This webinar will assess the current state of affairs in MENA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speakers will look at the effects of the virus in the context of a region already in need of reformed healthcare institutions that not only improve quality, but enable access for all. Speakers will also assess the economic impact of the virus, highlight country examples such as Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as specific concerns around the impact on migrant workers in the region.
This session is part of a larger day-long event organised by the LSE Institute of Global Affairs and the School of Public Policy for the London launch of the Maryam Forum. This day-long event is an opportunity to bring the whole school together at a time of uncertainty and need for reflection and policy action.
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Rothna Begum is a senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). She has focused on discrimination and violence against women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa region including leading the research and advocacy on the abuse and exploitation of migrant domestic workers in the Middle East, and domestic violence against women and girls. She also led the advocacy for Human Rights Watch on a new global International Labour Organization (ILO) treaty relating to violence and harassment at work, which was adopted in June 2019. Rothna is also, in her individual capacity, a member of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States’ Migration Advisory Group.
Ahmed Galal is currently chair of the board of trustees of the Middle East and North Africa Health Policy Forum (MENA HPF). Ahmed was Egypt's finance minister (2013-14), the managing director of the Economic Research Forum (ERF) and the director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES). Before that, he worked for 18 years for the World Bank, where he conducted research and provided policy advice to governments in several regions.
Weeam Hammoudeh is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University and formerly ACSS (Arab Council for the Social Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Researcher at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Birzeit University. She is interested in understanding how political and social transformations impact health, psychosocial wellbeing, and population processes, particularly in conflict areas; as well as how health systems and social institutions develop and shift in relation to political, economic, and structural factors, particularly in developing countries and post-colonial settings.
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