Godfrey Biemba, MD

Godfrey Biemba is an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of Global Health at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Country Director of the Zambian Center for Applied Health Research and Development (ZCAHRD) Limited. Dr. Biemba has 32 years’ experience in the health sector as a medical practitioner, researcher, and public health manager. He has 26 years’ experience in conducting various types of health related research, ranging from clinical trials to community based evaluations, baseline and endline surveys of public health programs, situational analyses in the areas of Malaria, health systems, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), road safety, MNCH, and HIV/AIDS. He has both quantitative and qualitative research experience and skills and has experience in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of public health programs including capacity building in M&E and implementation and operations research.

Some of recent research works that Dr. Biemba has been involved in include:
Effectiveness of 4% chlorhexidine umbilical cord care on neonatal mortality in Southern Province, Zambia (ZamCAT): a cluster-randomised controlled trial; Behaviours of drivers on Zambian roads: a cross sectional study; Impact of a community-based package of interventions on child development in Zambia: a cluster-randomised controlled trial; Willingness to Pay for a Maternity Waiting Home Stay in Zambia.

Other recent works include : A Cluster Randomised Trial on the Impact of Integrating Early Infant HIV Diagnosis with the Expanded Programme on Immunization on Immunization and HIV Testing Rates in Rural Health Facilities in Southern Zambia; Epidemiology and Factors Associated with Road Traffic Crashes in Zambia; Effect of deploying community health assistants on appropriate treatment for diarrhea, malaria, and pneumonia: A quasi-experimental study in two districts of Zambia; Beliefs, Behaviors, and Perceptions of Community-Led Total Sanitation and Their Relation to Improved Sanitation in Rural Zambia; the joint baseline assessment of the Zambia Rising, Data Rising and Community Rising OVC systems strengthening project; the baseline assessment of health facility and health workers for maternal, neonatal, child health, and nutrition services in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia; the baseline and endline household surveys for evaluating the effect and cost of deploying community health assistants to improve maternal, newborn, and child health in Zambia. Some of the M&E and operations research capacity building works that Dr. Biemba was either leading or acted as co-facilitator include, the Applied Research in Child Health (ARCH) health systems research capacity building project, the Mozambique OVC M&E capacity building project, and the current Luapula Foundation M&E capacity building project supported by Zambia Rising through Save the Children.

Dr. Biemba has served in various positions in the Zambian health sector; from managing community outreach activities in HIV/AIDs and Primary Healthcare work in Macha hospital where he was also medical officer in charge, to managing a provincial hospital as Executive Director of Livingstone General hospital, to managing a large umbrella faith based health coordinating organization as Executive Director of CHAZ, to managing epidemiology and disease control at the MOH headquarters as Deputy Director, Communicable Diseases, Epidemiology and Disease Control, and now managing a research and health service delivery organization, ZCAHRD. Dr. Biemba has been the immediate in-country supervisor for the ZCAHRD Saving Mothers Giving Life (SMGL) Project Director, the Boston University PMTCT Integration Program (BUPIP), and the mHealth Program Manager supporting SMGL and BUPIP and is therefore well vest with the MNCH activities under phase 1 of SMGL. He was also part of the recently completed Zambia chlorhexidine application trial (ZamCAT), a large neonatal survival study in Southern Province. Dr. Biemba has strong project management skills, including proposal development, implementation of community based programs, monitoring and evaluation, and report writing. He has long experience working with various donor agencies, including USAID and CDC. Dr. Biemba received specific training in managing USG grants by Pact Zambia in 1999 and has since then managed a number of USAID funded grants.