The Reproductive Health Working Group (RHWG)

The RHWG was initiated as a research group on reproductive health at the Population Council's West Asia and North Africa regional office in Cairo in 1988.  The RHWG developed gradually into a regional network of scholars in Arab countries and Turkey. It has been hosted at CRPH since 2004.  

Members belong to different disciplines and fields of inquiry and look to the RHWG for exchange of ideas and experiences, and for mutual support in the production of high quality research focusing on reproductive health issues of relevance to the region. They approach these issues from a broad multidisciplinary perspective that is culturally sensitive and policy relevant. Many CRPH affiliates are members of the RHWG network. They participate regularly in the annual RHWG meeting organized to share research results and plans and to provide support especially to new young members who are constantly solicited to join the RHWG. 

For more information on the RHWG, please visit their website RHWG Website

The Choices and Challenges in Changing Childbirth Network (CCCC)

Choices and Challenges in Changing Childbirth (CCCC) is an established multidisciplinary regional research network producing scientific evidence on childbirth policies and practices in the Middle East and identifying areas amenable to improvement. Its research aims ultimately to render maternal health care safer for mothers and their newborns and to maximize available choices for women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-partum period.

The regional network conducts national and regional activities with researchers from Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. The researchers collaborate with policymakers, professional associations, health care providers, and women.  For more information about the CCCC, please visit the CCCC website.

Public Health in the Arab World (PHAW)

This is an informal international network aimed in its first phase at publishing and disseminating an edited book in English, and later a version in Arabic, concerning progress, challenges and opportunities of public health in the Arab countries.  The authors meet periodically to discuss chapter drafts and issues arising from their work on the book and maintain these discussions by way of a listserve.

The book, to be titled Public Health in the Arab World – Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities, is edited by a team from the Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, and the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University.  Book authors represent a multi-disciplinary group with both academics and practitioners in public health and other fields who come from and work in diverse settings in Arab countries and international settings.
The book project is hosted by the CRPH and is supported by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation through its regional office for Middle East and North Africa, and by the Faculty of Health Sciences.  The book was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012.
For more information about the PHAW project, please visit the PHAW website