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Evidence review
Drought-Ravaged Malawi Faces Largest Humanitarian Emergency in its History
With 6.5 million people in need of humanitarian aid, this year’s El Nino–induced drought constitutes the largest humanitarian emergency that Malawi has ever confronted. It also brings the second consecutive harvest failure to this small, landlocked country, which has yet…
Background report
Somalia Livelihood Profiles
In Somalia, Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) - a multi-donor project managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and FEWS NET are working together to ensure that livelihood products, tools, and skills meet FSNAU’s…
Background report
Ethno-Demographic Dynamics of the Rohingya-Buddhist Conflict
Ethno-demographic grievances define the conflict between Buddhist and Rohingya-Muslim populations in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. Due to the government’s decision to avoid the enumeration of self-identifying Rohingya, this study has relied on several recent local surveys to reconstruct a…
Beating the Odds: Successful Establishment of a Phase II/III Clinical Research Trial in Resource-Poor Liberia during the Largest-Ever Ebola Outbreak
It has been argued that a country such as Liberia, not fully recovered from the devastation of decades of civil unrest, lacked the appropriate ethical and regulatory framework, basic human and health care services, and infrastructure to carry out clinical…
Background report
Comparison of Social Resistance to Ebola Response in Sierra Leone and Guinea Suggests Explanations Lie in Political Configurations not Culture
Instead of looking to 'culture' to explain patterns of social resistance (as was common in the media and in the discourse of responding public health authorities) a comparison between Sierra Leone and Guinea suggests that explanations lie in divergent political…
Background report
Evidence-Based Engagement of the Somali Pastoralists of the Horn of Africa in Polio Immunization: Overview of Tracking, Cross-Border, Operations, and Communication Strategies
Building on the experience of the 2013-2014 wild poliovirus outbreak in the Horn of Africa, this study examines applied strategies that helped to engage pastoralists of the Somali cluster (Somalia, Somali Region of Ethiopia, and North-East Kenya) in supplementary immunization activities. Aimed…
Briefing
Implementation of an Ebola Virus Disease Vaccine Clinical Trial during the Ebola Epidemic in Liberia: Design, Procedures, and Challenge
The index case of the Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa is believed to have originated in Guinea. By June 2014, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone were in the midst of a full-blown and complex global health emergency. The…
Briefing
Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Lassa Fever in and around Lafia, Central Nigeria
This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Lassa Fever in and around Lafia, Central Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were administered to 200 consenting respondents from urban and sub-urban areas in Lafia. Of the 200 respondents, 87% heard…
Background report
Perceptions of Oral Cholera Vaccine and Reasons for Full, Partial and Non-Acceptance during a Humanitarian Crisis in South Sudan
Oral Cholera vaccination (OCV) campaigns were conducted from February to April 2014 among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the midst of a humanitarian crisis in Juba, South Sudan. IDPs were predominantly members of the Nuer ethnic group who had taken…
Briefing
Power, Fairness and Trust: Understanding and Engaging with Vaccine Trial Participants and Communities in the Setting Up the EBOVAC-Salone Vaccine Trial in Sierra Leone
This paper discusses the establishment of a clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine candidate in Kambia District, Northern Sierra Leone during the epidemic, and analyses the role of social science research in ensuring that lessons from the socio-political context, the…
Background report
Rat-Atouille: A Mixed Method Study to Characterize Rodent Hunting and Consumption in the Context of Lassa Fever
Lassa Fever is a zoonotic hemorrhagic illness predominant in areas across Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and southern Mali. The reservoir of Lassa virus is the multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis), a highly commensal species in West Africa. Primary transmission to…
Background report
Briefing
Securing Forest Peoples’ Rights and Tackling Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Deforestation Drivers, Local Impacts and Rights-Based Solutions
Deforestation and forest degradation have increased in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) despite the government’s commitment to safeguard its forests. Commercial and industrial-scale activities represent major direct long-term threats to the forests. By contrast, the traditional livelihood strategies of indigenous and…
Briefing
Social Mobilization and Community Engagement Central to the Ebola Response in West Africa: Lessons for Future Public Health Emergencies.
Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern regarding the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in July 2014, UNICEF was asked to co-lead, in coordination with WHO and the ministries of health of…
Background report
The Pygmy Mimic
The Pygmy mimic is an extremely persistent colonial trope that continues to inform contemporary anthropological understandings of Africa’s Pygmy populations. Mimicry is now understood as being a key component of the social reproduction of a distinct Pygmy way of being.…
Background report
Understanding Social Resistance to the Ebola Response in the Forest Region of the Republic of Guinea: An Anthropological Perspective
Why did Ebola response initiatives in the Upper Guinea Forest Region regularly encounter resistance, occasionally violent? Extending existing explanations concerning local and humanitarian “culture” and “structural violence,” and drawing on previous anthropological fieldwork and historical and documentary research, this article…
Briefing
UNICEF Annual Report 2016, Democratic Republic of Congo
Despite its vast physical size and abundant natural resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 176th out of 188 countries and territories in the 2015 Human Development Index. Child poverty…
Background report
Zoonotic Diseases: Who Gets Sick, and Why? Explorations from Africa
Global risks of zoonotic disease are high on policy agendas. Increasingly, Africa is seen as a 'hotspot', with likely disease spillovers from animals to humans. This paper explores the social dynamics of disease exposure, demonstrating how risks are not generalised,…
Background report
Contesting Authority: Armed rebellion and military fragmentation in Walikale and Kalehe, North and South Kivu
Eastern DRC continues to be plagued by violence and dozens of armed groups. Yet, these groups—and how they interact with their social and political environment—remain poorly understood. This report analyses their involvement in public life in the territories of Kalehe…
Research paper
Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation and Research: Reflections on the Research Approach Used to Understand the Complexity of Maternal Health Issues in South Sudan
How can contextualised data be collected in a short time in conflict-affected sites? This paper shows how a Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation and Research (PEER) approach can overcome many of the challenges of conducting research in such conditions. Here, the authors…
Research paper
Deworming Delusions? Mass Drug Administration in East African Schools
Recent debates about deworming school-aged children in East Africa have been described as the ‘Worm Wars’. The stakes are high. Deworming has become one of the top priorities in the fight against infectious diseases. Staff at the World Health Organization,…
Research paper
Low Prevalence of Intestinal Schistosomiasis Among Fisherfolk Living Along the River Nile in North-Western Uganda: a Biosocial Investigation
This article asks: why is the prevalence of S. mansoni so low among fisherfolk in northern Uganda? Taking a biosocial approach, it suggests that the mass distribution of drugs, free of charge, has had an impact. However, the low prevalence…
Background report
Livelihoods and Conflict in South Sudan
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…
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…
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…
Research paper
Gender relations and women’s reproductive health in South Sudan
Drawing on Connell’s relational theory of gender, the authors of this study conducted focus group discussion and interviews with Fertit women in South Sudan concerning their ability to control their reproductive lives. Women reported little choice over the childbearing demands…
Briefing
Expanding the Reach of Justice and Accountability in South Sudan
This policy brief explores options to consider in expanding the reach of justice and accountability processes as part of any post-conflict transition in South Sudan. The brief is structured in three sections. After a short introduction, the first section examines…
Briefing
Women, Conflict and Public Authority in the Congo
Even though women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are undoubtedly marginalized in formal political life, they are not completely absent from the political arena. Congolese women are involved in the exercise of local public authority in a…
Briefing
‘It’s not all about the land’: Land disputes and conflict in the eastern Congo
This briefing makes several key points: Current interventions in land conflicts are focused on conflict management rather than conflict resolution. Land conflicts are part of a wider governance problem and need political rather than technical approaches. Conflicts over land are…
Research paper
Stigmatisation and rejection of survivors of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Studies report that between 6 per cent and 29 per cent of survivors of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are rejected by their families and communities. This research project was designed to provide insights into…
Research paper
The role of social networks in savings groups: insights from village savings and loan associations in Luwero, Uganda
Studies of village savings and loan association (VSLAs) programmes in several African countries portray these initiatives as spaces that increase financial access for the poor, improve livelihoods, and provide members with social capital. Little is known, however, about their impact…
Research paper
Struggling over land in post-conflict Uganda
Land dispossession and conflicts over land compound resettlement efforts in post-conflict contexts. This is particularly true in rural sub-Saharan African countries, where the vast majority of livelihoods depend on maintaining access and rights to cultivable land. This article engages in…
Thesis
He who touches the weapon becomes other: a study of participation in armed groups in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
This dissertation is a study of the dynamics of armed mobilization and participation in non-state armed organizations in the province of South Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It asks one of the fundamental questions of the study of…
Briefing
Implementing DDR in settings of ongoing conflict: the organization and fragmentation of armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
This Practice Note draws lessons from the multi-party context of the DRC and from the experiences of former members of three armed groups.
Research paper
Reintegrating former fighters in the Congo: ambitious objectives, limited results
Current scholarly works in International Relations grew increasingly preoccupied over the effectiveness and programmatic failure of international assistance, especially with regard to issues pertaining to the ‘security–development’ nexus and the post-9/11 ‘securitization’ agenda. Complex Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programmes…
Research paper
Multi-layered Security Governance as a Quick Fix? The challenges of donor-supported, bottom-up security provision in Ituri (DR Congo)
This paper investigates ‘multi-layered’ security governance arrangements developed in the restive Ituri province in north-eastern DR Congo, where different forms of insecurity affect people’s lives on a daily basis. It looks more specifically into ‘multilayered’ security governance in Ituri’s capital…
Research paper
The counterinsurgency/conservation nexus: guerrilla livelihoods and the dynamics of conflict and violence in the Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo
The growing militarisation of nature conservation has refocused attention on the relations between counterinsurgency and conservation. This contribution analyses how these two phenomena entwine in the Virunga National Park, located in the war-ridden east of the Democratic Republic of the…
