Dr. Chitalu Miriam Chama-Chiliba is the Centre Leader and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Zambia’s Centre for Economic and Social Research (CESOR). She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and brings over 15 years of professional experience in research, analysis and teaching. Her work focuses on microeconomic issues in developing countries, with particular emphasis on health and development economics and the evaluation of policy interventions.

Dr. Chama-Chiliba has led and contributed to numerous collaborative research and consultancy projects with institutions such as the World Bank, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, JICA, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), IDRC, World Vision, and the Ministry of Health in Zambia. Her research and policy engagement have focused particularly on maternal and child health, health financing, and sexual and reproductive health among young women and adolescents. She has extensive experience in the design and evaluation of health system and development programmes, including randomized and quasi-experimental policy evaluations, health systems analysis, and the application of econometric methods to inform evidence-based policy.

Dr. Chama-Chiliba currently leads several collaborative research initiatives with national and international partners and has published widely in peer-reviewed journals on health policy, health systems and development economics. Her work contributes to strengthening evidence for policy and programme design in Zambia and other low- and middle-income countries.

She served on the National Health Research Ethics Board (NHREB) during the period 2023–2025. She also serves as a Board Member of the Zambia Statistics Agency, contributing to national statistical governance and evidence-based decision making.