Anthony Zwi

Professor Zwi focuses on global health and development policy and has interests in their interface with equity, social justice and human rights. He seeks to build partnership between Australia, the Asia-Pacific, and Africa and to promote capabilities in global health, international development policy, and disaster planning, management and response. He has experience across a range of countries, contexts and issues - typically with a health, development, and human rights focus. Previous projects have undertaken systematic reviews on Community Based Disaster Risk Management, Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflicts and Emergencies, and on Urbanisation and Disaster Risk in South Asia. He has worked extensively in Timor-Leste (East Timor), but also has been involved with research and education activities in Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Cambodia, INdia, Kosovo, Palestine, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Ethiopia. He is interested in understanding, and improving mechanisms, to facilitate evidence-informed health and development policy.

Professor Zwi seeks to build links between humanitarian relief and development organisations and academic institutions. He has a particular interest in 'post'-conflict health system development. He led a team which developed the Health and Peacebuilding Filter which explored how health-related interventions in countries which have experienced disasters and wars could be more sensitive to culture, conflict, and to rebuilding trust and social cohesion. He and colleagues work on the ethics of research in conflict-affected settings, and the role of service providers and community members, including young people, in shaping and influencing research and responses to violent political conflict.

Professor Zwi is active in peer-review of journal articles and competitive research grants. He is a member of the Development Practice Committee of the Australian Council for International Development (Acfid). He Chairs the Board of the Aminata Maternal Foundation which seeks to improve maternal health outcomes in Sierra Leone, one of the least developed countries that is seeking to enhance health outcomes for all. He is an Associate of the Australian Human Rights Institute.