Work in Progress: Age and disability in humanitarian response

Supriya Akerkar introduces the latest in our Work in Progress seminar series: Tackling Persistent exclusions of older people and people with disabilities in humanitarian responses: Challenges and Way Forward

The sustainable development goals promise to leave no one behind and call for social inclusion of the excluded or groups marginalised in the development processes and all its SDG goals. Pursuance of these goals in inclusive ways would require various institutions to have the capacities to deliver this agenda. This research is a contribution towards this global ambition and reflects on the evidence from the Age and Disability Capacity Programme (ADCAP) to deliver it, particularly in relation to two social groups – older people and people with disabilities in the context of humanitarian responses and humanitarian organisations.

In this relation, it asks two questions: How and why does persistent exclusion of older people and people with disabilities take place in humanitarian responses? How can humanitarian organisations be capacitated to enable inclusion of older people and people with disabilities in their work?

The research identifies the dominant approach of humanitarian organisations which work with ‘special needs’ or ‘checklist’ approach to older people and people with disabilities as one of the main barriers to inclusion. Integrating concepts from critical disability and ageism studies, and the empirical evidence from the ADCAP initiative, the research develops a transdisciplinary framework for ‘critical capacity building’ of the humanitarian organisations to enable inclusion. Conceived as a ‘social-political discursive’ (SPD) framework for critical capacity building, it calls for facilitating structural changes within humanitarian organisations through focused and sustained SPD engagements over a period of time. The research shows that facilitation of such a critical capacity building approach is more demanding and requires more efforts than organising technical trainings, the conventional approach to capacity building in humanitarian organisations. 

The seminar is from 16.30 to 18.00 on Thursday, 31 October in JHB307.

Work in progress: memoryscape of post-recovery space

This Thursday sees the latest in our Work in Progress seminar series. The speaker is Dr Sana Murrani from the University of Plymouth. She will be speaking about the process of research and findings in her participatory mapping project, Creative Recovery, which looked at the journeys of everyday life of home and homeland of 12 refugees and asylum seekers in the UK where the construct of memory overlapped the construct of home and the maps became the journeys to post recovery space or memoryscapes. These memoryscapes contributed to the self-perceived recovery from trauma and loss. Sana’s research, which straddles the fields of spatial memory and cognition, critical urban theory and spatial practice, is focused on the understanding of the creative ways in which people respond to conflict and displacement spatially.

The seminar is from 16.30 to 18.00 on Thursday, 24 October in JHB307. 

Cendep Wins Research Award for Innovative Research Solutions to Help the World's Most Vulnerable People

Charles Parrack writes:

Earthquakes, storms, floods, and conflict cause untold damage to housing, infrastructure, services, agriculture and livelihoods. Householders themselves are invariably the first to respond, and the majority - 80 to 90% - receive little or no assistance from the international community and they become the main drivers of their own recovery process. This process has been termed 'self-recovery'.

This project, led by the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes and CARE International UK and in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, Habitat for Humanity, CRAterre and the British Geological Survey, builds on previous research focused on understanding how housing self-recovery works to develop guidance and tools, which will help operational agencies support the process.

The Funder, UK Research and Innovation, made the following announcement:

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has awarded 18 international partnerships, £14.8M – shared between UK HEIs and global research partners. They are specifically aimed to deliver scalable solutions to issues faced by low and middle-income countries.
  
The projects have been funded as part of UKRI’s GCRF Innovation and Commercialisation Programme, developed to fast track promising research findings into real-world solutions.
UKRI Director of International Development, Professor Helen Fletcher, said:

“This is a really exciting opportunity to fund 18 projects through the Global Research Translation awards. Each and every one will make a massive difference to peoples’ lives in communities spread across the world to ensure some of the most challenged communities have a brighter future.

“Over the next year and a half, UK researchers will work with their international counterparts, policy makers, businesses and local organisations to turn promising research into solutions that can be taken forward through various pathways such as spin-out companies and social enterprises to make a positive difference to people who live with the reality of challenges such as climate change, poor sanitation and disease every day.”

https://www.ukri.org/news/innovative-research-solutions-identified-to-help-the-worlds-most-vulnerable-people/

For more information contact Charles Parrack cparrack@brookes.ac.uk

Oxford Brookes University Annual Gaza Lecture

CENDEP has greatly benefitted from Oxford Brookes Gaza scholarship where a student from Gaza does a masters with us. CENDEP has close links with Gaza through research, undergraduate and postgraduate studies. As the annual Gaza lecture falls on a Thursday this year, we have included the lecture in our Work in Progress seminar series.

In the lecture, Ben White will question the role – and rule – of international law in Gaza.He will explain that “since the 2005 withdrawal of settlers, Israel has claimed that the Gaza Strip is no longer under occupation – a claim rejected by the United Nations and other bodies. Over the last 14 years, Israeli authorities have repeatedly promoted ‘innovations’ in international law to justify a variety of political and military policies, including blockades and bombings.”

He asks: for Palestinians in Gaza, does the international law offer protection from occupation and assault – or has it become another tool of oppression?

Ben White is a writer and analyst, specialising in Palestine / Israel. He has written for Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Independent and others - and has published four books, the latest of which is Cracks in the Wall: Beyond Apartheid in Palestine/Israel. He has appeared on TV and radio, and spoken at the Houses of Parliament, Amnesty UK, and universities in the UK, Canada and the USA.

When: 17th October at 18.00

Where: Main Lecture Theatre, John Henry Brookes building

You can register for the event here:

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/events/ols-19-20---gaza/

Work in Progress: the history of Disaster Risk Reduction

This Thursday, CENDEP is pleased to welcome Professor John Twigg as the speaker in our Work in Progress seminar series. The seminar starts at 16.30 in JHB 307

The title for John's talk is: "From fringe to mainstream: the history of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)." John says about his talk: "This seminar reviews the history of disaster risk reduction (DRR) over the past 30 years as it has moved progressively from the margins into the mainstream of disaster and development policy and programming. It considers intellectual, institutional and other factors that have contributed to this mainstreaming or constrained it, and offers some pointers to the future of DRR." 

We aim for our seminars to be space for introducing new ideas and discussing work in progress, we hope you will join us for an exciting set of talks this semester. Click here for the full list of seminars.