Catherine Maternowska

Dr. Maternowska "is interested in exploring the ways that health-related policies have unintended consequences that harm rather than enhance the public’s health. She uses ethnographic research as a tool for investigating how best to improve policy and ultimately practice. She is keenly interested in developing further studies on the social dynamics of NGO activities in health that assess the interface between international development, national counterparts, and the poor communities they are supposed to serve.

"Her second book, a co-edited work with colleagues from the Population Council, will be exploring young girls’ vulnerability in the pathway of HIV/AIDS. Frustrated by the inability of scientific journals to address the diversity of girls’ challenges in the face of HIV/AIDS pandemic, the book will be a participatory publication—one that embraces the voices of girls, girl activists and advocates, and frontline service providers. The goal will be to provide results that reveal the connections—and too often disconnections—between policy and program intention and girls’ lived-experience. Dr. Maternowska believes that conventional wisdom leaves the girls behind. Too often, funding agencies, ministries and even adolescent programs themselves inadvertently apply inappropriate western paradigms of behavior change without the thought, investment or patience required to effectively and meaningfully reduce girls’ vulnerability. The anthology will address this crucial information gap, through a critical, thought-provoking collection of essays and experiences from the field."

• Honorary Council, Lambi Fund of Haiti

Ongoing Research Projects

• Title: Post-Abortion Care and Improved Maternal Mortality in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya (Key Funder(s): The Goldman Foundation, UN/Better World Foundation)
• Title: Unveiling Violence: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Mombasa (Major Project Goal: Dr. Matenowska works closely with the International Centre for Reproductive Health directing a Social Science and Policy Unit.)

Books

• "Reproducing Inequities: Poverty And the Politics of Population in Haiti", by M. Catherine Maternowska (Author), Paul Farmer (Foreword) (Rutgers University Press, 2006).