Middle East
Center for Research on Population and Health
Location
The Center is based at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon.
NB a linked programme of research training is supported at the Social Research Center, American University of Cairo (AUC).
Lead researcher
Dr Huda Zurayk
Activities
Lebanon is coming out of more than a decade of civil war, and the award to AUB - the premier public health teaching institution in the Middle East - aims to contribute to the regeneration of the academic science base in Lebanon.
The Center is engaged in wide-ranging studies of the health consequences of population change across the Middle East, including a programme of research addressing four issues in population and health:
- maternity care (particularly childbirth practices)
- health sector reforms
- disease transition in adolescents and the elderly
- work-related threats to women's health.
The Center provides intellectual support for AUB and colleagues in the region, provides logistical support for field research, and helps members of the Faculty of Health Sciences to develop research proposals. It aims to develop innovative approaches to disseminating research results and translating findings into the policy domain.
The Center is developing collaborative links with other colleagues in the region, and provides scholarships to enable students from outside the Lebanon to join AUB's public health Master's programme. The overall aim is to create a critical mass of population-based researchers in the Middle East.