Publications

• Journal article

  

  A pragmatic call to integrate and regulate non-state actors in fragile health systems

  Osborne A, Ali AS, Sesay U

  Health Systems & Reform, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Advancing toward the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets in Sierra Leone: a narrative review of progress, persistent gaps and policy priorities

  Osborne A, Kamara IF, Lakoh S, Mustapha M, Vandy A, Vandi M, Tengbe SM, Sankoh O

  Annals of Global Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Community-driven responses to the Kush epidemic and health system resilience in Kailahun District Sierra Leone

  Osborne, A., Kamara, M., Jalloh, S. W., Morris, T., Idriss, A., Jalloh, A., Yillah RM, Diaconu, K, Sankoh, O.

  Discover Public Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Emergency contraception among female university students in Sierra Leone: an exploratory study of use, knowledge, attitudes and associated factors

  Osborne A, Bangura C, Vandy A

  Women’s Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  How can we bridge the digital health divide with equity solutions in the post-pandemic era across LMICs?

  Osborne A, Sesay U

  INQUIRY, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Machine learning prediction of kangaroo mother care in Sierra Leone: a comparative study of feature selection techniques and classification algorithms

  Osborne A, Soladoye AA, Usani KO, Adekoya AI, Wada OZ, Olawade DB

  International Journal of Medical Informatics, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Redesigning humanitarian health interventions: a framework for sustainable integration with local systems

  Osborne A, Vandy A

  Global Public Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Rural–urban disparities in populations practising open defecation across 47 African countries: a secondary analysis using the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit

  Osborne A, Ali AS, Sesay U

  Global Public Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Sex-based disparities in whooping cough prevalence in Sierra Leone: evaluating WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit data

  Osborne A, Sesay U, Ahinkorah BO

  International Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Strengthening women’s leadership in health systems through innovation and intersectionality

  Osborne A, Vandi M

  International Journal for Equity in Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  Utilizing longitudinal studies to address adolescent pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa

  Osborne A, Ahinkorah BO

  Reproductive Health, 2026

• Journal article

  

  A fairness-aware machine learning framework for maternal health in Ghana: integrating explainability, bias mitigation and causal inference for ethical AI deployment

  Osborne A, Usani K

  BioData Mining, 2025

• Journal article

  

  A study of vulnerable student populations, exclusion and marginalization in Sierra Leonean secondary schools: a social justice theory analysis

  Osborne A, Yillah RM, Bash-Taqi A, Conteh O

  BMC Psychology, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Bridging the gap: exploring students’ needs, knowledge and preferences for delivering comprehensive sexuality education in Sierra Leone

  Yillah RM, Sah RK, Bash-Taqi A, Osborne A

  BMC Public Health, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Early childhood female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone, 2008–2019

  Osborne A, Bangura C, Abu B, Sesay U

  PLOS One, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Forecasting malaria cases using climate variability in Sierra Leone

  Jalloh SW, Malenje B, Imboga H, Hodges MH

  Malaria Journal, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Harnessing traditional healers’ role in strengthening Africa’s public health response: a case study of the mpox outbreak

  Osborne A, Sesay U, Gebru GN, James PB

  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Provincial distribution of unintended pregnancy and its associated factors in Sierra Leone

  Osborne A, Yillah RM, Bangura C, Ahinkorah BO

  BMC Public Health, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Sex-disaggregated analysis of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection prevalence in Sierra Leone: insights from the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit

  Osborne A, Tejan YS, Sesay U, Kamara IF

  BMC Public Health, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Sierra Leone’s kush epidemic response should be integrated with sexual and reproductive health services

  Osborne A, Musa YM, Issa S, Kamara IF

  BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Sierra Leone’s safe motherhood bill: balancing public health, religious values and cultural traditions

  Osborne A, Sesay U, Yillah RM, Bangura C, Ahinkorah BO

  Reproductive Health, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Socio-economic and geographical inequalities in infant mortality rates in Sierra Leone, 2008–2019

  Osborne A, Kamara H, Bangura C, Bah AJ

  BMC Public Health, 2025

• Journal article

  

  Spatial mapping and determinants of intimate partner violence among married women in Sierra Leone: a cross-sectional study

  Osborne A, Sesay U, Bangura C, Fornah L

  PLOS One, 2025

• Journal article

  

  The effectiveness of the Sierra Leone health sector’s response to COVID-19: a quantitative analysis

  Osborne A, Amara PS, M’Cormack-Hale FAO, Kanu M, Kanu AF, Yillah RM, Gooding K, Witter S

  BMC Health Services Research, 2025

• Journal article

  

  “These attitudes are a pressure”: women with disabilities’ perceptions of how stigma shapes their sexual health choices

  Bash-Taqi R, Carew MT, Dhingra S, Koroma HK, Fraser T, McLaren M, Groce N

  Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2024

• Journal article

  

  Adolescent girls’ perceptions of the COVID-19 infodemic in Sierra Leone: a qualitative study in urban, peri-urban and rural Sierra Leone

  Yillah RM, Wurie HR, Reindorf B, Sawaneh A, Hodges MH, Turay H

  BMJ Open, 2024

• Journal article

  

  Religious leaders’ nuanced views on birth spacing and contraceptives in Sierra Leone: qualitative insights

  Yillah RM, Bull F, Sawaneh A, Reindorf B, Turay H, Wurie HR, Hodges MH, Osborne A

  Contraception and Reproductive Medicine, 2024

• Journal article

  

  Spatial distribution and factors associated with HIV testing among adolescent girls and young women in Sierra Leone

  Osborne A, Bangura C, Williams SMT, Koroma AH, Fornah L, Yillah RM, Ahinkorah BO

  BMC Infectious Diseases, 2024

• Journal article

  

  The effect of becoming a Fistula Advocate on the recovery of women with obstetric fistula in Sierra Leone: a qualitative study

  Bash-Taqi R, Vowles Z, Kamara A, Kuteh M, Silverio SA, Turay I, Peckham S

  PLOS Global Public Health, 2023

• Journal article

  

  From commitment to implementation: lessons learnt from the first National Strategy for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy in Sierra Leone

  Bash-Taqi R, Watson K, Akwara E, Adebayo E, Chandra-Mouli V

  Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2020

No papers published that year.

• Research report

  

  Empowering youth through collaborative efforts: addressing kush use and related challenges in Freetown

  Kamara M, Jalloh SW

  African Cities Research Consortium, 2025

• Research report

  

  Muslim leaders' evolving views of child and adolescent health and life skills in Sierra Leone

  Yillah, R.M., Osborne, A., Bash-Taqi, A., Wurie Jalloh, S.

  ALiGN, 2025

• Toolkit

  

  Strengthening health system resilience: a practical toolkit for community engagement

  Institute for Development, ReBUILD for Resilience consortium

  ReBUILD for Resilience, 2025

Method writing, findings and news from the researchers who did the fieldwork.

• News

  Sabi Salone: the country's evidence, in one place you can question

  Sierra Leone's policies and evaluations are largely public. They are also scattered across ministries, donor archives and outdated PDFs. Sabi Salone puts them somewhere you can ask a question.

  Institute for Development12 June 2025

• Insight

  Did it work? Using interrupted time series to evaluate health system change

  Adolescent family planning visits doubled at one Kailahun health centre after a 2024 upgrade. Establishing whether the upgrade caused it is a harder question than it looks.

  Anaïs Bash-Taqi and Saidu Wurie Jalloh3 June 2025

• News

  IfD convenes a national conversation about evidence

  In February 2025 IfD brought government ministries, universities, NGOs, research networks and people with lived experience of crisis into the same room.

  Institute for Development27 February 2025