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Evidence review
Somali Health Care System and Post-Conflict Hybridity
The aim of this article is to contribute to this understanding of the wider health care system in a post-conflict Somali context, in particular in Somaliland. The fieldwork included participant observation and interviews of several local healers and their patients…
Briefing
Assessing Drought Displacement Risk for Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somali Pastoralists
This study represents an initial attempt to assess patterns of displacement related to droughts in selected countries of the Horn of Africa, specifically the border regions of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. The study explores several scenarios to identify potential impacts…
Evidence review
Material Proximities and Hotspots: Toward an Anthropology of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers
This article outlines a research program for an anthropology of viral hemorrhagic fevers (collectively known as VHFs). It begins by reviewing the social science literature on Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fevers and charting areas for future ethnographic attention. We theoretically…
Background report
Gender-Based Violence Among Documented Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group from the northern part of Rakhine State (formerly Arakan) in Myanmar, is among the most vulnerable of the world’s refugee communities. This study aims to shed light on gender-based violence among documented Rohingya refugees…
Background report
Addressing Ebola-related Stigma: Lessons Learned from HIV/AIDS
Many stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors directed towards those with EVD are strikingly similar to those with HIV/AIDS but there are significant differences worthy of discussion. Both diseases are life-threatening and there is no medical cure. Additionally misinformation about affected groups…
Briefing
Cultural Epidemiology of Pandemic Influenza in Urban and Rural Pune, India: A Cross-Sectional, Mixed-Methods Study
The objective of this study was to identify and compare socio-cultural features of pandemic influenza with reference to illness-related experience, meaning and behaviour in urban and rural areas of India. Cross-sectional, mixed-methods, cultural epidemiological survey with vignette-based interviews. Semi-structured explanatory…
Background report
Culture and Health
Planned and unplanned migrations, diverse social practices, and emerging disease vectors transform how health and wellbeing are understood and negotiated. Simultaneously, familiar illnesses-both communicable and non-communicable-continue to affect individual health and household, community, and state economies. Together, these forces shape…
Background report
NGO Report on Indigenous Pygmy Peoples: Universal Periodic Review of the Democratic Republic of Congo
This alternative report has been prepared by non-governmental organisations of indigenous Pygmy peoples and their supporters: 15 non-governmental organisations that work with indigenous peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Its aim is to present a picture of the situation of…
Background report
Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Knowledge, Attitudes and Social Representations of Cholera in the Extreme Northern Region of Cameroon: The Case of Maroua I, Maroua Ii and Mokolo
An effective fight against Cholera requires an in-depth consideration of the knowledge, attitudes and social representations of Cholera within a population. Cholera outbreaks persist in the Extreme North of Cameroon because of the inadequate integration of representations of Cholera, water…
Briefing
Ebola and Older People in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea
The limited evidence available on age-disaggregated fatality rates of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) consistently highlights the poor survival rates of older people compared with young adults.
Briefing
The significance of death, funerals and the after-life in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia: Anthropological insights into infection and social resistance
The aim of this briefing paper is to consider the various ways in which widely reported fear and resistance to the Ebola response can be understood, and what each way of understanding offers to those battling with the current epidemic.
Briefing
Regional food insecurity, work migration and roadblocks fr
This brief summarises some key considerations about food insecurity, the migration of men and youth for work and the implication these movements may have for the Ebola response.
Briefing
The flow of money at the community level fr
This brief summarises some key considerations about the flow and control of money in relation to the Ebola response.
Briefing
Burial/Other Cultural Practices and Risk of EVD Transmission in the Mano River Region
While this briefing note identifies arenas of particular significance with regard to burial practices, such practices are not standardised, are likely to change as social responses to Ebola evolve, and therefore need to be discussed on a locality by locality…
Briefing
Ebola in West Africa: Potential Impact on Food Security
A multidimensional and multi-sector approach is required to contain the outbreak of Ebola while safeguarding against a long-term food security crisis.
Briefing
Ebola in West Africa: Protection and Security
The lack of a prompt, robust, and efficient response to Ebola from the international community contributes to lack of trust in governments and exacerbates social tensions, increasing the possibility of profound unrest in these fragile countries.
Briefing
Ebola in West Africa: Impact on Health
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is by far the largest ever recorded, and already numbers more cases than all past Ebola epidemics combined. This Briefing outlines the overall impact on health.
Background report
South Kivu: identity, territory, and power in the eastern Congo. Usalama Project Report: Understanding Congolese Armed Groups
This report outlines the historical dynamics behind the armed movements in South Kivu, focusing on the period before and leading up to the First Congo War. It concentrates on sources of local conflict but argues that these can only be…
Book chapter
“Économie de la débrouille à Kinshasa informalité, commerce et réseaux sociaux” fr
Comment, dans un contexte de crise économique et sociale durable, les citadins réinventent-ils les moyens de leur survie à Kinshasa ? C’est à cette question que cet ouvrage s’attache à répondre. On y trouve une description ethnographique minutieuse des dispositifs…
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…
Research paper
Local Communities Vulnerability to Climate Change and Adaptation Strategies in Bukavu in DR Congo
Vulnerabilities analysis can help answer where and how society can best invest in vulnerability reduction. This study aimed at exploring vulnerability and adaptation strategies to climate change of local communities in Bukavu in DR Congo. Participatory action research was used…
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.
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.…
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…
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…
Background report
Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Pibor County, South Sudan from the Perspective of Displaced People
Based on qualitative interviews in Juba with displaced people from Pibor County in 2013, this article examined internal state-building processes, international engagement with the state, and livelihoods and response in rural Pibor County. The authors focus in particular on how…
Research paper
‘A situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo
This article compares two cases of securitization along South Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By comparing how a security concern – the presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army – was interpreted and responded to, the article…
Research paper
Resources and resourcefulness: Roles, opportunities and risks for women working at artisanal mines in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Two dominant narratives have characterized the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): (1) the horrific abuse of women through sexual violence and (2) the use of “conflict minerals” to fuel the fighting. These two advocacy narratives intersect…
Research paper
Sons of Which Soil? The Language and Politics of Autochthony in Eastern D.R. Congo
The recent wars in the DR Congo have led to a marked upsurge in both elite and popular discourse and violence around belonging and exclusion, expressed through the vernacular of “autochthony.” Dangerously flexible in its politics, nervous and paranoid in…
Research paper
The Violence of Peace: Ethnojustice in Northern Uganda
Traditional justice, or what this article refers to as ‘ethnojustice’, claims to promote social reconstruction, peace and justice after episodes of war by rebuilding traditional order. Ethnojustice has become an increasingly prominent mode of transitional justice in northern Uganda. As…
Research paper
Challenging the Paradigm: Anthropological Perspectives on HIV as a Chronic Disease
Recently HIV has been framed as a ‘manageable’ chronic disease in contexts in which access to effective care is reliable. The chronic disease paradigm emphasizes self-care, biomedical disease management, social normalization, and uncertainty. Data from a longitudinal study of patients…
Research paper
Deadly Flies, Poor Profits, and Veterinary Pharmaceuticals: Sustaining the Control of Sleeping Sickness in Uganda
Efforts to control neglected tropical diseases have increasingly focused on questions of implementation. But how should we conceptualize the implementation process? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork between 2010 and 2012, in this article I explore efforts by a small-scale public–private partnership…
Research paper
‘A situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo
By comparing how a security concern along South Sudan’s border with the DRC– the presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army –was interpreted and responded to, the article shows border security practices here are improvised, contradictory and contested, and serve to…
Research paper
Gendered (in)security in South Sudan: masculinities and hybrid governance in Imatong state
Despite the end of civil war in 2005, many people in South Sudan continued to experience deep insecurity and forms of violent conflict. This sense of insecurity was exacerbated by the lack of state protection and perceived injustice in power…
Research paper
Invisible Labour: The Political Economy of Reintegration in South Sudan
This article considers the 2005–12 Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme in South Sudan. Current DDR practice centres on ex-combatants’ reintegration through encouraging entrepreneurship and self-employment and thereby their willingness to take risks and responsibility. However, South Sudan’s DDR programme…
Research paper
Interrupting the balance: reconsidering the complexities of conflict in South Sudan
By the start of 2014, violent conflict had erupted across much of South Sudan following initial violence in Juba on 15 December 2013. The speed with which the fighting has spread raises questions regarding the impact of national-level politics on…
