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Research paper
Mental health in South Sudan: a case for community-based support
Based on personal reflections of the authors who were engaged in mental health and psychosocial support programmes in South Sudan between 2013 and 2016, this article illustrates the constraints and challenges facing the sector at the time. The authors emphasise…
Research paper
Using feminist ‘reflexive practice’ to explore stress and well-being of local researchers in South Sudan
This article shares key findings and offer personal reflections on and suggestions for improving gender-based violence research using feminist methods. The authors reflect that while they themselves valued the sharing of personal reflections on emotional challenges that the research team…
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’…
Blog
The story of Kitchanga: Spatial politics of presence, refuge and return in North Kivu, Eastern DRCongo
In the Kivu provinces of the Eastern Congo, permanent semi-urban towns emerge from the protracted presence of refugees and internally displaced persons. Using the example of Kitchanga in North Kivu, Gillian Mathys and Karen Büscher (Ghent University) show the importance…
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…
Policy document
Confronting a Life-threatening Pollution: A Guide for Credible Environmental and Social Audit of Petroleum Companies’ Operations in South Sudan
This policy brief discusses how the recently proposed environmental and social audit of the petroleum companies’ operations by the Ministry of Petroleum can be conducted to generate scientific evidence that can assist in finding a permanent solution to pollution in…
Research paper
Maintenance Space: The Political Authority of Garbage in Kampala, Uganda
In the name of cleaning up Kampala’s political institutions and public space, the Kampala Cap ital City Authority (KCCA), was established in 2010. To legitimize its contested and explicitly antipolitical authority, it made garbage collection and beautification its top priority,…
Research paper
Capitalizing Community: Waste, Wealth, and (Im)Material Labor in Kampal
Biomass briquettes have emerged as a development silver bullet, supposedly converting waste to wealth and tackling crises of unemployment, urban waste management, and rural deforestation. Briquettes have captured the imagination of international environmental NGOs operating in many African cities who…
Background report
South Sudan’s Devastating Floods: Why They Happen and Why They Need a Coherent National Policy
Drawing on flood incident data and climate change evidence, this paper argues that floods should now be viewed as a perpetual threat to lives, property and infrastructure in South Sudan. The author calls for immediate efforts to adapt and mitigate…
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,…
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…
Research paper
‘A Real Woman Waits’ – Heteronormative Respectability, Neo-Liberal Betterment and Echoes of Coloniality in SGBV Programming in Eastern DR Congo
Drawing on archival and field research, this article critically examines the production and distribution of gender roles and expectations in SGBV programming, in particular in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We find the underlying currents in some of these…
Research paper
Resources and Rape: Congo’s (toxic) Discursive Complex
In the last decade, the rapes (of women) in, and the metaphoric raping (of natural resources) of, the Democratic Republic of Congo have received unprecedented attention from media, donors, and advocacy groups. Beginning in the early 2000s, these two narratives…
Article
In Congo, a ‘militarised’ Ebola response has fuelled community resistance
A report from The New Humanitarian reflects on how a militarised response to the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu province in 2019 caused fear and impacted people’s trust in the response, with implications for their engagement with preventative measures.
Briefing
Rebels and the City: Urban dimensions of armed mobilization in the eastern Congo
Despite focusing the bulk of their operations on rural areas, armed groups in the eastern Congo have long-standing connections with urban centres. Technological progress, such as mobile communication, and enhanced movement, especially through motorcycle taxis, have intensified these connections. These…
Report
Insecurity In Goma: Experiences, Actors and Responses
Since the start of 2019, a series of murders, violent robberies and kidnappings have taken place in peripheral neighbourhoods of Goma. The rapid rise in violent crime has alarmed city residents and led to calls for the local government and…
Report
A System of Insecurity: Understanding Urban Violence and Crime in Bukavu
A System of Insecurity: Understanding Urban Violence and Crime in Bukavu examines the role of state and non-state actors in the provision of security, and citizens’ perceptions of, experiences with and responses to insecurity in Bukavu, the capital of South…
Briefing
Youth Groups and Urban Policing in the Eastern Congo
Across cities in eastern Congo, youth groups are involved in urban policing, operating between state and non-state actors and formal and informal governance. While some are responsible for improving security in their neighbourhoods, others contribute to its deterioration. This briefing…
Research paper
Social resistance drives persistent transmission of Ebola virus disease in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: A mixed-methods study
The second largest Ebola (EVD) epidemic in history is currently raging in Eastern DRC. Stubbornly persistent EVD transmission has been associated with social resistance, ranging from passive non-compliance to overt acts of aggression toward EVD reponse teams. We explored community…
Research paper
Institutional trust and misinformation in the response to the 2018–19 Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DR Congo: a population-based survey
The current outbreak of Ebola in eastern DR Congo, beginning in 2018, emerged in a complex and violent political and security environment. Community-level prevention and outbreak control measures appear to be dependent on public trust in relevant authorities and information,…
Research paper
Behind the scenes: International NGOs’ influence on reproductive health policy in Malawi and South Sudan
Global health donors increasingly embrace international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) as partners, often relying on them to conduct political advocacy in recipient countries, especially in controversial policy domains like reproductive health. Although INGOs are the primary recipients of donor funding, they…
Thesis
Finding peace amongst restless and unatoned bones: a dialogue on Bumúntú from the Democratic Republic of Congo
This thesis invites the reader on a journey to Kamina, the capital of the Haut-Lomami province, DRC, to engage in a dialogue on humanness, violence and peace from another angle. Using the concept of Búmùntù (authentic Personhood) from the Luba…
Research paper
‘Somehow This Whole Process Became so Artificial’: Exploring the Transitional Justice Implementation Gap in Uganda
This article explores a key challenge in contemporary international efforts to promote transitional justice (TJ) in nontransitioning, conflict-affected states: the ‘implementation gap,’ in which policies are designed and funded but neither enacted nor implemented. Findings based on long-term qualitative fieldwork…
Research paper
Borders areas should be used, not feared, in pandemic responses
This article in African Arguments explores how Uganda’s pandemic experience shows how communities near borders come up with effective strategies for disease control, while resisting disruptive state ones.
Briefing
Cross-Border Dynamics and Healthcare in West Nile, Uganda
Against the backdrop of on-going preparedness work in Uganda as related to the outbreak of Ebola in DRC, this brief summarises key considerations concerning cross-border dynamics and health structures and behaviours in the West Nile sub-region of north-west Uganda. It…
Briefing
Constructed Anarchy: Governance, Conflict, and Precarious Property Rights in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Land issues are at the heart of the Congolese conflicts. Land issues have mainly been analyzed as a rural phenomenon. More recently, however, scholars have shown that land issues are crucially important in urban areas as well. In this Congo…
Book chapter
Comparing peace processes: Sudan
This chapter examines how contests over military control were played out during peace negotiations and in the implementation of agreements in Sudan between 2002 and 2011.
Research paper
Life in the buffer zone: Social relations and surplus health workers in Uganda’s medicines retail sector
Despite their critical role, medicine sellers are often excluded from health systems and policy research. In this paper, we ask ‘what happens to the conceptualisations of a health system when medicine sellers and their practices are foregrounded in research?’ We…
Research paper
Food Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study from a Cohort of HIV Clients in Uganda.
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens the food security of people in low-income countries. This is important for people living with HIV (PLWH) because HIV medication should be taken with food to avoid side-effects. We used survey data (n = 314) and qualitative interviews…
Research paper
Protection and well-being of adolescent refugees in the context of a humanitarian crisis: Perceptions from South Sudanese refugees in Uganda
Improved understanding of refugees’ perceptions of provision of humanitarian support is important to improve design and delivery of humanitarian assistance. Refugee adolescents face a range of adversities, while the phase of displacement likely influences risk factors for adolescent refugees. However,…
Research paper
The effects of conflict and displacement on violence against adolescent girls in South Sudan: the case of adolescent girls in the Protection of Civilian sites in Juba
There is a paucity of data on violence against women and girls (VAWG) during conflict in general and even less specifically on violence against adolescent girls. Based on secondary analysis of a larger study in South Sudan, this article highlights…
Research paper
Pragmatic Mobilities and Uncertain Lives: Agency and the Everyday Mobility of South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda
This article investigates the pragmatic, everyday journeys of South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda’s Palabek Refugee Settlement through a mobilities-focused analytical lens. Despite the repatriation of vast numbers of refugees, little is known about the diversity of refugees’ later movements.…
Research paper
Social networks, mobility, and HIV risk among women in the fishing communities of Lake Victoria
A cross-sectional qualitative methods study was conducted to understand mobility patterns among women resident and or working in fishing communities of Lake Victoria in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The study was conducted in six fishing communities from March 2018 to…
Research paper
Climate Change and Young People in Uganda: A Literature Review
The review findings suggest the need for substantial youth informed interventions to bolster young people’s economic resilience and adaptive capacity given the worsening climate change and prolonged population growth.
Blog
The Sudan uprising and its possibilities: Regional revolution, generational revolution, and an end to Islamist politics?
Willow Berridge discusses parallels between the popular uprising in 2019 and Sudan’s two previous popular uprisings, the October Revolution of 1964 and the April Intifada of 1985.
Research paper
Sudan: A political marketplace framework analysis
This paper provides a succinct analysis of Sudan as a political marketplace, offering a framework for analysing the Sudanese predicament so as to understand the implications of different courses of action.
