Dr Nassim El Achi

Dr El Achi joined King’s in January 2022, where she is part of the NIHR-funded R4HSSS project that focuses on the capacity strengthening of health systems in North Syria. Prior to joining King’s, Nassim worked as a postdoctoral researcher in health, water and climate at the University of Oxford on the SafePani Project, and as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Global Health Institute-American University of Beirut, Lebanon on the R4HC-MENA research partnership.

She has been invited to give lectures & seminars as part of postgraduate modules at multiple universities including KCL, LSHTM, UCL, University of Bath, and at The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.

Her research interests include improving health systems & water security in complex environments & emerging economies

Nassim holds a PhD from Université de Lille & won multiple prizes including the 2nd prize for the best PhD in Chemical Sciences.

Research Interests 

Nassim primarily focuses on health research & health systems strengthening in conflicts settings which includes topics like:

 

• Designing effective & sustainable capacity strengthening interventions in ongoing conflicts
• Medical education in conflict
• Health research methods & ethics in conflict
• Health governance in conflict
• Access to healthcare services in conflict
• WASH & AMR in conflict
• Gender & health in conflict

Publications

Nassim has published more than 23 research papers along with multiple policy briefs and reports.

 

Related Research papers:

• Abushomar R, Zeitoun M, Abu Sittah G, Abu Fayad A, Abbara A, El Achi N, Elmanama A., Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria in Health Care Facilities: Exploring Links With Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Gaza, Palestine, iproc 2022;8(1):e37246

• Rania Mansour, Hady Naal, Tarek Kishawi, Nassim El Achi, Layal Hneiny & Shadi Saleh “Health Research Capacity Building of Health Workers in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings: A Scoping Review of Challenges, Strengths, and Recommendations” Health Research Policy and Systems, 2021, 19, 84.

• Gemma Bowsher, Nassim El Achi, Katrin Augustin, Kristen Meagher, Abdulkarim Ekzayez, Bayard Roberts & Preeti Patel “eHealth for service delivery in conflict: a narrative review of the application of eHealth technologies in contemporary conflict settings” Health Policy and Planning, 2021, 1–8.

• Mark Zeitoun, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Reem Abu Shomar & Nassim El Achi, “AMR and Covid-19 on the Frontline: A Call to Rethink War, WASH, and Public Health” Annals for Global Health, 2021, 87(1).

• Kristen Meagher, Nassim El Achi, Gemma Bowsher, Abdulkarim Ekzayez & Preeti Patel “Exploring the role of City Networks in supporting urban resilience to COVID-19 in conflict-affected settings” Open Health, 2021, 2, 1-20

• Zahi Abdul Sater, Marilyne Menassa, Nassim El Achi, Rima A. AbdulKhalek, Ghassan Abu-Sittah & Deborah Mukhreji “Strengthening capacity for cancer research in conflict settings: key informant insights from the Middle East” ecancer, 2020, 14, 1153

• Preeti Patel, Kristen Meagher, Nassim El Achi, Abdulkarim Ekzayez, Richard Sullivan & Gemma Bowsher, “Having more women humanitarian leaders will help transform the humanitarian system: Challenges and Opportunities for Women Leaders in Conflict and Humanitarian Health” Conflict & Health, 2020, 14, 84

• Rima A. Abdul-Khalek, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Nassim El Achi, Walaa Kayyal, Ahmad Elamine, Aya Noubani, Marilyne Menassa, Fahad Ahmed, Richard Sullivan & Deborah Mukherji. “Mapping breast cancer journal publications in conflict settings in the MENA region: A scoping review” ecancer, 2020, 14, 1129

• Nassim El Achi, Marilyne Menassa, Richard Sullivan, Preeti Patel, Rita Giacaman & Ghassan Abu-Sittah. “Ecology of war and the subjugation of health research: Insights from the Middle East and North Africa Region”. Annals for Global Health, 2020, 86 (1).

• Nassim El Achi, Youssef Bakkour, Wissal Adhami, Julien Molina, Mael Penhoat, Nathalie Azaroual, Laetitia Chausset-Boissarie & Christian Rolando, Frontiers in Chemistry, 2020, 8, 740.

• Nassim El Achi, Gladys Honein‐Abouhaidar, Anthony Rizk, Elsa Kobeissi, Andreas Papamichail, Kristen Meagher, Abdulkarim Ekzayez, Ghassan Soleiman Abu-Sittah & Preeti Patel, “Assessing the capacity for conflict and health research in Lebanon: a qualitative study” Conflict and Health, 2020, 14(59), 1-18.

• Nassim El Achi & Michael J. Rouse, “A hybrid hydraulic model for gradual transition from intermittent to continuous water supply in Amman, Jordan: a theoretical study” IWA Publishing, Water Supply, 2020, 20(1), 118-129.

• Nassim El Achi, Andreas Papamichail, Anthony Rizk, Helen Lindsay, Marilyne Menassa, Rima A. Abdel-Khalek, Omar Dewachi & Preeti Patel, “ Conflict and health research in the Middle East and North Africa region: A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening, Globalization and Health, 2019, 15(1), 1-15.

• Gemma Bowsher, Andreas Papamichail, Nassim El Achi, Abdulkarim Ekzayez, Bayard Roberts, Richard Sullivan & Preeti Patel, “A narrative review of health research capacity strengthening in low and middle-income countries: lessons for conflict-affected areas” Globalization and Health, 2019, 15(1),23

 

Policy briefs & reports:

• “Policy reforms for safe drinking water service delivery in rural Bangladesh”, REAH policy brief, May 2021

• “Pooling risk management under professionalized service providers to ensure safely managed drinking water in public education facilities in Chandpur, Bangladesh”, REACH working paper 11, May 2021

• “Policy reform for safe drinking water service delivery in rural Bangladesh”, REACH working paper 9, April 2021

• “Drinking water services in coastal Bangladesh”, REACH working paper 10, April 2021.

• Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019- Water Quality Report, UNICEF, February 2021

 

Book chapter:

• “A Road Map to Sustainable Urban Water Supply” in: “Water Science, Policy and Management: A Global Challenge”, Editor: Simon James Dadson, ISBN: 978-1119520603, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell

Other reports:

• “Capacity Strengthening of Health Research in Conflict Settings in MENA: Why, What and How?” August 10, 2020, South of Global Health. https://bit.ly/2DZxn4e

• “Strengthening health research in conflict settings” in the Orient III/2020, July, 2020. German Orient-Institute, issue 3, p. 31

• “Water War and Peace in Times of Scarcity”, February, 2019. Tvergestein, issue 12, p.24

Teaching 

Since 2019, Nassim gives multiple lectures and seminars in the Conflict & Health Module for the MSc in Global Health and the intercalated BSc in Global Health at the King’s Centre for Global Health & Health Partnerships, based in the Faculty of Life Science and Medicine at KCL.

Link to Dr. Nassim's KCL PURE Profile