Shehani Perera

Honorary Research Affiliate

Research Project(s)

  • Global Fund AGYW

Research Interests

  • HIV
  • Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights
  • Influence of religion and faith-based organisations on public health

Biography  

Shehani Perera is a Public Health Researcher currently pursuing a D.Phil in Public Health at the University of Cape Town. Her research explores assisted partner notification for HIV among women and healthcare workers in Cape Town. She holds a Masters in Public Health and a Bachelors degree in Social Work. Currently, she works as an Honorary Research Affiliate in the Global Fund AGYW project at the Centre for Social Sciences Research, part of the Adolescent Accelerators Research Hub. Her prior experiences as a Research Fellow and Public Health Consultant have included projects on migration, gender and health systems, system dynamics modelling and tuberculosis, and digital health tools for frontline health workers for maternal and child health. She has received several awards and scholarships including the BRIDGES PhD Research Fellowship, the Margaret McNamara Education Grant, National Research Foundation's Freestanding, Innovation and Scarce Skills Scholarship and the Canon Collins Education and Legal Assistance Trust Scholarship. Shehani has also worked as a Teaching Assistant and Guest Lecturer at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine. Her roles involved supporting three Masters-level modules on the Master's in Public Health-programme: Public Health and Society, Qualitative Research Methods (Ethics in Qualitative Research; Protocol Development for Qualitative Research), and Qualitative Data Analysis (Using Computer Science to analyse Qualitative Data). Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV, and the influence of religion and faith-based organisations on public health.

Recent Publications

  • Manji, K., Perera, S., Hanefeld, J. et al. An analysis of migration and implications for health in government policy of South Africa. Int J Equity Health 22, 82 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01862-1
  • Githaiga JN, Späth C, Sicwebu N, Perera S, Tolla T, Leon N. Critical Reflections on Conducting Qualitative Health Research During COVID-19: The Lived Experiences of a Cohort of Postgraduate Students in a South African University. Int J Qual Methods. 2023 Jan 2;22:16094069221148406. doi: 10.1177/16094069221148406. PMID: 36628133; PMCID: PMC9813641.

  • Shehani Perera et al., Complexity and evidence in health sector decision-making: lessons from tuberculosis infection prevention in South Africa, Health Policy and Planning, Volume 37, Issue 9, November 2022, Pages 1177–1187, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czac059