Conflict and peacebuilding Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform

Working paper

Civil Wars and State Formation: Violence and the Politics of Legitimacy in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan

Civil wars destroy existing political orders, shape new ones, and play crucial roles in the dynamics of state formation. This working paper is based on a 2-year research project reflecting on the social construction of order and legitimacy during and…

Central and East Africa Hub

2019

Background report

Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Uror and Nyirol Counties, South Sudan

This report is one of a series based on qualitative fieldwork conducted by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) South Sudan team in Uror and Nyirol Counties, Jonglei State, South Sudan in January and February 2013 (prior to the outbreak…

Central and East Africa Hub

2014

Background report

The Politics of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from South Sudan

South Sudan has for decades been a crucible of experimentation in the field of humanitarianism in situations of conflict. Humanitarian operations have been critical in saving lives, providing essential medical care, documenting the plight of South Sudan’s people, and connecting…

Central and East Africa Hub

2018

Research paper

The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda

This discusses different forms of justice, as the campaign for regionally and specific traditional justice has done nothing to promote national integration. The commitment of those who assiduously promote it for selfless reasons is worthy of a better cause.

Central and East Africa Hub

2007

Research paper

Being Normal: Stigmatization of Lord’s Resistance Army Returnees as ‘Moral Experience’ in Post-war Northern Uganda

Focusing instead on the ‘stigmatizers’, this article theorizes stigmatization as part of the ‘moral experience’ of regulating post-war social repair.

Central and East Africa Hub

2020

Book chapter

Colonial Encounters in Acholiland and Oxford: The Anthropology of Frank Girling and Okot p’Bitek

The work of Frank Girling on the Acholi of Uganda and the prose works of Okot p’Bitek about Acholi customs should be recognised as seminal. Written at the time when the classic texts were being published about other Ugandan groups,…

Central and East Africa Hub

2019

Research paper

Dirty Things: Spiritual Pollution and Life after the Lord’s Resistance Army

Drawing on insights gleaned from ethnographic fieldwork over the last decade, we focus here on targeted research from January to August 2014 with former LRA individuals who were part of a bigger study of clients at an ex-combatant reception centre.…

Central and East Africa Hub

2017

Research paper

Silencing Distressed Children in the Context of War in Northern Uganda: An Analysis of its Dynamics and its Health Consequences

Children in northern Uganda who are the focus of this article were born and raised in the context of war. The research presented here is based on a one-year ethnographic study (2004–2005) with children aged 9–16 years.

Central and East Africa Hub

2010

Research paper

Training Theories of Mind in Post-conflict Northern Uganda

In this article, I explore how NGOs train local Acholi counselors to work with psychiatric notions of trauma and practice counseling with local clients.

Central and East Africa Hub

2020

Background report

CSOs/CBOs and Faith-Based Organizations-Led Peace and Reconciliation Efforts

This policy brief explores the state and role of civil society and community-based organisations and faith-based organisations in peace and reconciliation efforts in South Sudan following the outbreak of violent conflict that began in December 2013. A key reason for…

Central and East Africa Hub

2014

Background report

Trajectories of International Engagement with State and Local Actors: Evidence from South Sudan

The paper traces shifts in international engagement and the implications of these shifts for understanding the trends in service provision specifically, and recovery and development more generally, in South Sudan. This analysis is intended to offer some direction for the…

Central and East Africa Hub

2016

Background report

Complexities of Service Delivery and State-Building

The SLRC South Sudan programme has been working since 2012 to identify and understand the realities of livelihoods, access to basic services, and perceptions of governance in post-independence South Sudan. This briefing paper summarises findings from the publications of SLRC…

Central and East Africa Hub

2016

Background report

Livelihoods and Conflict in South Sudan

Central and East Africa Hub

2016

Background report

Statebuilding and Legitimacy: Experiences of South Sudan

Using South Sudan as a case, this report interrogates people’s perceptions of the state, focusing on sources of legitimacy that are not primarily related to service delivery. It covers the period from the onset of civil war in 1983 to…

ODI

2017

Research paper

On Exposure, Vulnerability and Violence: Spatial Distribution of Risk Factors for Climate Change and Violent Conflict across Kenya and Uganda

Recent studies discuss linkages between climate change and violent conflict, especially for East Africa, and focusing on whether climate change increases risk of violent conflict. However, little is known about where a climate-conflict link is most likely to be found.…

Central and East Africa Hub

2014

Research paper

Beyond scarcity: Rethinking water, climate change and conflict in the Sudans

This article critiques the emphasis on ‘scarcity’, ‘state failure’ and ‘under-development’ within discussions of environmental security, proposing instead an alternative model of environment-conflict relations.

Central and East Africa Hub

2014

Research paper

Is promoting war trauma such a good idea?

The introduction of trauma narratives has created a market where some are able to thrive, but many deeply troubled individuals remain invisible. The authors found no social benefits from promoting trauma, and few positive effects for individuals. Arguments for urgently…

Central and East Africa Hub

Reintegration of former child soldiers in northern Uganda: Coming to terms with children’s agency and accountability

Reintegration processes of formerly abducted children have yielded limited success in northern Uganda. The article seeks answers to the question why reintegration processes in the area have failed. The approach of one Christian non-governmental organization towards reintegration is compared with…

Central and East Africa Hub

Case study

A hard homecoming: lessons learned from the reception center process in northern Uganda: an independent study

This independent report has been commissioned by USAID and UNICEF to examine assumptions and evidence about the needs and experiences of children and adults who have been forced to serve under the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and have subsequently escaped,…

Central and East Africa Hub

London School of Economics

Research paper

Reintegration of Amnestied LRA Ex-Combatants and Survivors’ Resistance Acts in Acholiland, Northern Uganda

This article examines the social dynamics among survivors and amnestied Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) ex-combatants living together in Acholiland, asking how and if Acholi survivors have forgiven Acholi LRA returnees, forgotten past violence and moved on, as stated in northern…

Central and East Africa Hub

2019

Research paper

What Happened to Children Who Returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda?

This article draws on research carried out in 2004–06 and from 2012 to 2018, and compares findings with other publications on reintegration in the region. It argues that implementing best-practice guidelines for relocating displaced children with their immediate relatives had…

Central and East Africa Hub

2020

Research paper

Justice at the Margins: Witches, Poisoners, and Social Accountability in Northern Uganda

Recent responses to people alleged to be ‘witches’ or ‘poisoners’ among the Madi of northern Uganda are compared with those of the 1980s. From 2006, a democratic system for dealing with suspects was introduced, whereby those receiving the highest number…

Central and East Africa Hub

2014

Research paper

Rejection and Resilience: Returning from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda

This article focuses on young people who returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda, mostly as children, over ten years ago. Supporting normative models of resilience has exacerbated deprivation of the most vulnerable.

Central and East Africa Hub

2021

Research paper

Reluctant Representatives of the State: Teachers’ Perceptions of Experienced Violence (DR Congo)

My qualitative research in South-Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo suggests that teachers link experienced violence to their role as state representatives. Three elements evoke the militia’s distrust: literacy, cell phones, and mobility. Reportedly, militias assume that teachers use these elements…

Central and East Africa Hub

2021

Background report

Competing Networks and Political Order in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Literature Review on the Logics of Public Authority and International Intervention

This CRP synthesis paper presents an overview of shifting dominant narratives on the Congo wars and the major findings of a systematic qualitative literature search on conflict and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in relation to the…

Central and East Africa Hub

2018

Book chapter

Urbanizing Kitchanga: Spatial Trajectories of the Politics of Refuge in North Kivu, Eastern Congo

This article presents the historical and political trajectory of Kitchanga town in North Kivu, to demonstrate how current processes of urbanization in a context of civil war in Eastern Congo are strongly intertwined with regional politics of refuge. Kitchanga, an…

Central and East Africa Hub

2018

Research paper

Humanitarian Fables: Morals, Meanings and Consequences for Humanitarian Practice

This article describes how events are turned into fables in humanitarian organisations. It explores how these fables circulate, the lessons they come to embody and their influence in maintaining an organisational status quo. The article argues that such stories teach…

Central and East Africa Hub

2022

Research paper

Humanitarian Shapeshifting: Navigation, Brokerage and Access in Eastern DR Congo

This article examines the experience of Congolese humanitarians negotiating access with armed groups in eastern DRC. It describes how humanitarians become shapeshifters: they play different roles for different audiences as a tactic of social navigation in a context of uncertainty.…

Central and East Africa Hub

2022

Research paper

From Rebel to Humanitarian: Military Savoir Faire and Humanitarian Practice in Eastern DR Congo

This article explores the experience of ex-rebels who have become humanitarians in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It describes how rebel-cum-humanitarians navigate a turbulent political environment, integrating the knowledge they acquired through military experience into a career in…

Central and East Africa Hub

2021

Background report

Guidance for Applied Cross-National Research in Under-Resourced Countries: Lessons from a Gender-Based Violence Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Via a personal account of our experiences in conducting a study on a gender-based violence intervention in Congo, we share our lessons and offer recommendations (e.g., using multiple methodologies) for conducting applied cross-national research. We hope that as a result…

Central and East Africa Hub

2020

Research paper

Vigilantes, Witches and Vampires: How Moral Populism Shapes Social Accountability in Northern Uganda

Strange murders have occurred in northern Uganda. Blood is said to have been removed from the victims, and there are tales about child sacrifice and terrifying witchcraft. An ‘election’ was organised to select the culprit, known as ‘Mr Red’, and…

Central and East Africa Hub

2015

Research paper

Conceptual Resilience in the Language and Lives of Resilient People: Cases from Northern Uganda

This special issue explores post-conflict recovery in northern Uganda from the perspective of survivors themselves. Normative notions of resilience are widely critiqued as reductive, depoliticising and simplistic. Although the papers here, based on ethnographic methodologies, are largely sympathetic to this…

Central and East Africa Hub

2022

Research paper

Moral Spaces and Sexual Transgression: Understanding Rape in War and Post Conflict

Evocative language describing rape as a ‘weapon of war’ has become commonplace. Although politically important, overemphasis on strategic aspects of wartime sexual violence can be misleading. Alternative explanations tend to understand rape either as exceptional — a departure from ‘normal’…

Central and East Africa Hub

2019

Thesis

After rape: justice and social harmony in Northern Uganda

This thesis explores responses to rape in the Acholi sub-region of northern Uganda, based on ethnographic research in two villages. Northern Uganda has been at the heart of international justice debates in the context of ongoing conflict between the Lord’s…

Central and East Africa Hub

2013

Research paper

War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

This article addresses rural–urban transformations in the war-torn Kivu provinces. The spectacular growth and development processes of fast-expanding boomtowns in Kivu’s rural areas serve as an entry point to investigate the relationship between conflict, displacement, urbanisation and development in Eastern…

Central and East Africa Hub

2018

Research paper

The Politics of Return: Understanding Trajectories of Displacement and the Complex Dynamics of ‘Return’ in Central and East Africa

This introductory essay reflects on what studies of return can tell us about the ‘life cycle’ of conflict and displacement dynamics in war-affected Central and East Africa, with particular focus on Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda.

Central and East Africa Hub

2021