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A summons to the magistrates’ courts in South Africa and Uganda
The expansive literature on law and justice across Africa emphasizes why people do not use lower state courts. Consequently, a striking lack of attention is paid to how and why people do engage with lower state courts. Drawing on a…
Research paper
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: why there is no ‘silver bullet’
Following the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which started in August 2018, there were a number of extraordinary firsts and successes. But why, despite these, was the outbreak still ongoing after 20 months? This…
Research paper
Sexual health of adolescent girls and young women in Central Uganda: exploring perceived coercive aspects of transactional sex
Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Uganda are at risk of early sexual debut, unwanted pregnancy, violence, and disproportionally high HIV infection rates, driven in part by transactional sex. This paper examines the extent to which AGYW’s participation in…
Field notes
The Bukavu Series: Toward a Decolonisation of Research
This is a collection of blog posts produced by 30 researchers based in eastern Congo and Europe, where writers critically reflect on the research they’ve done and explore ethical dilemmas when conducting research in conflict-affected areas.
Research paper
In the Long Run: Ugandans Living with Disability
Uganda has progressive legislation in place to support the rights of people with disabilities, and has received donor support for special education and community-based rehabilitation programs over the years. Yet while political mobilization and interventions aiming to minimize disabling conditions…
Research paper
Taking Opportunities, Taking Medicines: Antibiotic Use in Rural Eastern Uganda
The ways in which dimensions of health and healthcare intersect with economics and politics in particular contexts requires close attention. In this article we connect concerns about antibiotic overuse in Uganda to the social milieu created through policies that follow…
Research paper
Histories of Antibiotics: A One Health account of the arrival of antimicrobial drugs to Zimbabwe, Malawi and Uganda. Report for the Improving Human Health Flagship Initiative, Agriculture for Nutrition and Health research programme, CGIAR
The overall aim of this short project is to uncover some of the socio-historical roots of antibiotic use in humans and non-humans outside of the European and American histories that are now well understood. We provide an historical account of…
Background report
« Ils sont rentrés chez eux »: the political dimensions of displacement and ‘spontaneous return’ in Faradje, northeast DRC
This paper aims to contribute to the emerging debate on the political dimensions of return by focusing on the sudden ‘spontaneous’ return of 11,6001 Congolese refugees who were forced back from exile in South Sudan to their home areas in…
Background report
Do Local Agreements Forge Peace? The Case of Eastern DRC
The end of the 1998-2003 Congolese war was symbolised by the signing of the ‘All-Inclusive Agreement’ in December 2002. However, due to the continued proliferation of national and foreign armed groups and unaddressed community grievances, this agreement did not bring…
Book chapter
Legacies of Violence: The Communicability of Spirits and Trauma in Northern Uganda
How may the spread of the biomedical concept ‘trauma’ as well as cen spirits in Northern Uganda be understood as part of syndemic processes of situated concerned responses to violence? In this chapter, we examine legacies of mass violence for…
Background report
‘Drought as War’ in Northern Uganda: Exploring the Complex Relationship Between Climate Change, Scarcity, and Conflict
That climate change will increase the incidence of violent conflict is a common claim made by both policymakers and climate change activists. I aim to question and critique the simplistic assertion that climate change will cause increased violent conflict, showing…
Thesis
Lugbara “Religion” Revisited: A Study of Social Repair in West Nile, North-West Uganda
This thesis explores processes of transitional justice as post-war social repair. It interrogates the multifarious quests through which Lugbara people of north-west Uganda seek to rebuild their intimate relationships and social lives, with recourse to explanations and therapies for suffering…
Research paper
Beyond solidarity and mutual aid: Tension and conflict in burial groups in rural Uganda
Drawing from ethnographic data collected between 2012 and 2014 and January and June 2018 in Luwero district, Uganda, this article questions the romanticised depiction of burial groups as a means of enhancing social support, a sense of solidarity and mutual…
Briefing
MONUSCO’s Mandate and the Climate Security Nexus
If we translate the debate on the climate security nexus to a more operational level, we inevitably arrive at the question of whether and to what extent the fight against climate change should be included in the mandate of current…
Research paper
Sensing Sleeping Sickness: Local Symptom-Making in South Sudan
Programs for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as sleeping sickness increasingly involve patients and community workers in syndromic case detection with little exploration of patient understandings of symptoms. Drawing on concepts from sensorial anthropology, I investigate peoples’ experiences of sleeping…
Research paper
Patchwork States: The Localization of State Territoriality on the South Sudan–Uganda Border, 1914–2014
This paper takes a localized conflict over a non-demarcated stretch of the Uganda–South Sudan boundary in 2014 as a starting point for examining the history of territorial state formation on either side of this border since its colonial creation in…
Policy document
National Action Plan for Health Security, Republic of South Sudan
This National Action Plan for Health Security from the Republic of South Sudan details the country’s health security strategy for 2020-2024 including annual reporting, after action reviews, joint external evaluations, simulation exercises and other assessments, within a One Health framework.
Policy document
Plan Strategique National de Developpement des Services de Laboratoire de Sante 2021-25 fr
The national strategic plan for developing health laboratory services, from 2021 to 2025, focusing in particular on: improving the delivery of laboratory services, supporting the different pillars of laboratory services, and strengthening governance.
Research paper
‘Who Can Sing the Song of MSF?’ The Politics of ‘Proximity’ and Performing Humanitarianism in Eastern DRC
This article explores the complexities of the brokerage work conducted by Congolese MSF staff working in a ‘field’ that is not a distant, liminal space, but their country (and region) of origin. They have complicated and heterogeneous political and social…
Community health care workers in pursuit of TB: Discourses and dilemmas
Community-led tuberculosis (TB) active case finding is widely promoted, heavily funded, but many efforts fail to meet expectations. The underlying reasons why TB symptom screening programs underperform are poorly understood. This study examines Nigerian stakeholders’ insights to characterize the mechanisms,…
Caregiving in Crisis: Fatherhood Refashioned by Sierra Leone’s Ebola Epidemic
In much of the literature on Sierra Leone, young men have been recognized for perpetrating violence or resisting authority. This characterization extended into the Ebola crisis, as young men were depicted as “resisting” public health measures. In contrast, little scholarship…
COVID-19 in Senegal: Exploring the Historical Context
While many academics and popular journalists have recently addressed historical epidemics in the context of COVID-19, much of this literature concerns the history of former colonial powers rather than the history of formerly colonized states. This review finds that the…
Extractivism, exclusion and conflicts in Senegal’s agro-industrial transformation
In the last two decades, the promotion of agro-industry has become a dominant developmental imperative on the African continent, leading to efforts to involve private-sector actors. This article examines the political economy and ecology of agro-industry in the Senegal River…
Men’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth in Sierra Leone: Reexamining definitions of “male partner involvement”.
In recent decades, global health researchers and policy makers have advocated for men’s increased involvement in pregnancy and childbirth with the goal of improving maternal health outcomes. However, such approaches often fail to account for the culturally valid and gendered…
Political distrust and the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria
This study explores the impact of political distrust on the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Research paper
The anticipatory politics of dispossession in a Senegalese mining negotiation
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews, this article examines the contentious politics around a proposed mine, arguing that experiences of and resistances to dispossession are mediated by the folding together of temporal frames and diverse displacements. In particular, it…
Research paper
What post-abortion care indicators don’t measure: Global abortion politics and obstetric practice in Senegal
This article draws on an ethnography of Senegal’s post-abortion care (PAC) program, conducted between 2010 and 2011, to illustrate how PAC indicators obscure the professional and technological complexities of treating abortion complications in contexts where abortion is illegal. The author…
Research paper
Xenophobia’s Contours During an Ebola Epidemic: Proximity and the Targeting of Peul Migrants in Senegal
This article examines the effect of geographical proximity on targeting patterns during Ebola-era xenophobic outbursts by Senegalese against a migrant Peul population of Guinean origins. It highlights the limited extent to which epidemics shape the micro-dynamics of outbreaks of xenophobia…
Research paper
“You have to find a caring man, like your father!” Gendering sickle cell and refashioning women’s moral boundaries in Sierra Leone
This qualitative study undertaken in 2018, explores if and how sickle cell disorders become gendered in Sierra Leone through the analytical framework of a feminist ethics of care.
Policy document
Covid-19 Response Intra-Action Review (IAR) Report, Sierra Leone
This report details the findings of an Intra-Action Review (IAR) that was undertaken on the 22nd & 23rd September 2020, to review the COVID-19 response in Sierra Leone, focusing in particular on Surveillance, Laboratories, Case Management, Risk Communications, Food and…
Report
A Study of Socio-Cultural Practices and COVID-19 Preventive Measures in South Sudan
The study principally investigates whether the socio-cultural practices of South Sudanese influence their responses to COVID-19 measures that the Government of South Sudan has adopted to stop the spread of the virus. Its findings record the ways in which they…
Research paper
Social and political determinants of health in the occupied Palestine territory (oPt) during the COVID-19 pandemic: who is responsible?
This article discusses the situation after the Palestinian authority reacted to the coronavirus outbreak, introducing strict lock down measures to limit community transmission.
Background report
Evidence review
Social science in epidemics: Ebola virus disease lessons learned fr
Summary and background reports offering recommendations on local customs, health care systems and other topics.
Briefing
World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiological Record: Special Edition on Ebola
Although social scientists have long worked in public health emergencies, the value of including social science intelligence in response strategies became highly visible during the epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2014–2016. The key application of social science is to…
Television and Ebola
Circulating around the globe during the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa were bold and sensationalistic headlines such as “Killer Virus”, “Ebola Here!” and “Burn dead bodies.” Along with such stark and shocking headlines were images of health providers sealed (concealed) within…
Evidence review
Bringing Community Perspectives to Decision-Making in the Ebola Response in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Ebola provokes fear in communities due to the severity of the symptoms, misunderstanding of the causes, the high number of deaths and control measures that are often perceived as intrusive and interfering with local social, cultural and religious practices. Misinformation,…
