Christ Church welcomes Moroccan public health delegation

Five academics from the International School of Public Health at Mohammed VI University of Sciences and Health (UM6SS), Morocco, visited Oxford as part of an academic exchange focused on health systems strengthening, research collaboration and capacity building. The programme was organised by Professor Mike English, Senior Associate Research Fellow at Christ Church and Professor of International Child Health at the University of Oxford, and funded by the British Council.

Led by Professor Zakaria Belrhiti and Associate Professor Saad Zbiri, the delegation took part in a varied programme alongside colleagues from Oxford’s MSc in Health Service Improvement and Evaluation, as well as faculty members and students.

Activities included a one-day conference and a grant-writing workshop exploring the research funding landscape and the qualities of successful grant applications. Later in the week, DPhil and MSc students joined the visitors in a mock grant funding panel, providing a practical opportunity to develop and assess research proposals.

The exchange also created opportunities for focused discussions between Oxford and UM6SS colleagues on shared research interests, including governance, leadership and management, human resources for health, technologies in health, realist evaluation and other theory-driven methods.

Emerging areas of collaboration included frontline staff wellbeing, health system resilience, primary healthcare networks, ethical practice, community engagement, and the responsible implementation of diagnostics, AI and other health technologies. These themes are expected to help shape a longer-term research and capacity-building agenda linking Oxford colleagues with partners in Morocco and wider African health systems.

The week concluded with a meeting in Christ Church’s Dodgson Room attended by Mrs Sanaa Kabbaj, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in London, and Susanna Carmody from the British Council. The meeting celebrated a productive week of exchange and reaffirmed a shared ambition to develop practical, policy-relevant collaborations in public health, health systems research and postgraduate education.

Thanking the College for hosting the event, Professor English said: ‘Christ Church’s generous hospitality and the seamless support provided by the conference team gave the Moroccan team, the Moroccan Embassy representative and partners from the World Health Organisation a truly memorable day.’