Olive Mbekwani Kalata is a health systems and policy researcher and PhD student based in the Policy Unit at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme. She has a background in nursing and over a decade of experience working within Malawi’s public health system. Her research interests focus on health system strengthening, evidence-informed decision-making, health policy analysis, and implementation research.

Olive’s PhD research explores the integration of mental health care into routine primary perinatal health services in Malawi, with a focus on feasibility and acceptability. She has contributed to several multidisciplinary research projects addressing mental health, antimalarial drug resistance, climate change and clean energy, and pandemic preparedness. She is particularly interested in strengthening the link between research, policy, and practice to improve health outcomes in low-resource settings.

She has co-authored a publication on Identification, Prevention, and Treatment of Perinatal Depression in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Narrative Review