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Research paper
When community reintegration is not the best option: interethnic violence and the trauma of parental loss in South Sudan
Challenging the received wisdom that community reintegration is always better than institutional provision, this case study argues that institutional care of orphans should not always be considered only as a last resort but may offer greater care and protection than…
Research paper
Too afraid to go: fears of dignity violations as reasons for non-use of maternal health services in South Sudan
South Sudan has one of the worst health and maternal health situations in the world. While maternal health services at primary care level are not well developed, even where they exist, many women do not use them. Developing location specific…
Research paper
More than mere survival: violence, humanitarian governance, and practical material politics in a Kenyan refugee camp
This paper frames the political import of refugees’ material practices in Kakuma Refugee Camp through critical reflection on Eyal Weizman’s notion of the humanitarian present. To begin, I explore how the production of the refugee camp as a space of…
Research paper
Introducing rapid diagnostic tests for malaria into registered drug shops in Uganda: lessons learned and policy implications
Malaria is a major public health problem in Uganda. Current policy recommends introduction of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to facilitate effective case management. However, provision of RDTs in drug shops raises new issues, such as adherence to RDTs results, management…
“Right tool,” wrong “job”: Manual vacuum aspiration, post-abortion care and transnational population politics in Senega
The “rightness” of a technology for completing a particular task is negotiated by medical professionals, patients, state institutions, manufacturing companies, and non-governmental organizations. This paper shows how certain technologies may challenge the meaning of the “job” they are designed to…
Ebola-Myths, Realities, and Structural Violence
This briefing examines responses to the Ebola outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development.
Climate and Mobility in the West African Sahel: Conceptualising the Local Dimensions of the Environment and Migration Nexus
Despite the theoretical and methodological critique of deterministic and linear explanations of migration under changing climatic conditions, many empirical case studies in this field remain deeply entrenched in static push-pull frameworks and tend to reproduce simplistic causal relationships. Drawing on…
Condemned to live with one’s feet in water? A case study of community based strategies and urban maladaptation in flood prone Pikine/Dakar, Senegal
The number of poor and informal urban settlers in the world is rapidly growing, and they are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate. Therefore, understanding the nature and sustainability of locally adopted coping and adaptation strategies are…
Errance and Elsewheres among Africans Waiting to Restart Their Journeys in Dakar, Senegal
This article analyzes the experience of Africans stranded in Dakar, Senegal, halfway through their intended journeys out of the continent.
Research paper
Right tool, wrong “job”: Manual vacuum aspiration, post-abortion care and transnational population politics in Senegal
The “rightness” of a technology for completing a particular task is negotiated by medical professionals, patients, state institutions, manufacturing companies, and non-governmental organizations. This paper shows how certain technologies may challenge the meaning of the “job” they are designed to…
Background report
Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on Rift Valley Fever among Agro Pastoral Communities in Kongwa and Kilombero Districts, Tanzania
“Rift valley fever (RVF) is a re-emerging viral vector-borne disease with rapid global socio-economic impact. A large RVF outbreak occurred in Tanzania in 2007 and affected more than half of the regions with high (47 %) case fatality rate. Little…
Field notes
A year on, Guineans finally lay Ebola souls to rest
GUECKEDOU, 28 April 2015 (IRIN) – Forty-six-year-old Maurice Ouendeno stares silently at the arm of his blue plastic lawn chair. He waits a few minutes before beginning his story. “They said we did not have the right to bury him,”…
Briefing
Africa APPG inquiry: Community led health systems & the Ebola outbreak
The Ebola crisis of 2014-15 has brought questions around the roles of communities and health systems into sharp relief – both in relation to crisis response, and to the challenges of post-crisis recovery and building resilience to future epidemics. The…
Field notes
Community Led Ebola Management and Eradication (CLEME)
The CLEME (Community Led Ebola Man- agement and Eradication) programme aims at triggering the behavioural change needed by the communities to strengthen community resilience to the outbreak and prevent further resurgence by ensuring real and sustainable improvements through: Providing the communities…
Field notes
Community-Based Ebola Care Centres: A Formative Evaluation
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa differed from others in its unprecedented size and the high proportion of human-to-human transmission occurring in the community. This report presents an analysis of the impact of Community Care Centres (CCCs) on communities in…
Briefing
Community-led Ebola Action (CLEA) and the Social Mobilisation Action Consortium (SMAC)
The Community Led Ebola Action (CLEA) has empowered communities to do their own analysis and take their own action to become Ebola-free in Sierra Leone. CLEA has focused on triggering collective action by inspiring communities to understand the urgency and…
Research paper
Do traditions spread Ebola?
In a recent interesting contribution to this platform, Paul Richards rightly questioned the mainstream perception that funerals per se are source of contamination in countries affected by ebola. The author argues that funerals are phenomena which are extremely interrelated to…
Background report
Ebola Crisis Appeal – Response Review
This is the review of the Ebola Crisis Appeal Response in Sierra Leone of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) that unites 13 of the largest UK humanitarian charities to raise funds in response to major international humanitarian crises. The review…
Blog
Ebola strips Africans of their humanity
After long months of relative silence, the world finally heatedly debates on Ebola. The quantity of aid is widely considered to be the major problem. The quality of the aid being offered however, is not under scrutiny. Everybody seems to…
Field notes
Ebola: demanding accountability and mobilizing societies to avoid a deadly relapse
The enduring Ebola epidemic has taught the world some hard lessons over the last 12 months, which we must take to heart. Despite early warnings, and the extraordinary efforts of local healthcare workers and private medical humanitarian organisations, the epidemic…
Field notes
Ebola’s Ecologies – Limn January 2015 Issue
This issue of Limn on “Ebola’s Ecologies” examines how the 2014 Ebola outbreak has put the norms, practices, and institutional logics of global health into question, and examines the new assemblages that are being forged in its wake. The contributions…
Field notes
How Ebola infection spreads and terminates in rural Sierra Leone
Ebola is a new disease in Upper West Africa. Populations have taken time to learn the nature of the risk it poses. Persons carrying infection initially do not know that they have the sickness. They carry out their daily activities,…
Briefing
Never Again: Building resilient health systems and learning from the Ebola crisis
It took the threat of a global health crisis to illustrate the failings of Africa’s health systems. Resilient health systems, free at the point of use, are evidently a global public good. They are essential for the provision of universal…
Briefing
Policy Briefing on Community-based Ebola Care Centres
A component of the Ebola epidemic control policy in Sierra Leone is triage and isolation in decentralised Community Care Centres (CCCs) or Holding Units, from where transfer to Ebola treatment units (ETUs) is arranged for those diagnosed as positive. The…
Briefing
Resistance in Guinea
There have been numerous recent analyses of the different manifestations of ‘resistance’ and ‘reticence’ that continue to be critical in Guinea. The socio-historical context that has contributed to deep-rooted mistrust of the State and authority (a sense of ‘abandonment’ [the…
Blog
Unsung Heroes on the Ebola Frontline
The “selflessness of aid workers and medical volunteers” was praised both by the Queen in her Christmas message and by TIME magazine, who named ‘The Ebola Fighter’s their person of the year 2014. This emphasis on international staff, particularly doctors and nurses, gives a…
Field notes
Village Responses To Ebola Virus Disease In Rural Central Sierra Leone
Bawuya is a small, isolated Kpa-Mende farming village about 3 hours walking time from Taiama, headquarters of Kori chiefdom in Moyamba District, Southern Sierra Leone. Bawuya experienced an Ebola outbreak in September 2014, in which 9 people died and 3…
Field notes
Village Responses to Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Eastern Sierra Leone: Second Interim Report
This report provides further output from an anthropological study of 25 villages affected by Ebola Virus Disease in eastern and central Sierra Leone, undertaken as part of the DFID-funded social mobilization initiative for Ebola prevention in Sierra Leone. Eight focus…
Field notes
What causes Ebola Virus disease?
The four villages in this report are found on the edge of the Gola Rainforest National Park, Sierra Leone and have been studied by members of the present team at intervals since 1987. The aim of this long-term study was…
Evidence review
Impact and Implications of the Ebola Crisis
Political impact and implications: Initial analysis suggests that governments’ poor management of the Ebola crisis has generated frustrations and exposed citizens’ lack of trust in their governments. The Ebola crisis is likely to play a very political role in the…
Evidence review
Multiple Shocks, Coping and Welfare Consequences: Natural Disasters and Health Shocks in the Indian Sundarbans
Based on a household survey in Indian Sundarbans hit by tropical cyclone Aila in May 2009, this study tests for evidence and argues that health and climatic shocks are essentially linked forming a continuum and with exposure to a marginal…
Evidence review
Ebola: What Lessons for the International Health Regulations?
With more than 3000 deaths since the first case was confirmed in March, 2014, the international community has recognised Ebola as a public health emergency of international concern and a clear threat to global health security. It is the subject…
Briefing
Seven Things We Can Learn from the Ebola Epidemic in Uganda in 2000 – 2001
Diseases such as Ebola highlight the importance of a holistic focus on health systems, as opposed to assuming that health is the preserve and concern of health professionals alone. This was the lesson Uganda learnt very quickly in managing the…
Evidence review
Ebola- Local Beliefs and Behaviour Change
The Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a biosafety level four pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a…
Evidence review
A Devastating Toll: the Impact of Three Years of War on the Health of Syria’s Children
Syria’s shattered health system is forcing health workers to engage in brutal medical practices and a series of epidemics have left millions of children exposed to a plethora of deadly diseases. This report sheds light on a broken health system…
Evidence review
Ebola Regional Lesson Learning
The Ebola outbreak currently affecting West Africa is the most serious trans-national medical emergency in modern times. It has the potential to become a global health crisis. Many of the countries affected already have weak health systems, which are now…
