Chi-Chi Undie

Chi-Chi Undie is a senior associate and technical director based in Nairobi. Undie joined the Population Council in 2009, conducting research focused primarily sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and adolescent girls. Since 2011, she has served as project director for the Council-led Africa Regional SGBV Network—a multicountry, multipartner SGBV response and research initiative in East and Southern Africa. Her work on SGBV has had wide influence on policy and practice, leading to the passage of a resolution calling for the integration of intimate partner violence screening into sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS services throughout East, Central, and Southern Africa. This work has recently been extended to refugee settings in the region, and to address the needs of child survivors of violence. Her more recent research with out-of-school adolescent mothers aims to expand their access to formal education by revitalizing the implementation of Kenya’s school re-entry policy for young mothers.

Before joining the Council, Undie was a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellow and an associate research scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). There she led the APHRC’s sexuality program and conducted several sexual and reproductive health research projects.

Undie is co-chair of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative’s Coordinating Group. She holds a BA in French from the University of Calabar, and MA in intercultural communication, and PhD in language, literacy, and culture from the University of Maryland.