Estelle Monique Sidze

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

Estelle is a senior researcher at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), passionate about generating evidence and advocating for women's health and perinatal well-being. She has over 15 years of research experience on various women's health topics including access and utilization of family planning, access to quality and affordable maternity care, and vulnerability and inequalities assessment with focus on key populations such as adolescents, urban poor, and migrant/displaced populations. She is currently dedicated to generating quality evidence on the intersections between SRHR, maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), and mental health in the African Continent. Estelle has several years of leadership and policy engagement experience acquired at APHRC, one of Africa's foremost regional research centers addressing population, health and education issues. She has published several peer-reviewed papers and opinion pieces, and serves as reviewer and guest editor for various peer-reviewed journals including BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, Maternal and Child Health Journal, Bulletin of the World Health organization, BMC Public health, BMJ Global Health, Sage, African Journal of Reproductive Health, and International Social Science Journal. She thrives on ensuring that stakeholders and decision makers in sub-Saharan Africa have adequate and quality data to deliver on the SDG commitment of leaving no one behind. Estelle holds a Master’s Degree and a PhD in Demography from the University of Montreal, Canada.

PERSONNAL COMMITMENTS:

• Ensure African leaders and the global community have rigorous up-to-date data on perinatal mental health for proper action
• Ensure what women need and want for their health and wellbeing is well understood in research and action
• Champion universal mental health coverage goals for mothers in Africa, in particular adolescent and young mothers
• Advocate for the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on maternal and newborn care for a positive pregnancy and postnatal experience, and integration of perinatal mental health in maternal and child health services

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

Estelle is an active member of the following global and local groups and networks:
• The WHO Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and child Health (https://pmnch.who.int/)
• The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (https://maternalmentalhealthalliance.org/resource-hub/)
• The Mental Health Innovation Network (https://www.mhinnovation.net/)
• The Healthy Newborn Network (https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/)
• The International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health { https://marcesociety.com/)
• The African Alliance for Maternal Mental Health (https://aammh.org/)