Rachel Jewkes is Executive Scientist: Research Strategy in Office of the President and former Unit Director of the Gender and Health Unit of the South Africa Medical Research Council, based in Pretoria, South Africa. [1] She also serves as Director of the What Works to Prevent Violence Global Programme, as well as of the Secretary of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative. She has been a member of the National Council Against Gender-Based Violence in South Africa and the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board [2] and the WHO's Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for HIV-AIDS (STAC-HIV). [1] Jewkes studied Medicine, receiving a Masters in Community Medicine (MSc) and a Doctorate in Medicine (MD) from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London. [1] She is an Honorary Professor in the faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and is an A-rated researcher with the South African National Research Foundation. [3] Jewkes moved from England to South Africa in 1994. [4]
A UN-sponsored study coauthored by Jewkes on male violence against women in Asia and the Pacific reported that a high number of men admitted to sexual violence. [5] [6] Survey researchers have questioned the plausibility of some of the findings of this study. [7] In 2013 Jewkes also published on depressive symptoms after sexual assault, [8] the epidemiology of child homicides [9] and intimate femicide-suicide. [10]