Last Mafuba, Coventry HDRC Research Ambassador
Meet Last
My background
I am a community-rooted researcher and systems leader specialising in racial and migrant mental health inequalities. My work bridges community experience, statutory services, and academic research, with a focus on addressing structural disparities in health and social care systems.â
I hold a PhD in social sciences and have developed a cross-sector portfolio spanning VCFSE and NHS governance, local authority partnerships, and university research collaborations.
Where I work and what I do
I am the Founder and CEO of Inini Initiative, a social enterprise supporting individuals seeking sanctuary and newly arrived communities to overcome barriers to integration, wellbeing, and access to services.
Alongside this, I serve as an HDRC Research Ambassador for Coventry, supporting research capacity building at Inini Initiative and helping connect community insight with policy and evidence development.â
I also chair the Independent Advisory Group for the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) within Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, and work closely with academic partners across Warwick and Coventry Universities on research funding applications.â
My work focuses on strengthening community voice within research and ensuring that inequalities are addressed at a systems level.
The areas that I am researching
- Racial and ethnic inequalities in mental healthâ
- Migrant and sanctuary-seeking experiences of health and social care systemsâ
- Mental Health Act disparities and detentionâ
- Community-embedded and participatory research approachesâ
- Structural racism and systems reformâ
- Implementation and evaluation of PCREFâ
- Building equitable research partnerships between communities, councils, and universities