Specialising in public health in humanitarian crises, protection, and humanitarian action, global health expert Sali Hafez has joined the UNESCO Chair team to work on intercultural dialogue (ICD).
“I’m currently working on developing an ICD index that will be indicating how well each country is doing in the area of intercultural dialogue,” Sali said.
Starting at the beginning of February, Sali will be in Melbourne for six weeks working on the UNESCO project.
“We will measure how well a country is doing in three dimensions: the legislative acts that promote, support and enable multiculturalism; the systems and structures present that promote multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue; and the enabling factors that promote intercultural dialogue,” she said
“I hope my time at the UNESCO chair will further develop my research skills and get back into the academic sphere.”
Having worked for the last seven years in international development with multiple United Nations agencies and international organizations, her research interests include migration, humanitarian action, public health, and inequalities.
“I have been working on humanitarian responses in various contexts within Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Bangladesh,” Sali said.
Also scheduled to work on research focusing on Yemen within the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership at Deakin University, Sali hopes to bring a fresh perspective on the issue.
“The project aims to discover how humanitarian coordination mechanisms influenced humanitarian access in Yemen especially in the hard to reach and besieged areas,” she said.
In her previous work with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, Sali’s focus was on humanitarian action and disaster response with a focus on health, sexual and gender-based violence, migrants, refugees and child protection.
