Nabila Arab

Nabila Arab is a protection practitioner and migration researcher with over six years of field experience working with displaced communities across Lebanon and Syria. She currently serves as a Protection and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in South Lebanon, coordinating humanitarian response in collective displacement shelters during active military escalation — including protection monitoring, needs assessments, and psychosocial programming for families affected by conflict. As Project Officer at Ummet Hayr Dernegi in northwest Syria — supported by the Spanish Government — she coordinated multi-sectoral humanitarian programmes across protection, MHPSS, health, WASH, and reconstruction, managing workflows across three international teams based in Spain, Turkey, and Syria simultaneously, with responsibility for scheduling, budget tracking, donor reporting, and real-time adaptive management in active post-war and post-earthquake conditions.

She holds an MA in Migration Studies from the Lebanese American University and a BA in Social Work and Community Development, and is currently a research and communications intern with Border Criminologies. Her research examines forced displacement, confessional governance, and the informal protection mechanisms that emerge under conditions of crisis cohabitation — a dynamic she theorises through the concept of sectarian hospitality. She is an incoming PhD researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, joining the CLOSER ERC Synergy Grant project, where her doctoral research will examine the electoral geography of Lebanon’s confessional system and the re-freezing of sectarian cleavages during displacement.

Her article on securitisation and feminist resistance in Lebanon has been accepted for publication in Gender and Development (Routledge/Oxfam, November 2026 special issue). She is an accepted presenter at the Swiss Conference on Migration and Mobility Studies (July 2026).

In 2026, Nabila was selected for three international fellowships: as a Vital Voices Global Partnership Engage Fellow (2026–2027), a leadership programme for women in public life; a Refugees International Refugee Fellow (2026–2027), a year-long advocacy fellowship formally affiliating her with the organisation; and a fellow of the EPFL EssentialTech Centre (ERD), supporting research on displacement and technology.

Nabila is the Global Ambassador for Lebanon at the International Youth Council on Gender Equality (IYCGE), Lebanon Hub Coordinator for Al Sharq Youth, and a former SWANA Regional Coordinator for the Migration Youth and Children Platform (MYCP). She has represented Lebanon as a youth delegate at COP28 and COP29, and as UNFPA Lebanon Youth Representative at the ICPD30 Global Youth Forum in Benin.