July 2015 to 2018     Research on “Inclusive Growth through Social Protection in Maternal Health Programs in Kenya” (SPIKE). A comparison of cost-effectiveness of Maternal Voucher System and Free Maternity Services in Kenya. This two year study is being conducted in a partnership involving Maseno University, Ministry of Health, Department of Health Policy, Planning and Healthcare Financing in Kenya and The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (STPHI) within University of Basel and Department of Anthropology at the University of Bern both in Switzerland. The research is supported by the Netherlands Development Organization under the INCLUDE PLATFORM for Social Protection programs (WOTRO).

                                    Position Held: Project Coordinator

June, 2021-Present           NORHED -Medical and Environmental Anthropology for 21^st Century in East Africa. Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Project aims at strengthening teaching and research in medical and environmental anthropology at the University of Nairobi, Maseno University and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda) and University of Dar-es-Salaam and National Institute of Medical Research (NIMRI), Tanzania.

                                          Position Held: Lead Coordinator for Maseno University.

Project Title: Implementing the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework in Kenya: An Analysis of the Policy and Socio-economic implications 

This study aims at exploring the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Kenya, specifically in Kakuma/Kalobeyei and Dadaab. Although this framework has been endorsed and supported by the international community, there is little sustained analysis on the impact of the CRRF adoption in Kenya. This study therefore aims to investigate the governance and implementation of CRRF framework in Kenya with regard to how it is shaping the relationship between host and refugee communities.

Partners: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Maseno University

Project Title Covid-19, Universal Health Coverage and the Kenyan health system – a collaborative ethnographic study

Proffessor Erick Nyambedha is the leader of work package 3 on Covid 19 and maternal Health within the larger Project

The project’s overall objective is to explore the impact of Covid-19 on the Kenyan health system – in terms of the epidemic itself, and of anti-epidemic countermeasures – and health system responses. There are 4 secondary objectives:

1. To document immediate and long-term effects of Covid-19 on the functioning of 5 selected HS domains.

2.To chart adaptations and innovations triggered by the Covid-19 response, in and across these 5 domains.

3.To explore how Covid-19 is reconfiguring relations between the HS, patients and the community. \

4. To deliver research-based contributions to HS strengthening policies and engage in the global policy conversation on the effects of Covid-19 on African Health Systems.

The core project group spans four institutions: the University of Oslo’s Institute of Health and Society and Dept. of Social Anthropology, the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the University of Maseno’s Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), with advisors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Leeds University, UiO, and the Kisumu and Siaya County Departments of Health. The project co-investigators are anthropologists and public health specialists and the project builds on their years of research expertise in Kenya, on its health system, community health, epidemic response, and the social-cultural contexts of disease and disease interventions

The project is funded by Norwegian Research Council