Our Objective

R4HC-MENA’s objective is to build research and policy capacity in conflict affected areas, focusing on health, political economy of health, and complex non-communicable diseases such as mental health and cancer, and facilitate more effective translation of research into policy.

Our legacy will be a new, networked community with practice, policy and health systems financing and planning informed by the best available evidence.

How We’ll Achieve Our Objective

Developing accredited, multidisciplinary courses for researchers and senior policy makers

Courses will be developed and delivered in partnership with our UK and MENA colleagues. They will follow a blended learning approach, and lecturers and researchers will be trained in innovative teaching, assessment and evaluation methods. Courses will build knowledge and expertise in classical and new research methods, and grow capacity to generate data. Senior leaders at national and global/multilateral institution levels will be mentored in the translation of research to policy.

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Building new sustainable partnerships

We will bring together academic, humanitarian and government sector actors to develop education programmes and build expertise in conflict and health research in both UK and partner countries. We will work closely with countries in areas of conflict in the MENA region so as to learn from their experiences and strengthen existing South-South partnerships.

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Developing local, interdisciplinary research programmes

These will aim to improve understanding of the institutions and systems that can support good governance of health systems in conflict, support progress towards achieving SDGs and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals and improve care for the most vulnerable populations, particularly women and older people.

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Our Vision

R4HC-MENA’s legacy will be a new community of practice in relation to conflict and health. A community that includes actors from the research, practice and policy fields, all actively sharing expertise at local, regional and global levels and supported by the best and most up to date training and research.

Our Mission

Our mission is to work in partnership to co-create sustainable research capacity in the MENA region to address the major health challenges arising from conflict, with a focus on non-communicable diseases, specifically cancer and mental health. Our main focus will be on Jordan, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya and Turkey, as well as conflict-affected populations in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

Our project will deliver a sustainable, multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral research capacity, partnership and community of practice with academic institutions, policy think-tanks, NGOs, governments and international organisations involved in conflict and health. R4HC-MENA will directly benefit participants across all work streams who participate in this project, as they will receive training and mentorship in research and policy leadership as well as key qualitative and quantitative research skills through the duration of the project.

Research Partners

R4HC-MENA is funded by a £6m Research Councils UK Global Challenges Research Fund Award.  Details about the award can be found here.