, USAID, civil society, and independent experts on digital health, pandemic preparedness, health systems strengthening, health in humanitarian contexts, and on racism in global health – distilling this into five priority areas for the next 5-10 years.

Understanding Conversion Therapy Practices against Trans People in Malaysia

  • Conversion therapy practices (CTP) in Malaysia are perpetrated by parents, school systems, religious institutions, and the state, which disguise CTPs as religious education programmes (such as the Mukhayyam programme) or programmes for hijrah diri (self-pilgrimage). We interviewed thirteen trans people (six trans men and seven trans women) and eight key informants, which included activists, a psychologist, lawyers, and progressive Islamic scholars, to understand experiences of conversion therapy practices and the impact upon trans communities.  We found, inter alia, that 62% of respondents stated that a parent or parental figure had tried to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, 31% mentioned that they had been subjected to conversion therapy either by religious authorities or institutions, and 54% of trans people mentioned being subjected to conversion therapy from multiple sources.

Maintaining the momentum on HIV and TB during the COVID-19 pandemic in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Balkans

  • We supported the Alliance for Public Health to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on resources and services previously designated for HIV and TB in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine, and produced reports in English and Russian for dissemination regionally and to think-tanks, UN agencies, government and academics. Our work supported advocacy on broadening the social safety net for vulnerable groups, and supported government initiatives to update domestic TB and HIV policies.
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