Lesley Gittings

UKRI GCRF Accelerating Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents (Adolescent Accelerators Research Hub) 

Lesley is a postdoctoral researcher with the Adolescent Accelerators Research Hub, where she leads the Teen Advisory Groups project.  She is interested in how participatory methods can support the meaningful involvement of adolescents and young people in research, policy and programming. She is also a qualitative co-Investigator with  the HEY BABY study of adolescent parents. Lesley holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town’s School of Public Health and Family Medicine, where her research explored and documented the health practices of adolescent boys and young men living with HIV. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

Latest publications

Gittings, L., Toska, E., Medley, M., Cluver, L., Logie, C., Ralayo, N., Chen, J., Mbithi, J. (In press). ‘Now my life is stuck!’: Experiences of adolescents and young people during COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa. Global Public Health.

Gittings, L., Mbula, S., Kom, P., Hodes, R., Colvin, C. (In press). ‘If you are found taking medicine, you will be called names and considered less of a man.’: Young men’s engagement with HIV treatment and care during ulwaluko (traditional initiation/circumcision) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS.

Logie, C., Okumu, M., Musoke, D., Hakiza, R., Mwima, S., Kyambadde, P., Abela, H., Gittings, L., Mbuagbaw, L., Baral, S. (In press). ‘Intersecting stigma and HIV testing practices among urban refugee and displaced adolescents and youth in Kampala, Uganda: qualitative findings’. Journal of the International AIDS Society. 

Refereed book chapters

Gittings, L., Hodes, R., Colvin, C. and Zungu, M. (2020). Things less spoken: HIV research with adolescent boys and young men – implications for theory, policy and practice. In Govender, K and Poku, N.K. (Eds.), Adolescence and HIV Prevention in Africa: Emerging Evidence and Intervention Strategies. Abingdon: Routledge. 

Zungu, N., Toska, E., Gittings, L.,  and Hodes, R. (2020).  Positive Prevention among Adolescents Living with HIV and AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa: Is Social Protection a Missing Piece of the Puzzle? In Govender, K and Poku, N.K. (Eds.), Adolescence and HIV Prevention in Africa: Emerging Evidence and Intervention Strategies. Abingdon: Routledge.