Voices from OxHRF: ‘Bits of Borno’ - life in the midst of crisis

Celebrations - Party from Bits of Borno (Photo (c) Fati Abubakar)

Elizabeth Laskar writes: There has been a gruelling conflict between the military and non-state armed groups in the north eastern regions of Nigeria for over 10 years. It has resulted in serious human rights violations and the desperate need for humanitarian assistance for the populations trapped in the middle. In the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe approximately 14,400 people have been killed, 53 percent of the total population of 13.4 million need humanitarian assistance, 1.3 million people have been internally displaced and 38% suffer daily from food insecurity. Terror, violence and conflict continue to plague these states. 

The terror group Boko Haram (meaning ‘western education is forbidden’) claims the state of Borno as their stronghold and continues to commit acts of terror in the region and neighbouring states of Chad and Niger who have been enveloped into the crisis. Between 2013 and 2015 the group killed more than 11,000 people and today the UN reports that 2.4 million people have been displaced in Nigeria and in the neighbouring countries. Unicef reports that over 1000 children have been abducted since 2013 by the group which includes the kidnapping of over 200 girls from a school in Chibok in 2014. 100 girls are still missing. A narrative of terror continues to be reported through news and media and stories of strength and resilience of the IDPs are often overlooked.

‘Bits of Borno’ is a project that chronicles the everyday lives of individuals and communities in the state of Borno. The project was instigated by Fati Abubakar, a celebrated Nigerian documentary photographer, photojournalist, and public health worker from the capital of Borno, Maiduguri. 

Through her photography, Fati wants people to bear witness to a different perspective of her hometown and she also aims to strengthen a narrative of hope within the IDP communities themselves. She feels her work counters the violent extremist message of Boko Haram - her passion is about creating counter-narratives for the underrepresented communities. 

‘Bits of Borno’ is a collection of unique stories that share the lives of the internally displaced through photographs of people living, working and thriving in the state of Borno. The pictures give a glimpse into the incredible ability for people to bounce back and over time begin to tell a new story.

Voices of the 18th OxHRF: ‘Gaza seen through the eyes of its children’

EL Laskar writes:

In our last blog, to commemorate Victory in Europe day, we shared snippets from the memoir of Mrs Prince who had been a child of war in Britain during the Second World War. We were thankful to have her story included in our exhibition this year. There were striking similarities in her story with some of the experiences of children in war zones today - abandonment, scarcity of resources, loss of loved ones, fear of being bombed and having a war zone as a playground.

As we mentioned in our last blog Rights of Children can often be overlooked and with approximately 415 million children growing up in war zones, global society needs to continue to invest in the protection and welfare of these children.

CENDEP at the Peace Summit 2020

Two DEP students, Lindsay Slark (2018-20), centre, and Dina Black (2018-19), right, attended the Second Peace Summit for Emerging Leaders in Bangkok this month. Here they reflect on the experience.

“My name is Lindsay Slark and I am here representing Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom.”

As the red light flickered and the mic turned off, I suddenly felt a sense of pride. I am at the United Nations and I am here representing something so much bigger than myself.

Work in Progress: Shelter self-recovery

The majority of people affected by conflict and disaster ‘self-recover’: they rebuild using their own resources with little or no support from outside agencies. In the context of ever-increasing need for humanitarian assistance and grave constraints on humanitarian funding, there is an imperative to understand how communities self-recover and how best to improve support for that process.

At the first of this semester’s Work in Progress seminars, Bill Flinn (CARE International UK) will be introducing the ‘Self-Recovery from Humanitarian Crisis’ project, a research collaboration between CENDEP and CARE, with other humanitarian partners. Funded by a Global Challenges Research Fund Translations Award grant, this project aims to understand the priorities and agency of individuals, families and communities who are rebuilding their lives after natural disaster and conflict. The project will co-develop best-practice guidance for the support of that self-recovery process and investigate the wider impact of shelter humanitarian interventions, using longitudinal and action research fieldwork in Indonesia, Venezuela and Malawi. The guiding principles of the project’s research are that:

• ·       Self –recovery is an inevitable process. So we need to understand how best to support this process.
• ·      The agency of families and communities is of paramount importance. They have a right to choose and their priorities will vary from family to family and also over time.
  

Bill will elaborate on what his previous work with CARE in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 taught him about the lived experience of people after disaster and how they prioritise their recovery pathways.

Charles Parrack (CENDEP) will discuss the importance of partnerships between academic institutions and humanitarian practitioners. Sue Webb (recent DEP student working as research assistant) will outline initial findings on the connections between shelter and health. The seminar will consist of a short presentation followed by open discussion of the themes introduced.
The seminar is at 16.30-18.00 on Thursday 6 February in room JHB303 in the John Henry Brookes building, Headington Campus. (The full list of seminars for this semester is here.)

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

What do students research at CENDEP? (Part II)

Part II: How DEP students select research topics for their MA DEP dissertations.

Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) has made available online all MA Development and Emergency Practice (MA DEP) dissertations since 2012-13 that have successfully been awarded a Distinction or Merit.[1] CENDEP’s strong background in particular research themes has been influential in developing a strong resonance with students in determining their choice of dissertation topic, though students are always encouraged to consider all possible areas and themes for research. The theory of how a research topic is selected appears to be true of themes researched at CENDEP and this influence is visible in dissertations undertaken by MA DEP students.

Key Geographical Research Areas

Reviewing a list of available dissertations, it is interesting to note that the most researched geographical areas at CENDEP post 2012-13 are in Asia, Europe, followed closely by Africa. Figure 1 shows all the key geographical areas considered for research. Of all the countries researched in Europe, 68 per cent are based in the U.K. As the political and humanitarian discourse around migration and Brexit intensified in the U.K. in the last 3 years, the number of U.K. based dissertations increased. Post 2015, 37 per cent of all dissertations based in Europe were covered under migration themes. IOM stipulated that by 2017, 18.28 per cent of the world population were international migrants[2] and about 1.8 million had arrived in Europe since 2014.[3]

Over 60 per cent of all dissertations in Africa were based either in Kenya or Sudan/South Sudan regions. This concentration in two regions could possibly be influenced by accessibility and reach, proximity of the two regions, protracted social conflict situations, and students’ own interests. Two most researched geographical areas in the Middle East were Palestine, an area of protracted social conflict that is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues and, more recently, Syria. In Americas, 57 per cent of all dissertations were based in Haiti as the recovery and rebuilding efforts strengthened post 2010 Haiti earthquake. Research regions in Asia remained wide spread as the most urgent emergencies, conflicts and disasters took priority.

Key Research Themes 

Figure 2 highlights sixteen key and diverse research themes studied at CENDEP by MA DEP students post 2012-13. The most researched theme is ‘conflict’; the worsening impacts of conflict around the world make students keen to study possible solutions and interventions that could reduce the sufferings of the people. Global Conflict Tracker lists 24 ongoing conflicts and eight different types of conflicts in the world today. Of these seven are worsening, while seventeen are unchanging, and none seem to be improving.[4]

At the end of 2017, over 275 natural disasters have been reported and some 197 million people were thought to be internally displaced throughout the world due to natural disasters.[5] It is not surprising therefore that ‘resilience’ is a key distinct theme that has been explored as part of conflict, disaster and community development themes. 40 per cent of all conflict themes explore resilience of communities affected by the conflict. ‘Community development’ and its ‘support systems’ like local community-based organisations and NGOs are the second most researched themes which explore local impacts and interventions. This is closely followed by ‘general humanitarian issues’, and ‘migration and displacement’. Over the years, ‘gender’ has proven to be a strong theme studied by the students.

Many students at CENDEP are humanitarian practitioners and hence show a keen interest in studying the impacts and effectiveness of the available ‘humanitarian tools’ that they often use in their work life. As CENDEP is part of Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture, fair number of students from architecture background study the impacts of emergencies and conflict issues on the built environment or ‘architecture’. Furthermore, CENDEP’s unique shelter programme leads to studying the impacts of ‘shelter’ on displaced populations typically post natural disasters. All of the above themes also resonate strongly with CENDEP’s particular strong experience in these research themes.

Figure 3 illustrates that ‘disasters’ themes have most been studied in Asia as this region is most prone to natural disasters, followed by Americas. It is well-researched that Asia Pacific region is most prone to natural disasters including storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires and landslides.[6] ‘Conflict’ theme is explored in both Asia and Africa. Tractability especially, reach, and safety remain important factors in determining geographical regions to research in terms of conflicts. Impacts of disasters and conflicts on ‘communities’ and its subsequent ‘development’ is largely researched in Asia, followed closely by Africa.

Figure 4 illustrates timelines of how research themes have developed and are influenced over a period of time following global changes to humanitarian discourse, and the urgent global humanitarian crises. Research themes sometimes re-emerge as political and humanitarian discourse develops over time. For example, as safeguarding and child protection policies became urgent in recent times and impacts of emergencies on children needed better understanding, dissertation themes studying ‘child welfare’ in disasters and conflicts has been growing. As the call for ‘Leaving no one behind’ became strong along with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)[7], themes around ‘disability’ and ‘elderly’ welfare in emergencies started resurfacing or newly developing. Similarly, SDG3 Good Health and Well-being, saw a rise in exploring physical and mental ‘health’ issues in development and emergencies sectors. Students studying health impacts were possibly also driven by the Ebola crisis in 2014.

CENDEP has seen a diverse range of research themes and geographical areas being studied by its MA DEP students greatly influenced by the impacts of global humanitarian needs, humanitarian and political discourse, CENDEP’s background, and students’ own experiences and interests. On-going protracted humanitarian crises have crucially not been forgotten, and urgent and new humanitarian issues are extensively researched by students as they hope to develop an understanding of the impacts and possible interventions through their studies. As the nature of humanitarian needs evolves, students are keen to research these new themes to better appreciate its impacts on global, regional and local levels.

Available data illustrates that there are multiple reasons for MA DEP students to choose a particular theme and geographical region, and it is largely influenced by the ongoing and new humanitarian issues that demand urgent attention. Furthermore, the new design studio as part of its unique shelter programme will allow students, especially with a background in architecture and urban planning, to introduce physical design interventions like shelters. It would be interesting to see in a few years’ time how this will influence geographical regions and research themes.

Many students arrive at CENDEP knowing in advance what they will research, however for those that are looking for possible subjects, studying the published dissertations may prove to be a good starting point, and possibly help in identifying gaps that could be explored as new research themes.

Aparna Maladkar

Post Graduate Research Assistant

CENDEP

Notes:

This is Part II of a two-part article ‘What do students research at CENDEP?’ Part II is based on analyses of MA DEP dissertations from the year 2012-13 onwards that have been awarded Distinction and Merit. Every year since 2012-13, over 89 per cent of dissertations achieving Distinction and Merit, except in the year 2016-2017, when this was 71 per cent. It is possible that analysis of all dissertations from 2012-13 may likely give different results and identify additional research themes and areas.

Part I of a two-part article is based on the author’s personal journey of studying at CENDEP and can be found here.

Links

CENDEP dissertations are available here:

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/research/cendep/dissertations/

Short interviews with CENDEP students can be found here:

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/support-us/brookes-alumni-fund/cendep/

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[1] Oxford Brookes University. (2019). CENDEP student dissertations - Oxford Brookes University. [online] Brookes.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/research/cendep/dissertations/ [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019].

[2] International Organization for Migration. (2019). World Migration. [online] Available at: https://www.iom.int/world-migration [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[3] Henley, J. (2018). What is the current state of the migration crisis in Europe?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/15/what-current-scale-migration-crisis-europe-future-outlook [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[4] Global Conflict Tracker. (2019). Global Conflict Tracker l Council on Foreign Relations. [online] Available at: https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/?category=usConflictStatus&vm=list [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[5] Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2019). Natural Disasters. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[6] O'Brien, A. (2018). Natural disasters most likely to hit Asia-Pacific: report. [online] SBS News. Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/natural-disasters-most-likely-to-hit-asia-pacific-report [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019].

[7] Sustainabledevelopment.un.org. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals.: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. [online] Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019]