About
Pia Riggirozzi has expertise in political economy of development and health governance in Latin America, with a background in qualitative research and experience leading international, multi-institutional MRC and ESRC-DfID funded research in Latin America and Southern Africa. Her research interests include political economy of development, global health, rights-based approaches to health and welfare, regional governance in Latin America.
Pia has published books and articles in academic journals such as Development and Change, New Political Economy, International Affairs, Economy and Society, and Review of International Studies, as well as policy outlets such as The Lancet Migration.
Originally from Argentina, her experience informed her research questions and ways of enquiry, deliberately bringing interdisciplinary insights to research issues about inclusive development, governance, equality and human rights.
She is currently working on an MRC funded project on gendered health inequalities, poverty and the challenges of inclusive development in Brazil: Engaging Users for Quality Enhancement and Rights (EU QUERO): Strengthening the maternal and child healthcare system over the first 1000 days in Brazil; and is Principal Investigator in the ESRC project Redressing Gendered Health Inequalities of Displaced Women and Girls in contexts of Protracted Crisis in Central and South America (ReGHID). Pia is co-director of the Global Health and Policy Centre (GHaP) at the University of Southampton.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Political economy of development
- Global governance and international development
- Rights-based approaches to health and welfare
- Human rights and inclusive development
- Latin American political economy
Current research
- ESRC GCRF funded project (02/2020-2023) Redressing Gendered Health Inequalities of Displaced Women and Girls in contexts of Protracted Crisis in Central and South America (ReGHID) analyses development-based approaches to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs and rights of migrant women and adolescent girls displaced from Central America to Mexico and from Venezuela to Brazil and Colombia. The project will generate new quantitative and qualitative empirical data on the impact of displacement on the SRH needs of women and adolescent girls in Central America and Venezuela; co-produce research with non-governmental and civil society organisations working with displaced women and adolescent girls to uncover the lived experiences of their right to health in relation to SRH, and analyse governmental and non-governmental responses in view of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Follow updates and outputs here: https://gcrf-reghid.com
- MRC-CONFAP funded project Engaging Users for Quality Enhancement and Rights (EU QUERO): Strengthening the maternal and child healthcare system over the first 1000 days in Brazil, which monitors, and seeks to strengthen, access and quality of healthcare available to women and children within the first 1000 days of life (from conception until about 2 years of age) in Brazil. This project, EU QUERO (meaning ‘I want’ in Portuguese), is testing an intervention to improve the quality of care in two states, Goiás and Maranhão. The project develops scorecards to measure quality and rights-based education working with community health agents and mothers. The aim is to develop tools to improving quality of maternal and child care and empowering people (especially the most vulnerable and marginalised) with the knowledge and resources to understand and assert their rights.
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Global Governance
Global Political Economy
International Relations
Crises of the 21st Century
Biography
In 2006 I was awarded a PhD University of Warwick, Department of Politics and International Studies. Before, I obtained degrees from the University of Miami, School of International Studies, Florida, USA (MSc, 2001); FLACSO/ Argentina (MSc, 1997) and at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina (BSc International Relations, 1995). In 2007 I was also awarded an ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship (based at the University of Sheffield).
I am currently engaged in a number of on-going research projects and collaborations. My research has been funded by the Ford Foundation, the Global Development Network, ESRC, UNDP, and MRC.
I am Principal Investigator on the ESRC GCRF funded project ReGHID (Redressing Gendered Health Inequalities of Displaced Women and Girls in contexts of Protracted Crisis in Central and South America) and co-director of the Global Health and Policy Centre (GHaP) at the University of Southampton.