Maysa Baroud

Maysa Baroud is a joint visiting fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs and Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI). 

Prior, Baroud was a senior researcher at the Arab NGO Network for Development, where she coordinated the development of the Arab Watch Report on Economic and Social Rights with a focus on the right to health (2022-2023). Baroud has also worked at IFI as a program coordinator of the governance and policy lab and a project coordinator within the refugee research and policy program.  

While at IFI, Baroud has contributed to research projects on Lebanon’s economic crisis and refugees’ livelihoods and adaptation in the informal economy. She was also part of several projects as an independent researcher, including the legal and regulatory frameworks on refugees’ right to work and rights at work.  

Baroud’s research interests include migrant and refugee rights. In particular, she looks at how these rights relate to labor and social policies, and she examines the adaptive mechanisms through which refugees and migrants secure their basic needs in host countries. 

Baroud has co-published several articles, book chapters, research reports, case studies, and policy papers. She has also co-edited a volume on refugee livelihoods, resilience, and adaptation in the informal economies of Lebanon and Jordan.