Amal Abubakar

Amal Abubakar is passionate about migration, governance, social mobility, and youth-led solutions. As a former child refugee, her lived experience drives her commitment to ensuring that policies reflect the realities of the people they serve and provide opportunities for marginalised communities.

Professionally, Amal draws on a multidisciplinary background in International Relations and is informed by fieldwork and consultancy experience with organisations including Ridgeway Information and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. At IPPF, Amal led research on cross-border SRHR in conflict-affected regions such as Sudan and the West Bank. Before this, at Ridgeway, she co-authored a policy report for the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) on Tunisia’s evolving migration landscape. Additionally, she was awarded a £5,000 Sutton Trust bursary, sponsored by JP Morgan, in recognition of her frontline humanitarian work with refugees in Calais.

Currently, Amal is a Salzburg Global Fellow and a Bevisioneers Climate Fellow. She is developing a refugee-led initiative focused on climate displacement and contributing to cross-sectoral projects that explore migration systems and democratic trust in Europe.

She is fluent in Somali and English, and conversational in Arabic, and is currently completing her BA in International Relations at SOAS, University of London where her research interests span feminist foreign policy, securitisation, and the climate-migration nexus.