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All times listed in Dubai time – (check your local time)
The full programme and attendance is accessible through the HSR2020 website.
Session overview
This satellite session will focus on advancing migration and health as a cross cutting, multidisciplinary focus of research and will highlight both ongoing research in this field, including research in sexual and reproductive health and rights, in health policy and systems, and infectious diseases of poverty.
Session organizers
Session description
Migration is an integral part of the social and cultural fabric of our societies. There are more than 164 million international labour workers contributing to economies worldwide and hundreds of millions more moving for work within their own countries. The numbers of forcibly displaced people, such as refugees and internally displaced persons, worldwide are much smaller but rose to a record 70·8 million in 2018. The World Bank predicts that nearly half of the world's poor will live in fragile and conflict affected states by 2030. However, despite global commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), universal health coverage (UHC), equity in health,1 and international agreements to improve the responses to migration, those who migrate are often excluded from global health policy.
To meet the global commitments of the 2030 Agenda and to ensure that “no one is left behind”, it is essential that migrants are explicitly included and mainstreamed in global health forums, policy, and research. Research on migration and health is a relatively new area which needs to draw on many different disciplines, and requires a strong understanding of how to translate evidence into policy and practice. This satellite session will focus on the topic of advancing migration and health as a cross cutting multidisciplinary focus of research and will highlight both ongoing research in this field, including research in sexual and reproductive health and rights, in health policy and systems, and infectious diseases of poverty.. However, it will also move beyond the topic of knowledge generation and start to define priorities for migration and health research particularly the importance of building relevant capacities in LMICs. and engagement with stakeholders to advance the use of the research for policy and action.
Purpose and objectives
The purpose of this panel session is to explore strengthening research on migration and health globally. The specific objectives of this session are to: discuss priority research topics in the field of migration and health and define an agenda for action, identify models of and avenues for building the relevant capacities in LMICs; and discuss how to engage more effectively in LMICs and between disciplines. It is being jointly organized by Lancet Migration together with the WHO hosted special programmes for Human Reproduction (HRP), and Infectious Diseases of Poverty (TDR) in collaboration with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems research,
Session contributors
This session will be divided into two parts – a panel and a discussion forum. Kabir Sheikh will moderate the panel and give a 5-minute introduction to the entire session. Each speaker will be given 6 minutes to present, with audience questions midway through the panel and at the end (10 minutes X 2). This will be followed by a 45-minute forum moderated by Jocalyn Clark, who will facilitate a discussion on a global migration health research agenda and the audience will engage and direct questions to the panel. The moderator will close the session with a 5-minute summary and outlining next steps.
Panel – What is being done to strengthen institutional capacity for research on migration and health (Professor Kabir Sheikh – Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO – chair)
Dr Miriam Orcutt, Executive Director, Lancet Migration and Senior Research Fellow, UCL Institute for Global Health – perspective from Lancet Migration: forming regional collaborations and migration health research networks
Professor Anna Thorson (HRP) – Developing a joint initiative for research capacity strengthening in the context of migration,
Dr Jo Vearey, Associate Professor & Director of the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa – creation of The “Johannesburg Principles: Guidelines for Ethical and Equitable International partnerships in Migration Research” and how these can be applied to research on migration and health
Professor Julian Fernandez, Doctor & Professor Department of Public Health, Universidad del Norte, Colombia - country experiences from Latin America: health system responses to south-south migration from Venezuela
Dr Garry Aslanyan (TDR) – Doing Implementation Research on infectious diseases of poverty in the context of migration
Professor Fouad Fouad, Associate Professor, American University Beirut. Fouad is a Syrian national working in Lebanon and engaged in building local capacity for MHR. He will bring perspectives on rethinking health systems frameworks to integrate human mobility - as research on migration and health advocate and from his personal circumstance as a forced migrant.
Forum – Towards a global agenda for research on migration and health capacity building (Dr Jocalyn Clark, The Lancet – chair, same panel plus Prof Sheikh):
How do we set priorities for research on migration and health in LMICs?
The unique needs and challenges of doing research on migration and health – e.g. engaging migrant populations, working with mobile populations, the ethics of research in conflict settings.
Doing and using multidisciplinary research on migration and health in LMICs – what capacities need to be developed?
Increasing the use of research on migration and health research/evidence for policy and practice – what actions are needed?