Oumnia Bouaddi is a health professional with a background in epidemiology and biostatistics. She has contributed to multiple public health research projects in Morocco and has gained exposure to the work of international organizations (WHO, UNAIDS) in health, migration and immunization through internships, collaborations and placements. She is now in the final stages of her PhD, focusing on health and immunization among migrant populations in the MENA region.
Can you tell us what attracted you to the MENA Migrant Health project?
What attracted me most is the project’s investment in building regional research capacity, particularly for young researchers, in this increasingly important but still nascent field. I am also very pleased with its multidisciplinary approach and its ability to bring together stakeholders at the national and regional levels. What is also important to me is that I get to contribute to ongoing efforts to strengthen health equity for migrants in my country, Morocco, which sits along a major migration corridor.
Your research focuses on vaccination and COVID-19. What sparked your interest in this area? What is the current situation for the migrant population?
Vaccination has been described as a social equalizer and has great potential to champion health and equity in our societies. During COVID-19, we have seen what happens when the benefits of vaccination are not shared by everyone. Migrants are one group that do not always get to benefit from the health and social gains of vaccination. The situation of migrants in an LMIC context is especially unique because they face both the existing limits of healthcare systems, which are still facing multiple challenges, and also unique issues such as language, trust, and legal and administrative barriers. The combination of these factors leads to low vaccine uptake among migrant groups.
What do you hope to achieve personally and professionally through the completion of your PhD?
After my PhD, I aim to deepen my expertise in global health research and develop practical skills, particularly in implementation research and action research in health and migration, especially in Global South receiving countries. In the future, I hope to work side by side with decision-makers and migrant communities to produce meaningful research that is guided by and accountable to the needs of migrants, while also considering the specificities of each healthcare system and context.
How do you envision the future of the MENA Migrant Health project and its role in improving immunization in the region?
I believe this project has great potential to drive systemic change, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for it. I think one of the greatest impacts of the project, aside from research and its contribution to the country-owned migrant health profile tool, is that it served as an advocacy platform calling for migrant health data to be prioritized in our region. I am glad that this project brought to light a very important conversation, and I believe it will have a positive ripple effect and inspire further research and policy action across the region in this area.
