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Irene de Vries

Department
SRHR
Title
Advisor

As a medical doctor and social scientist I like to work in the field where both skills meet to improve health for all. After my degrees, I worked several years as a medical doctor in the Netherlands, the Caribbean and Zambia, mainly in the fields of obstetrics & gynaecology, neonatal care and pediatrics. 

I believe that the combination of being a critical anthropologist and a passionate doctor with a heart for the quality of lives of individuals helps in reviewing health in a broader perspective and understanding relations between the macro- and micro level.

At KIT I develop and implement advisory, evaluation and research projects related to SRHR in low and middle-income countries, with a focus on maternal and newborn health. Furthermore I am involved in educational, training and capacity building activities.

My most recent work focuses on strengthening health care providers’ roles, and contributions to advocacy and public health issues. I also focus on innovations that arise at the intersection of medical and social sciences, working to establish these advancements in institutions and societies. By utilizing a people-centered approach and applying system-level thinking, I aim to ensure the adoption, sustainability, scalability, and reach of innovations, particularly benefiting those most in need.

Projects

  • Improving access to preventive medicine: a data visualization and analysis platform to support microplanning of schistosomiasis control  

    • Institute
    • Project

    KIT and in country partners are designing a real time monitoring and evaluation platform to facilitate decision making for the control and management of schistosomiasis. This tool will build upon the MATCH methodology that seeks to inform decision making through better use of data.   In the 2021-2030 roadmap, the WHO calls for: With the limited resources available for reducing transmission and […]

  • Assessing Ultrasound Outreach

    • Institute
    • Project

    KIT worked with the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology (ISUOG), to assess their outreach programme and provide strategic directions to improve global access to obstetric and gynaecology ultrasound. As of 2020, ISUOG aims to move to more comprehensive programming for its areas of impact: training & education and beyond, including global access […]

  • The role of health care providers in expanding the legal grounds for safe abortion: insights from Argentina, Ireland and South Korea

    • Institute
    • Project

    Abortion laws and regulations are key in creating an enabling environment that facilitates the advancement of people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and well-being. Notwithstanding the recent retrogressions on abortion laws in various parts of the world, legal frameworks regulating access to safe abortion have been progressively liberalised around the world over the last […]

  • Evaluating UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development Programme in Palestine

    • Institute
    • Project

    Between 2019 and 2020, KIT evaluated a multi-sector programme led by UNICEF to improve early childhood development services for children living with disabilities in vulnerable districts of the West Bank and Gaza. Early Child Development is a Priority for Palestine The State of Palestine has suffered from violence and protracted displacement for more than 50 […]

  • Extending Safe Abortion Advocacy with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

    • Institute
    • Project

    Since April 2019, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) has worked with ten of its member associations – that is, national societies of obstetrics and gynaecology – to become key actors in safe abortion advocacy and national leaders in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for women. The project envisioned reaching its […]

  • Needs Assessment for a Multi-Country Safe Abortion Project

    • Institute
    • Project

    KIT conducted a ‘needs assessment’ for the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). It covered a multi-country project designed to increase the capacity of national obstetrics and gynaecology societies to lead their nations in safe abortion advocacy work. The formative research focused on the views about abortion advocacy in ten nations, taking into account both […]

Publications