Christabel Kambala

Dr. Christabel Kambala

Associate Professor – Public and Environmental Health Sciences

PhD in Public Health (2016), Heidelberg University, Germany
Master of Public Health (2007), University of Glasgow, Scotland
BSc in Environmental Health (2001), Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), formerly, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic
Diploma in Public Health (1998), Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), formerly, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic

Profile

With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Christabel Kambala is a distinguished lecturer, researcher, and consultant specializing in public and environmental health sciences. She has been teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students since 2004 and has successfully led large-scale research initiatives addressing complex public and environmental health challenges. Dr. Kambala is highly skilled in both qualitative and quantitative research, utilizing data-driven methodologies to design impactful studies and deliver actionable insights. Her diverse research expertise spans sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, sanitation, gender-based discrimination, and more.

She has collaborated with esteemed institutions locally and internationally, enhancing the scope and impact of her work. Dr. Kambala has also contributed to consultancy projects, including conducting Human Rights Impact Assessments in tobacco-growing communities across Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. Having held significant academic leadership roles, such as Deputy Dean of Applied Sciences and Head of the Environmental Health Department at Malawi University of Business and Applied Science, she continues to offer strategic recommendations to senior leadership and clients, advancing initiatives that address key health and human rights issues.

BSc in Environmental Health
MSc in Environmental Health
MSc in Occupational Safety and Health
MSc in Sanitation

Co-investigator: Supporting climate-resilient health facilities in Malawi through sustainable access to water using solar disinfection of harvested rainwater: the SURGeWater Project, January 2023 – July 2026. Funded by Science Foundation Ireland
Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
Co-investigator: Global Health Research Group on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. Co-leading work package 4 – Examine and understand the current status of adolescent health and well-being, and how this is influenced by water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), August 2022- July 2026. Funded by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS, University of Strathclyde, and, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences.
Co-Investigator: Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Social Inclusion for a Just Energy Transition in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Co-leading work package 2 – To document the barriers that prevent mainstreaming GESI into current policies, strategies and decisions to increase women and disadvantaged groups’ participation and leadership in the decision-making process and create an enabling environment for a just energy transition in Malawi, January 2025 – December 2027. Funded by UKAID, Aryton Fund.
Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS, Malawi; Mekelle University, Ethiopia; Ardhi University, Tanzania; Mzuzu University, Malawi; Universidade Eduardo, Mozambique; Strathclyde University, Scotland; Loughborough University, UK; University of Sheffield

Nexleaf Data Analysis for Vaccine Temperature Monitoring, 2023

With funding from the McGovern Foundation, Nexleaf offered the PEHS department the assignment in partnership with the Ministry of Health to develop a certificate curriculum that helped to train EPI managers and EPI technicians in order to reduce the challenges faced in data use for decision making. This training assisted to reduce the challenges faced in terms of keeping the vaccine cold chain.

Co-investigator: 2019 to 2024 UKAID funded formative research

Formative research to gain an informed understanding of barriers impeding access and use of sexual and reproductive health /family planning services, 2019 to 2024. Funded by UKAID. Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS, University of Strathclyde, and, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences

Co-investigator: 2020-2021, UKRI GRCF DIDA funded research

Principal Investigator: 2019 Global Challenges Research Fund funded research

Establishing Network to Address Sanitation and Hygiene in the Fishing Communities of Africa’s Great Lakes, January 2019 to December 2019. Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund.
Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS, University of Strathclyde, University of Zambia, Makerere University, Uganda.

Co-investigator: 2016-2018.USAID and PEPFER funded research

Evaluation of Malawi’s One Community Program in improving the well-being and risk of HIV acquisition among Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Adolescent Girls, and Young Women including People Living with HIV and Adolescents living with HIV, 2016-2018. Financed by USAID and PEPFER.
Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Population Council.

Principal Investigator: 2017-2018 SHARE funded project

Investigating the status and efficacy of Menstrual Hygiene Management Absorbent Interventions in Malawi, 2017-2018. Financed by Centre for Water, Sanitation, Health & Appropriate Technology– through Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) Project.
Collaborating Institutions: MUBAS and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Co-investigator and Ph.D. student: 2012-2016 funded by KfW and GDB

Assessing the impact of using Performance Based Financing (PBF) to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care services, 2012-2016. Financed by KreditanstaltfürWiederaufbau (KfW), German Development Bank, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway.
Collaborating Institutions: Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and Heidelberg University, Germany.

Other Current Engagements

Reviewer in the following journal:

PLos One
BMC Reproductive Health
Health Promotion International
International Research Journal of Public and Environmental Health
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
BMC Health Services
Journal of Applied Sciences and Innovation

Selected Publications

McGuigan, K. G., Mussa, D. C., Kambala, C. Y., & Gajewski, J. (2025). Design and Assessing the Effectiveness of Solar Disinfection Systems in Treating Rooftop Harvested Rainwater for Sanitation and Hygiene Purposes in Rural Maternal Health Facilities. Advances in Science and Technology, 160, 85-91.
Dasgupta T, De Allegri M, Brenner S, Stephan Brenner, Christabel Kaminjolo-Kambala, Julia Lohmann. Good while it lasted? Estimating the long-term and withdrawal effects of results-based financing in Malawi on maternal care utilisation using routine data. BMJ Open 2024;14: e066115. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066115.
Clara Orduhan, Ruth Waitzberg, Manuela De Allegri, Bona Chitah, Jean-Paul Dossou, Charlestine Bob Elwange, Adama Faye, Sharon Fonn, Christabel Kambala, Shafiu Mohammed, Hamidou Niangaly, Chenjerai Sisimayi, Wilm Quentin. Pre-Print. 2023. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2550163/v1.
Panulo M, Chidziwisan K, Beattie TK, Tilley E, Kambala C, Morse T. Process Evaluation of “The Hygienic Family” Intervention: A Community-Based Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Project in Rural Malawi. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022:1;19(11):6771. Doi: 10.3390/ijerph1911677.PMID:35682353; PMCID: PMC9180059.
Peven K, Taylor C, Purssell E, Mallick L, Burgert-Brucker CR, Day LT, Wong KLM, Kambala C, Bick D. Distance to available services for newborns at facilities in Malawi: A secondary analysis of survey and health facility data. PLoS ONE. 2021;6(7): e0254083. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254083
Rossanie Malolo, Save Kumwenda, Kondwani Chidziwisano, Christabel Kambala, Tracy Morse. Social outcomes of a community-based water, sanitation and hygiene intervention. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development washdev2021264. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2021.264
Christabel Kambala, Angela Chinangwa, Effie Chipeta, Belen Torondel, Tracy Morse. Acceptability of menstrual products interventions for menstrual hygiene management among women and girls in Malawi. Reproductive Health. 2020;17,185. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-020-01045-z
Chisomo Thaulo, Christabel Kambala. Factors affecting utilization of postnatal care services: a mixed methods study among women who recently completed a pregnancy in rural Malawi. Malawi Journal of Applied Sciences and Innovation. 2019;3(2):1-9
Manuela De Allegri, Stephan Brenner, Christabel Kambala, Jacob Mazalale, Adamson S Muula, Jobiba Chinkhumba, Danielle Wilhelm, Julia Lohmann. Exploiting the emergent nature of mixed methods designs: insights from a mixed methods impact evaluation in Malawi. Health Policy and Planning. 2019; czz126. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czz126.
Joseph K. Wulifan, Jacob Mazalale, Christabel Kambala, William Angko, Job Asante, Stephen Kpinpuo and Albino Kalolo. Prevalence and determinants of unmet need for family planning among married women in Ghana-a multinomial logistic regression analysis of the GDHS, 2014. Contraception and Reproductive Medicine (2019) 4:2 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40834-018-0083-8.
Julia Lohmann, Danielle Wilhelm, Christabel Kambala, Stephan Brenner, Adamson S Muula, Manuela De Allegri. ‘The money can be a motivator, to me a little, but mostly PBF just helps me to do better in my job.’ An exploration of the motivational mechanisms of performance-based financing for health workers in Malawi. Health Policy Plan. 2018;33(2):183-191. doi:10.1093/heapol/czx156.
Christabel Kambala, Julia Lohmann, Jacob Mazalale, Stephan Brenner, Malabika Sarker, Adamson S. Muula, Manuela De Allegri. Perceptions of quality across the continuum in the context of a health financing programme: a mixed methods study in Malawi. BMC Health Services Research. 2017; 17:392. doi 10.1186/s12913-017-2329-6
Stephan Brenner, Danielle Wilhelm, Julia Lohmann, Christabel Kambala, Jobiba Chinkhumba, Adamson S. Muula & Manuela De Allegri. Implementation research to improve quality of maternal and newborn health care, Malawi. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2017: Type: Research Article ID: blt.16.178202
Kambala C, Lohmann J, Mazalale J, Brenner S, De Allegri M, Muula AS, Sarker M. How do Malawian women rate the quality of maternal and newborn care? Experiences and perceptions of women in the central and southern regions. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2015; 15:169. doi: 10.1186/s12884-015-0560-x.
Mazalale J, Kambala C, Brenner S, Chinkhumba J, Lohmann J, Mathanga DP, Robberstad B, Muula AS, De Allegri M. Factors associated with delivery outside a health facility: cross-sectional study in rural Malawi. Trop Med Int Health. 2015;20(5):617-626. doi: 10.1111/tmi.12473.
Kambala C, Morse T, Masangwi S, Mitunda P. Barriers to maternal health service use in Chikhwawa, Southern Malawi. Malawi Medical Journal. 2011; 23(1): 1-5.
Save Kumwenda, Madalitso Tsakama, Khumbo Kalulu and Christabel Kambala. Determination of Biological, Physical and Chemical Pollutants in Mudi River, Blantyre, Malawi (2012). J. Basic. Appl. Sci. Res., 2(7)6833-6839.
Chikumbusko Chiziwa Kaonga, Christabel Kambala, Chikondi Mwendera and Theresa Mkandawire. Water quality assessment in Bangwe Township, Blantyre City, Malawi (2013). African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology; 7 (5): 259-266.
S. Kumwenda, C. Kambala, C.Mwendera, K. Kalulu (2011). What do Malawi Polytechnic first-year students know and do about HIV and AIDS? Malawi Medical Journal; 23(1): 6-10.

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