Dr. Ernestina Coast

Dr Coast is an Associate Professor in Population Studies in the Dept. of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, where she is the Programme Director for the MSc in Population and Development. She has led interdisciplinary social science research projects on sexual and reproductive health, households, and poverty, all focused on low income countries. Dr Coast is currently leading: a research programme on women’s health in the occupied Palestinian Territories; a research project on abortion in Zambia; and, commissioned research for the WHO on the role of culture in maternity care. Ernestina currently serves as a member of the WHO Guideline Development Group for Maternal and Newborn Health. As a social scientist with training in demography and anthropology, Ernestina’s research focuses on using mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) to research the inter-relationships between social context and demographic behaviour, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. Recent research has been externally funded by the ESRC, DFID, Wellcome Trust and the Nuffield Foundation. She has acted as adviser to a number of organisations, including DFID, UNAIDS, Marie Stopes International and DANIDA, and has been a Visiting Scholar at the African Population and Health Research Centre.