FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University

What FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University does

The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights is an interdisciplinary research and policy center based at Harvard University, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It operates with approximately 29 employees and functions as a nonprofit academic unit within the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health ecosystem. The Center's mission centers on the intersection of health and human rights, with programmatic emphasis on child protection, racial justice, Roma rights, climate and global health, migration, and armed conflict (including a Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights). Its work spans research, policy advocacy, education, and convening, and its outputs include peer-reviewed publications, policy reports, and the FXB-GAPWHR open-access journal.

The Center's core products and offerings include: a graduate certificate program in Health and Human Rights; fellowships such as the François-Xavier Bagnoud Global Health Research Fellowship and the Global COACH Fellowship on climate and global health; online courses delivered through the HarvardX platform; annual international conferences (most prominently the Annual Roma Conference, now in its 13th year with a 14th scheduled for 2026); and community-driven research outputs. Its business model is nonprofit and grant-funded. Revenue derives from institutional support from Harvard University, foundation grants (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ford Foundation, JPB Foundation), and individual philanthropy. Earned revenue streams such as MOOC enrollment fees and certificate program tuition exist but appear secondary to grant funding. Distribution occurs through policy briefings, academic publications, mass open online courses, and convenings that influence both scholarship and policy practice.

The Center serves a multi-stakeholder audience including Harvard students and faculty, international researchers, policymakers, advocacy organizations, and affected communities—most notably Roma populations across Europe, Canada, and the United States. Notable contributions include involvement in the O'Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health, contributions to a Council of Europe resolution on Roma rights, and contributions to the first bipartisan U.S. Senate resolution (S. Res 124) recognizing structural racism as a public health crisis. Its leadership has included figures such as Mary T. Bassett (former FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights), Natalia Linos (former Executive Director), and currently Jehane Sedky as Executive Director, with Jacqueline Bhabha serving as Director of Research and Margareta Matache directing the Roma Program.

Name

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University

Legal name

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University

Website

https://fxb.harvard.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights is a Harvard University research center that conducts interdisciplinary work at the intersection of health and human rights, serving policymakers, scholars, and affected communities through research, fellowships, certificate programs, and international conferences focused on racial justice, Roma rights, child protection, and climate health.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Institutional Funding: As a center within Harvard University, the FXB Center receives institutional funding from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This supports core operations, staff salaries, and administrative functions.
2. Foundation Grants: The center receives significant grant funding from foundations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Supporting Antiracist Research Centers for Health, Making the Public Health Case for Reparations), Ford Foundation, and JPB Foundation. These grants fund specific research programs and projects.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The FXB Center is an academic research and education center within Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that conducts interdisciplinary research on the intersection of health and human rights, with special attention to children and structurally marginalized populations. It delivers this through dedicated research programs (Roma Program, Racial Justice Program, Palestine Program, Distress Migration Program), graduate-level educational programs (Child Protection Certificate Program, Global COACH Fellowship, G. Barrie Landry Professional Training, summer courses in Greece), an open-access peer-reviewed journal (Health and Human Rights Journal), and annual scholarly conferences.

Product overview

FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University is an academic research center offering a portfolio of educational programs and research initiatives focused on health and human rights. The Center operates as a single unified institutional entity with multiple programmatic offerings: the Child Protection Certificate Program (a graduate-level interdisciplinary certificate), the Health and Human Rights Journal (open-access peer-reviewed publication), Global COACH Fellowship (climate and health advocacy training), the G. Barrie Landry Professional Training Program (in-person child protection training), an Intensive Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies in Greece, and online courses through HarvardX. Research programs include the Roma Program for Health and Human Rights, the Racial Justice Program, and the Making the Public Health Case for Reparations initiative. The Center does not offer commercial software products or technology platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Health and Human Rights Journal: The FXB Center's flagship open-access journal providing an inclusive forum for action-oriented dialogue among human rights practitioners and scholars.

Products and services

• Child Protection Certificate Program An interdisciplinary graduate certificate program open to students from any Harvard graduate school, providing training in child protection through courses covering five domains: Child Protection Systems, Violence Against Children, Justice for Children, Social Change/Family Strengthening, and Child Protection Leadership Tools. Requires participation in a seminar and completion of 12 credits from qualifying courses. The curriculum incorporates expertise from UNICEF.
• Health and Human Rights Journal FXB Center's flagship open-access peer-reviewed journal providing an inclusive forum for action-oriented dialogue among human rights practitioners and scholars, advancing human rights knowledge and scholarship in the health field. The full text of all articles is freely available to anyone with internet access.
• Roma Program for Health and Human Rights A research program focused on documenting patterns of structural, political, environmental, and social inequities affecting Romani children and youth's access to education, health, training, work, and civic life. Includes initiatives on anti-Roma racism, climate justice, and memorialization of Romani enslavement. Hosts annual Roma conferences at Harvard since 2013.
• Racial Justice Program A program creating actionable scholarship examining the impact of structural racism on health, including projects on antiracist research centers, clinical decision-making bias, maternal health disparities, and healthcare access inequities.
• Global Community Organizing and Advocacy for Climate and Health (Global COACH) Fellowship A fellowship program led by the FXB Center focused on community organizing and advocacy for climate and health equity, training emerging leaders in climate justice theory, research, and advocacy.
• The G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training Program An in-person professional training program on child protection designed for practitioners seeking specialized training in child protection systems and response.
• Intensive Summer Course on Migration and Refugee Studies in Greece An in-person intensive summer academic course conducted in Lesvos, Greece, providing hands-on education on migration and refugee studies through field-based learning.
• FXB Center Classes Through HarvardX Online courses offered through HarvardX, the University's online learning initiative, providing accessible education on health and human rights topics to a global audience. Includes the 'Health and Society' course with 32,000+ registrants.
• Making the Public Health Case for Reparations A research project exploring monetary reparations for African enslavement as a public health strategy to eliminate racial disparities in health outcomes, including landscape reports and scholarship on reparations efforts.
• Supporting Antiracist Research Centers for Health A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded project enabling the FXB Center to convene innovative leaders and build community partnerships to address health impacts of structural racism through research and doctoral internship programs with grassroots organizations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual Roma conferences at Harvard University since 2013
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• Boston University Center on Forced DisplacementmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Co-host of the 13th Annual Roma Conference at Harvard (April 2025), contributing to the center's annual convening of scholars and practitioners addressing anti-Roma racism.
• Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights PolicymajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Co-host of the 13th Annual Roma Conference at Harvard (April 2025), contributing expertise on human rights policy to the center's annual convening.
• Canadian Romani AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024The FXB Center partnered with the Canadian Romani Alliance to conduct a qualitative study on discrimination experienced by Romani people in Canada's Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area. The partnership produced a groundbreaking report titled 'Confronting Major and Everyday Discrimination: Romani Experiences in Canada's Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area.'
• Central European University Romani Studies ProgrammajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAnnual co-host of the Roma conferences at Harvard University, bringing together scholars, activists, and policymakers to examine and address anti-Roma racism globally.
• FXB Global NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe FXB Center is part of the broader FXB Global Network including FXB Rwanda, FXB India Suraksha, FXB Center at Rutgers School of Nursing, and FXB Flight Vehicle Institute at University of Michigan. The network focuses on health equity and human rights work across different geographic regions.
• UNICEFmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNICEF expertise is incorporated into the Child Protection Certificate Program's curriculum development, providing field-based realities and expertise from the UN children's agency.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• FXB Center at Rutgers School of Nursing: A direct sister organization within the FXB Global Network. Operates the same health equity, child protection, and human rights mission under the FXB banner with overlapping programmatic models. Closest functional comparator given shared brand, governance model, and thematic focus.
• Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy: Co-host of the 13th Annual Roma Conference at Harvard. An academic human rights policy research and convening center within Harvard, operating a similar model of scholarship, events, and policy translation. Shares both institutional home and human rights focus area.
• Boston University Center on Forced Displacement: Co-host of the 13th Annual Roma Conference at Harvard (April 2025). An academic research center focused on displacement, forced migration, and human rights, with comparable convening and research output models. Highly relevant given FXB's Distress Migration Program.
• FXB Rwanda: A direct sister organization within the FXB Global Network focused on health equity and human rights in Rwanda. Operates the same FXB brand and model in a regional context, providing a comparator for network-sibling scaling and field-based delivery.
• FXB Climate Advocates: A network sibling within the FXB Global Network focused on climate and health equity advocacy. Operates the same organizational brand with a narrower topical focus, providing a useful comparator for how the FXB model extends into specific issue verticals (e.g., Global COACH fellowship).

Broad incumbents

• UNICEF Office of Research — Innocenti: UNICEF's dedicated research arm focused on children's rights and child well-being. Comparable in producing research that informs international child protection policy; the FXB Child Protection Certificate Program already incorporates UNICEF expertise. Operates at a much larger scale across multiple regions.
• Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights: An academic human rights research and education center at a peer Ivy League institution. Operates a similar model combining scholarship, courses, convening, and policy engagement. Comparable in scale and institutional positioning as a competing hub for human rights scholarship and training.

Regional players

• FXB India Suraksha: A regional FXB Network organization operating in India under the same health-and-human-rights banner. Comparable in mission and brand, but focused on India-specific child protection and community health programming. Provides a geographic peer for FXB's global network model.

Emerging players

• FXB Flight Vehicle Institute at University of Michigan: A network sibling within the FXB Global Network hosted at the University of Michigan. While the topical focus differs, it shares the FXB brand, academic-anchored operating model, and mission-aligned positioning. Useful comparator for the broader network's institutional structure.

Others

• François-Xavier Bagnoud Foundation: The parent foundation of the broader FXB network and the namesake of the Harvard FXB Center. Provides the umbrella governance and funding lineage connecting the global FXB network. An ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor, but foundational to understanding FXB Center's institutional position.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xyoutube.com/watch?v=WS-Iq0TlFCI
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/fxbharvard
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fxb-center-harvard

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University